STEAMBOAT PILOT & TODAY

The sound of a steamboat pushing itself up a river is the first thing French fur trappers thought they heard when they stumbled into this area of Northwest Colorado.

After a closer look, they discovered the sound was coming from the natural hot springs that dot the area. In honor of their initial misunderstanding, they called the town Steamboat Springs.

Now, Steamboat Springs has more than 150 mineral springs in the area, and although the loud chugging sound of the spring for which the city was named has subsided, the memory of how the city got its name has not.

Neither has the city’s history.

Yampatika Utes used this area for hunting for hundreds of years before settlers came.

In the early 1800s, the first trappers made their way to the valley. They were soon followed by ranchers and farmers, who found success growing a range of foods and raising cattle and sheep with the help of the valley’s good water supply and fertile soil.

Now, about half of the county’s land is used for agriculture, with hay, cattle and sheep all being major products.

Also in the late 1800s, coal reserves were found in the region, and small mines developed by the turn of the century. The arrival of the railroad in 1908 fed the mining industry, and mining communities popped up around the county. With the new need for supplies, ranching also grew, and the two industries helped fan each other.

The first strip mine was put in place in the middle of the 1900s. Today, the Twentymile Coal Company is one of the largest producers of coal in the country contributing about 8 million tons a year. The only other coal operation in the area, Seneca, is a surface mine. It was scheduled to close by the end of 2005.

Around the time that mining and agriculture were developing, the third key contributor to Routt County’s economy was also growing: Skiing. Initially, skiing was a mode of transportation for trappers, miners and ranchers who needed to get from forest to field to home in the wintertime.

But it didn’t stay that way for long. In 1913, Carl Howelsen - known as the Flying Norseman - built a ski jump downtown and flew off it to show residents the exciting recreational side of skiing. The next year, he introduced competitive skiing to the town at the Winter Carnival.

Now, Howelsen Hill Ski Area is the oldest ski area in continuous use in Colorado. The ski area recently updated its older K60 jump (scheduled to be fully completed in the summer of 2005) transforming it into a state-of-the-art plastic covered K68 that can be used on a year-round basis. This added to the hills existing K-18, K-25, K38, K90 and K114 jumps make it one of the premiere ski jumping complex in North America. The Winter Carnival tradition has also continued in full force and now includes ski racing and jumping, as well as a range of other winter events.

The Mount Werner ski area was developed by Jim Temple in 1955 and ready for skiers in 1961. In 1963, Storm Mountain opened with a double chair lift. The next year, after legendary Olympic skier Buddy Werner, a Steamboat native, died in an avalanche, the mountain was renamed Mount Werner.

From its humble but snowy start, Steamboat has produced more winter Olympians than any other North American town, with a tally that is now at 56 that have made 95 Olympic appearances. The first Olympic medal was won in 1992 by Nelson Carmichael, who won bronze in moguls. Shannon Dunn followed suit winning the bronze in the halfpipe at 1998 Games in Nagano and most recently, Travis Mayer won silver in freestyle skiing in the 2002 games. Now, the city is known simply as Ski Town USA.

In addition to Howelsen Hill, there are multiple historic sports that can be seen on a quick walk through downtown Steamboat Springs. The Old Town Pub was the city’s first hospital, and the Art Depot was a railroad depot that served as one of the centers for shipping cattle in the West. F.M. Light & Sons on Lincoln Avenue is Steamboat’s oldest business, and has been selling a range of products since 1905. And for those who want to experience Steamboat’s namesake, hot springs dot the landscape, particularly at the west end of town.