Willoughby: May Pole dances
In my family photo collection, I have a copy of the photo you see in this edition taken by John Bowman. It has always intrigued me. I thought it was maybe something unique to Aspen,...
Tim Willoughby
Tim Willoughby’s family story parallels Aspen’s. He began sharing folklore while teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net.
Recent Articles
Willoughby: How life in Colorado transformed in just a few years
We all saw the photograph of the completion of the transcontinental railroad and the laying of the golden spike at Promontory Point in Utah in 1869 in our history books. That was the final section built from Sacramento to...
Willoughby: Decades of changes to consider
Contemporaries of mine, including one in my family, ceased coming to Aspen because of the many changes they had witnessed. To them, it wasn’t the town they remembered growing up in. For others, the changes, like in most towns, were...
Willoughby: Early Easter services
The first reporting on Easter services in Aspen were in The Aspen Times in 1882. At that time, there was no church built yet. The brief mention listed two gatherings, the first at 11 a.m....
Willoughby: The new outshines the old
For over a decade, Aspen and Leadville had common interests, and businesses opened in both. Investors speculated on mines in both towns. Beginning in 1893, that changed rapidly, as Cripple Creek gold mines began producing....
Willoughby: Western fiction and Aspen’s Fred Glidden, ‘Luke Short’
Several of my recent columns have pointed out that life today has many resemblances to the long ago past. The following is about the opposite, that some things have mostly come to an end — or at least the...
Willoughby: Aspen connections to Iran 50 years ago
The war in Iran occupies our minds, and it triggered a memory of mine from 50 years ago when the Empress of Iran visited Aspen twice. The Empress, Farah Pahlavi, was an honorary trustee of...
Willoughby: Backcountry rescues
Late in January, The Aspen Times noted that there had been three backcountry rescues in four days, one a fatality. Trips to backcountry cabins in very cold weather with late starts was listed as a major factor. Here are some rescues from my parent’s...
Willoughby: February-March of 1962
The talk of the town in February and March 1962 triggers memories for me, but they also might help today’s readers understand context of Aspen six decades ago. The X Games today has an international audience; in 1962, it was the World...
Willoughby: Skis and ski shops — 50 years ago
Aspen was in the middle of the ’70s skier boom in 1976. So was the ski-manufacturing business. The following will give you some idea of how huge it was. Hard to believe, but there were 13 stores selling skis....