Crested Butte
| Crested Butte | |||
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| Nickname : Wildflower Capital of Colorado | |||
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| Location in Colorado | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | July 15, 1880 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Colorado | ||
| County : | Gunnison County | ||
| Coordinates : | 38 ° 52 ′ N , 106 ° 59 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Mountain ( UTC − 7 / −6 ) | ||
| Residents : | 1,487 (as of 2010) | ||
| Population density : | 826.1 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 1.8 km 2 (approx. 1 mi 2 ) of which 1.8 km 2 (approx. 1 mi 2 ) is land |
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| Height : | 2708 m | ||
| Postcodes : | 81224, 81225 | ||
| Area code : | +1 970 | ||
| FIPS : | 08-18310 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 0188848 | ||
| Website : | www.crestedbutte-co.gov | ||
| Mayor : | Leah Williams | ||
Crested Butte is a municipality in the US state of Colorado . The place is listed as a Home Rule Municipality . The former mining settlement is now one of the most important winter sports centers in the USA .
geography
Crested Butte is located in Gunnison County about 45 km north of Gunnison and 370 km southwest of Denver . The place is located at the foot of the mountain of the same name, Crested Butte, in the northern part of the East River Valley. The area belongs to the Elk Mountains , a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains .
history
The area of the northern East River Valley was known only to the Ute Indians before 1870 . During the summer they came from the Great Basin to the west over the Kebler Pass into the valley of the East River to hunt.
An expedition carried out by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden in 1874 certified the catchment area of the Gunnison River - the East River is a headwaters of the Gunnison River - numerous mineral resources. Above all, the numerous silver deposits, but also some gold deposits, caused a real frenzy among the settlers in the following years. Numerous mines opened in the valley, and with them settlements for several thousand workers emerged. Crested Butte itself was created as a supply center for these mining settlements. The place benefited from its central location in the northern East River Valley. The official founding date for the place is July 15, 1880.
Just one year later, on November 21, 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad opened the narrow-gauge Crested Butte - Gunnison railway. Although the route was primarily used to transport freight, a passenger car was usually part of the trains. The line was ultimately the most important route to and from Crested Butte, especially in winter, as the road to Gunnison was not kept open.
Most of the silver mines closed again before the turn of the century, as the price of the precious metal fell significantly. But the harsh climate of the region is also partly to blame, as year-round operation of the mines was almost impossible. Many places around Crested Butte disappeared just as quickly as they had emerged a few years earlier.
At the beginning of the 1880s, considerable deposits of hard coal and anthracite coal were found on the edge of Crested Buttes . In the years that followed, coal was mined in a total of nine mines and most of it was refined into coke on site . Most of it was brought to the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado . The company itself operated 150 coke ovens in Crested Butte as well as three of the mines - including by far the largest mine in town, the so-called "Big Mine".
When Colorado Fuel and Iron and other companies discovered coal deposits in the vicinity of Pueblo, the mines in Crested Butte became uninteresting. Most of the mines closed in the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1952, the Big Mine was the last coal mine to shut down. With the discontinuation of freight traffic, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad closed the rail connection to Gunnison in the same year.
With the decline of mining, Crested Butte also plunged into a deep crisis, which was reflected in a decrease in the population from 1251 (1930) to 259 (1960).
With the opening of the ski area in 1962, the decline in Crested Buttes could be stopped. The ski area on the Crested Butte mountain initially consisted of a gondola lift and two drag lifts . Today the ski area extends over 472 hectares and has 16 lifts.
In 1998 and 1999 the ski area hosted the Winter X Games .
Infrastructure
Crested Butte is accessible year-round from Gunnison via State Highway 135 . There is also a road connection to Paonia in the west via the Kebler Pass. This partially paved road is only open in the summer months. The closest airport is Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport with year-round flights to Denver and seasonal connections to Dallas / Fort Worth and Houston .
sons and daughters of the town
- Emma Coburn (* 1990), 3000 m obstacle runner
- Heidi Montag (* 1986), reality TV star ( The Hills )
literature
- George Sibley: A Crested Butte Primer . The Crested Butte Society, 1972 (English)
- Duane A. Smith: Crested Butte - From Coal Camp to Ski Town . Western Reflections Publishing Company, 2005 (English)
Web links
- Official Website of Crested Butte (English)
- Crested Butte Mountain Resort (English)
- Crested Butte at westernmininghistory.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Colorado State Archive (English) accessed November 9, 2010
- ^ Moffatt, Riley: Population History of Western US Cities & Towns, 1850-1990 . Lanham, Scarecrow Press, 1996, p. 69. (English)
- ↑ Crested Butte Mountain Resort ( Memento of the original from July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) accessed on January 11, 2011
