Time Machine: 40 years ago, Vail sets new snowpack records
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30 years ago
April 1, 1994
A letter to the Eagle County Board of Commissioners encouraged the county to help facilitate a trade that would make the Sweetwater Lake Resort part of United States Forest Service lands.
The proposed trade would have given Sweetwater Lake Resort to the Forest Service and a large river property in Costilla County to the Bureau of Land Management in exchange for a 4,000-acre limited access piece of land in Eagle County going to Piney Valley Trust.
“Without public land status, nothing would protect this beautiful natural habitat from development,” the letter stated. “With the amount of money involved in the last two sales of this property, it is obvious that this beautiful natural land is headed for large-scale development. One of the previous owners had plans to turn it into a private RV timeshare. Others have talked of private homes. But this is too beautiful of a natural area to be closed to our children.”
40 years ago
April 6, 1984
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Heavy snowpack in the Vail area set a new record, according to snow surveys from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.
“The Vail snow course, located midway up the mountain, had the highest snow depth reading for March since the course was established in 1978,” the Vail Trail reported. “An average snow depth of 87 inches was recorded: a record low of 53 inches was recorded in 1981. The average water content was 30.6 inches, compared to a record high of 39 inches in 1979. The record low was 13.6 inches in 1981.”
50 years ago
April 5, 1974
The Eagle County Planning Commission recommended conditional approval of Phase I of the Arrowhead at Vail plans, the Vail Trail reported.
Phase I of the plan called for the development of the meadow area at McCoy Creek, including 2,250 condominium units, 180,000 square feet of commercial space, 250 lodge and hotel units, 204 duplex units and 1,410 parking spaces.
“Twenty-three tennis courts, a public park and an 18-hole golf course will also be built,” the Vail Trail reported. “Arrowhead’s Phase II, which was denied a favorable recommendation due to several problems, calls for another 350 lodge and hotel units, 100 condominiums, 354 town house units, and 250 single family lots. Phase II would be located east of McCoy Creek and above the meadow area at a mid-mountain site near Bachelor Gulch.”
100 years ago
April 4, 1924
Work resumed on the Lady Belle Mine after it had been dormant for several years, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
Assayer R. H. Mesa arrived from Salt Lake City “and at once donned his ‘diggin’ clothes and started in to getting things in shape to start work,” the Enterprise reported. “Mr. Mesa was employed as an assayer on the property in the early days of its discovery in 1913 and 1914, and later was associated in a lease on a block of the ground. For a number of years since he has been trying to get a lease on the property, feeling confident that there is more good ore to be taken out of Horse Mountain.”
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Mesa was set to devote considerable expense in working on the old discovery tunnel where he was very confident of finding pay ore, the Enterprise reported.
“Here’s hopin’ that Mr. Mesa meets with success in his endeavor, and that before the summer is over he uncovers a big body of rich ore, and that the mining camp on Horse Mountain again becomes the boom camp it was a few years ago,” the Enterprise wrote.
110 years ago
April 3, 1914
The Lady Belle Mine in Eagle was poised to become one of the greatest mining camps in the state after lessees encountered an immense body of ore in the mine.
“The little town of Eagle, that has long been known as the center of a fertile farming country has recently startled the mining world with the reports of rich finds of silver and radium bearing ores in the surrounding hills,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
Quoting State Mine Inspector Thomas Hennehan, the Enterprise reported that the Eagle district had four mines producing ore, and that Eagle County was the only area in Colorado producing carnotite mixed with silver ore.
The Best Chance mine in Eagle County “is one of the greatest mines ever seen, as it has a large vein of silver, which carries copper, and there are large pockets of uranium, with this precious metal also mixed with the silver and copper, making it an extremely valuable property.”
The Eagle King mine in Eagle County was producing gold, as well.
