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Released in 1950, the movie Devils Doorway was filmed in the Maroon Creek Valley. The plot involves a Native American who won a Medal of Honor at Gettysburg and returns home to ranch cattle. Photo courtesy Loey Ringquist Collection.
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Editor’s note: Microfilm of The Aspen Times from October 1903-1911 is missing from the Pitkin County Library. To continue our journalistic history of Aspen, we include excerpts from The Aspen Democrat, the Times’ competitor 100 years ago.October 1904 This notice appeared in the paper as the days were getting shorter and the nights were getting longer .Jailer Simpson wishes to announce that beginning with the 15th of this month, the curfew will ring at 8 o’clock so the youngsters of the city had better cut this out and paste it on their lids for future reference.Even if you lived in the most remote areas of Pitkin County, you were able to cast your vote in the upcoming general election.Two new voting precincts have been established in the last few days, one at Lenado and one at Lincoln gulch. They will be known as Lenado precinct No. 13, and Lincoln gulch precinct No. 18.The once thriving mining camp of Ashcroft endured in 1904 with a few fervently loyal citizens living under a benevolent autocracy. The paper humorously reported, Dan MacArthur, postmaster, mayor, city marshal, city attorney. city clerk, city treasurer and board of aldermen of Ashcroft, with his assistant Jack Leahy, were arrivals in the city yesterday. They are delegates to the Democratic convention today and are here to whoop ‘er up. The paper alerted its imbibing readers to some new faces behind the town’s most popular bars.John Connors, the genial saloon man at the corner of Durant and Hunter streets, has moved into the old Brick saloon [now the Red Onion], which has been nicely renovated, and where he will be pleased to greet his many friends.H.F. Axtell, a first-class mixologist of Denver, will hereafter preside over the wet goods department of the Jerome. Mr. Axtell comes well recommended and can make you any old kind of thirst quencher you can call for.

The paper published (on the front page!) the following account of boys having fun.Everyone knows that Frank Croman is a mighty hunter who never returns from the chase without some spoils, but his most intimate friends never accused him of being a cook, so when Frank hinted about giving his friends a game dinner of his own cooking he got the merry ha! ha!So last evening when the shades of night were falling with the falling rain, the “gang” repaired to the home of Phil Kerwin (Mrs. K. is not at home at present – nuf said), the kitchen was turned over to Chef Croman and the barbecue was on.Billy McNichols and Phil Kerwin were appointed trammers, and Tony Sebastino Rowland, having his razor with him, was appointed carver. … The following menu was rendered during the evening:Buck Tail Soup with Buffalo Chips-Venison, a la Piceance, with Bovine Gravy-Dog Biscuit-Frizzled Grouse, Trimmed with Catnip-Loco GreensAt an early hour this morning, the victims were all reported out of danger, and resting as comfortably as could be expected.October 1954A lazy pig named Porky, owned by Dennis Natal, was the center of attention at the 4-H show.During the contest, Porky was thoroughly satisfied to lie down and sleep and refused to be “shown.” Because he weighs 220 pounds, it was a little hard to get Porky to his feet. With the help of a stick he was finally prodded up and once running, he couldn’t be stopped.The life of Porky will soon be over, if not already, because he was sold at the auction to Waterman’s. He did bring quite a profit to his young owner though. He sold for 23c a pound which adds up to $50.60.

New development in the growing resort community reached a major benchmark 50 years ago.Aspen’s building boom shows no slack with more work scheduled for completion by the first of the year than in any year since 1892. It has been estimated conservatively that total value of new construction and remodeling will amount to more than $1,000,000.The project that cannot be seem without a special effort, but affects the economy of the area more than any other, is the new chair lift on Aspen Mountain. …Chief among the uptown commercial buildings is the one to house Phil Wright’s Country Store and the Rocky Mountain Savings and Loan Association office. This pumice block building is faced with some of Aspen’s old brick and with old timbers from mine structures will be a pleasing combination of old and new Aspen. This building is located at the southeast corner of Mill and Cooper Avenue, directly south of Steve Knowlton’s Golden Horn.Other important building construction includes: Aspen Lanes, Aspen’s first venture in bowling. Just east of the Bowling Alleys is Charles Evan’ new Texaco station.The most important of all the projects in the Aspen area is the extensive building program inaugurated by the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. This project is the hotel community located at the junction of the Roaring Fork and Castle Creek.Also under construction at this time in the AIHS area is an unusual shaped swimming pool … one other installation at the AIHS center this summer was the two tennis courts. This dual purpose slab can be used for tennis in the summer or winter and ice skating in the winter. The entire surface has been underlaid with pipes that will circulate warm water to melt the snow for tennis or refrigerate to freeze ice for skating in the winter. House under construction now include the Edgar Stanton Jr. home and the Don Randall home in Red Mountain subdivision; Sam Caudill home on Maroon Creek; Edward Sampson home at the corner of Monarch and Durant streets; Art Pfister home on his Lazy Chair ranch (old Sterner ranch) in Maroon creek; Edward Gallun Jr. ranch house on Brush Creek – and the Chuck Hightower and Gale Spence residences on the west bank of Castle Creek immediately north of the highway bridge.October 1979Fifty years later, the construction value in Aspen topped $1 million in one month!During August the value of all building permits issued in the city was $1,672,467. Last year during the same month the value of permits issued was $932.838.August permits brought the value for the first eight months of this year to $9,508,625, almost twice the value place on permits during the same period last year. … The city is now considering a proposal from the building department to raise building permit fees.Our national forests have been shortchanged for a long time, it seems. The paper reported, The Maroon Bells bus system could be discontinued next year if Congress does not appropriate enough money for the Forest Service to support the program.JT Richer of the Forest Service met with county commissioners to discuss funding for the Maroon Bells program for 1980.



The Forest Service overall budget for 1980 has been cut approximately 30% this year. Richer said some programs have been cut as much as 50%. …If the money doesn’t come through from the federal government, the program could be continued if the county is willing to assume responsibility for it. …In other Forest Service action, Richer voiced concern over the motorcycle traffic on Smuggler Mountain near Warren lakes.”Due to closures such as Aspen Mountain, motorcycle riders pushed more and more to Smuggler Montain simply for lack of other places to ride,” he explained.The problem is that many motorcyclists take off across the open fields on Forest Service land, instead of sticking to the roads like they’re supposed to. Attempts by law enforcement agents to control cross-country riders have been futile, Richer noted. “We simply can’t catch them.”An item about a popular local couple, now a senior vice president at Alpine Bank and valley benefactor and Aspen’s police chief, was featured in Around Aspen.Announcing their engagement are Mary C. Martin and Loren H. Ryerson. The wedding will be Nov. 3 in Clear Lake, Iowa. Mary works at the Bank of Aspen as a commercial loan secretary while Loren works with Aspen Landscape.