Snowmass Village: general information
Aspen, CO Colorado
SNOWMASS VILLAGE ” Snowmass, sometimes known locally as Old Snowmass, is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office located in Pitkin County. It is situated in the valley of the Roaring Fork River, near the mouth of Snowmass Creek along Colorado State Highway 82 between Aspen and Basalt. It consists largely of a post office, several commercial businesses, and surrounding houses and ranches.
Snowmass should not be confused with the Snowmass Ski Area or with the Town of Snowmass Village, the location of the ski area.
Serial killer Ted Bundy snatched murder victim Caryn Campbell from the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass Village on Jan. 12, 1975. Ken Lay, the former CEO of Enron, died near Snowmass on July 5, 2006.
The Town of Snowmass Village is a Home Rule municipality located eight miles from Aspen. The population was 1,822 in the 2000 census. A popular winter resort location for skiing and snowboarding, the town is best known as the location of the Snowmass Ski Area, the largest of the four nearby ski areas operated collectively as Aspen/Snowmass.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 25.6 square miles and sits at 8,104 feet. Snowmass Village has a population of 1,850 year-round residents.
Snowmass Village is to the north and at the base of the Snowmass Ski Area. It is on Brush Creek and takes its name from the ski area. Within the area of the town, Owl Creek and Brush Creek confluence, then flow north into the Roaring Fork River. Visible from the village from east to west is: Burnt Mountain Ridge, Burnt Mountain, Baldy Mountain, Chapel Peak, Garret Peak, Clark Peak, Mount Daly, and Capitol Peak. Neither Snowmass Mountain nor Snowmass Peak, at the headwaters of Snowmass Creek, are visible from Snowmass Village.
The Brush Creek Valley was settled in about 1910 by ranching families
including: Sinclair, Melton, Stapleton, and Hoaglund. As a child, Hilder
Hoaglund would ride her horse into Aspen to go to school. Her father, Charles Hoaglund immigrated from Sweden in the 1800s. After a school was built in Brush Creek, she attended school at the Brush Creek Frontier School, now called the Little Red Schoolhouse, located on Owl Creek Road. She became a teacher at that school and then at the Red Brick School in Aspen. At the schoolhouse, she would
play the accordion or piano for community dances. When she married Bill Anderson, the Hoaglund Ranch became the Anderson Ranch.
Paul Soldner, a ceramic artist noted for developing American Raku, established a studio in the Anderson Ranch buildings in 1966. In 1968, he founded the Anderson Ranch Art Center and it incorporated in 1973. The Anderson Ranch Art Center on Owl Creek Road uses many of the original buildings from the Hoaglund Ranch, although not in their original location, farther down stream on what is now Snowmass Club Circle.
Under the leadership of Bill Janss and DRC Brown, the American Cement Company developed Snowmass Village as a ski resort starting in 1966. Hayfields were subdivided and the lots sold for houses to be built. Brush Creek is an unappealing name for a ski area, so they named the resort Snowmass after the valley to the west of Brush Creek.
In 1977, the community incorporated as the Town of Snowmass Village. The Snowmass Chapel was built near the firehouse on Owl Creek Road in 1988. Previous to that, church services were held in the Optigon Movie Theatre or in the open air Aspen Grove Chapel, located at what is now condominiums off of Wood Road.
The median income for a household in the town is $57,059, and the median income for a family is $86,338. Males have a median income of $40,625 versus $37,500 for females. The per capita income for the town is $35,224. About 1.7 percent of families and 4.4 percent of the population live below the poverty line, including 1.5 percent of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
In 1980 the citizens of the Town of Snowmass Village selected Home Rule Charter as the type of government for their town. The municipal government provided for in the charter is commonly known as the council-mayor-manager form of government. All powers of the town are vested in an elective mayor and council who enact local legislation, adopt budgets, determine policies and appoint the town manager who serves as the administrator.
The council is comprised of a mayor and four council members each elected at large. The council members hold four-year, overlapping terms, and the mayor has a two-year term. The town manager is the chief administrative officer of the town and is responsible to the council.
Snowmass Village: http://www.snowmassvillage.com
Recreation: http://www.snowmassrecreation.com
General information: http://www.aspenalive.com
Aspen Skiing Company: http://www.aspensnowmass.com
White River National Forest, Aspen District: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver
