Why America's Favorite Ski Town Was Almost a Ghost Town

My book, The Times You Grew Up With, takes you back: https://paulmcallister.store In 1859, prospectors struck gold in the Blue River valley and founded Breckenridge, Colorado — a mining town that would produce a million troy ounces of gold, including the largest nugget ever found in the state. By 1950, the gold was gone, the railroad had been abandoned, nine dredge boats had torn the valley apart, and only 296 people were left. Breckenridge was closer to ghost town than county seat. This is the story of how a Kansas lumber company, two Norwegian Olympic skiers, and a mountain full of snow brought it back — and what happened when the rescue worked too well. From the 1859 gold rush to the Victorian boom, from Tom’s Baby to the dredge boats that ate the rivers, from the day the last train crossed Boreas Pass to the December morning in 1961 when Peak 8 opened with one chairlift and thirteen pairs of rental skis. Then through six owners in thirty-five years — including Twentieth Century Fox, a Tokyo sporting-goods company, and Ralston Purina — a tunnel through the Continental Divide, a deadly avalanche, and a real estate market that turned a former mining town into one of the most expensive zip codes in Colorado. Today, 68% of the homes in Breckenridge belong to people who don’t live there. Sources: Breckenridge Heritage Alliance — “An Overview History of Breckenridge,” “Population of Summit County,” “Dredge Boat Mining in Breckenridge,” “The Naming of Breckenridge,” “Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad” (breckhistory.org) GoBreck / Breckenridge Tourism Office — “Breckenridge Historic Timeline,” “Breckenridge Ski Resort History” (gobreck.com) Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun — “The Peak 7 Avalanche at Breckenridge,” February 2022 (coloradosun.com) 5280 Magazine — “Breckenridge Ski Resort Co-Founder Trygve Berge Turns 90,” April 2022; “Colorado’s Tom’s Baby” (5280.com) High Country News — “How a Colorado Ski Town Reserved Almost 75% of Its Full-Time Housing for Workforce,” 2024 (hcn.org) Summit Daily News — “Discovering Tom’s Baby, the Largest Piece of Gold Ever Found in Colorado”; “The Kingdom of Breckenridge” (summitdaily.com)