Tag: Carl Howelsen

Summer Trip to Rollins Pass/Corona

Very long, rough ride to Rollins Pass — where Corona was — from Winter Park, good four-wheel-drive vehicle recommended. A walk on the tundra there, at the Continental Divide, is a real treat.

Lost Ski Areas of Colorado’s Front Range and Northern Mountains tells the story of Carl Howelsen and Angell Schmidt riding the train on the Moffat Road to Rollins Pass “where Corona was,” getting off the train, and skiing down to Hot Sulphur Springs to crash the town’s first winter carnival in 1911. They showcased ski jumping there.

We drove the very rough Corona jeep road from Colorado Highway 40 this summer to visit the historic spot and to remember the story and the railroad that carried so many to Hot Sulphur Springs. Later with the creation of the Moffat Tunnel it let them off to ski at West Portal Resorts and the Mary Jane Trail.

Passengers on the Moffat Road take a break at Corona (Rollins Pass). US Forest Service photo.
Wild roses, old trestle, hike on the Continental Divide and King Lake were highlights of our summer visit to the point where early Colorado skiers launched into making ski history.

Weeks after our visit to the pass we made a visit to Central City and the Gilpin History Museum. A display provided us with a little more information about Corona. “This railroad station at the top of Rollins Pass was built around 1904. Snow on the pass drifts to 20 to 30 feet during the winter. A snow shed was built in 1909 to eliminate plowing the drifts. The Central City Weekly Register-Call reported on August 27, 1909 that the shed “. . . will require a million and a quarter feet” of lumber. When the Moffat Tunnel opened in 1928 the twenty-three miles of track over Rollins Pass was abandoned along with the structure.”

Engine and passengers at the West Portal of the Moffat Tunnel. Caryn Bossie postcard collection.

It’s Snowing Again!

Yippee! That’s what skiers say in 2020 with snowfalls that continue to accumulate inches.

In 1913, the people of Denver were not so thrilled when a blizzard hit the city, bringing 57 inches of snow in December alone. The city was immobilized, but there was a silver lining in those snow clouds.

Historic photo showing historic snowfall that got Denver hooked on skiing.
The author’s (Caryn’s) grandmother Martha (R), with sisters Mary Louise (L) and Sylvia Springsteen in the aftermath of the Big Snow of 1913.

Carl Howelsen was living on Sherman Street in Denver and working as a brick layer. He took the opportunity to ski around and show off his Nordic prowess.

One of the men who saw Howelsen ski, George Cranmer, asked Howelsen to show him how to ski. In that moment the passion for skiing among Denverites was born. Howelsen and Cranmer became great friends and the early ski clubs of Denver were born. Plus they set up a ski jumping exhibition one hundred years ago at Inspiration Point in Denver that was wildly popular. (The image atop this post shows the take off they built.) It ignited a passion throughout Colorado for ski jumping, which became the extreme sport of the day.

Read more about it in Lost Ski Areas of Colorado’s Front Range and Northern Mountains.

CBS4 Features Lost Ski Areas Story

The evening news on CBS4 Denver on April 17, 2018, featured a story by Dominic Garcia and his cameraman Bill (with his drone) on the lost ski areas of Colorado.

Authors Caryn and Peter Boddie spoke with Garcia about the areas and about how hard-working immigrants first brought the ski culture to Colorado.

They met for the interview at Inspiration Point in Denver where skiing “took off” when Carl Howelsen put on a ski jumping exhibition in 1914.

After leaving the Boddies, the CBS4 staffers headed to Genessee where more ski jumping took place and to Berthoud, which was a beloved ski area for years—a place to ski and see and be seen—and is still skied by backcountry skiers.

The story is now posted on the CBS4 website. Many thanks to them and especially to Dominic and Bill!