Breckenridge, Frisco and Dillon Colorado real estate listings, home buying, selling and relocation information

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Breckenridge, Colorado

Looking Down on Breckenridge from Boreas Pass

The Breckenridge story begins with gold. Miners came seeking fortunes.

On August 10, 1859 a party of miners arrived in Summit County. Following the Blue River down from the top of Hoosier Pass they found a sandbar on the Blue near Breckenridge's present location. Ruben J. Spalding, a veteran miner experienced in California's 1849 gold rush, sank a three-foot hole through the sand and gravel. His cry forever shattered the silence of this secluded valley.

"Gold!"

That sandbar was in today's Kingdom Park, just north of the present day Breckenridge business district.

Many of the early settlers who braved harsh winters, high alpine adversities, joys and disappointments are remembered in the town and on the mountain. Names like Fort Mary B, Swan City, Briar Rose and Wellington commemorate the people and places of the lucrative mining era.

With the discovery of gold in 1859, people swarmed into the valley, erecting tents and building hand-hewn log cabins to form a mining camp they initially called Independence. Desperate for mail service, they changed the name to Breckinridge, honoring then U.S. Vice-President John C. Breckinridge in the hopes of getting a post office. When the Civil War broke out, Breckinridge, a Kentuckian, offered his services to the Confederacy. Hearing this, the miners wanted no part of the man and changed an "i" in the town's name to an "e." But, according to postal records, the change was never made official, as that could have jeopardized the town's application for the much-needed post office. "They would have been back to square one, and history in Breckenridge might have turned out much differently," said Maureen Nicholls, local historian. The final spelling of Breckenridge simply evolved through common usage.

The Breckenridge postal branch became the first U.S. territorial post office on the Western Slope, which largely contributed to the arrival of the railroad in 1882. The train came up from Denver, through Como, over Boreas Pass and down into Breckenridge. Today the pass is a favorite hiking path in the summer and cross-country and snowshoeing trail in winter. And there were some big winters in the late 1800s.

The photo you see to the right was taken during the "Big Winter of 1888 - 89." Snowfall was so deep a tunnel was dug across Main Street, linking the popular Denver Hotel and the Finding Hardware store.

A miner named Tom Groves thrust Breckenridge into the spotlight in 1887 when he discovered a 13.5 pound gold nugget - the largest ever found in Colorado. When he carried it into town wrapped in a blanket, townspeople dubbed the treasure "Tom's Baby." The nugget is on display today at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

When mining ceased after World War II, the town nearly dwindled away. Breckenridge was a skeleton of its mining past. There were a few dirt roads, a handful of Main Street businesses and miles or rock piles, left behind by the dredge boats searching for gold as they worked their way through town via the Blue River.

In 1961, a couple of modern-day pioneers arrived in Breckenridge with a contract to construct a building. Trygve Berge, a Norwegian Olympic ski racer and his friend Sigurd Rockne were hired by Wichita lumberman Bill Rounds to build a lumberyard in the old mining town. Rounds had heard about the newly created Lake Dillon and speculated that vacation cabins would be in demand.

After building the lumberyard, now the Breckenridge Building Center, the three men embarked on another venture on day in September. After climbing to the top of Peak 8, Berge saw that the circular-shaped concave terrain fanning out from the town was a natural place for a ski area. Rounds' company provided financial backing and the Forest Service approved the plans. Peak 8 opened on December 16, 1961 with one double chairlift, a beginner T-bar and seven top-to-bottom runs. Lift tickets cost four dollars and Berge became ski school director.

With its beautifully restored Victorian buildings, a vibrant community, an authentic and unique mining history, plus its close proximity to a major metropolitan city (90 minutes from Denver), Breckenridge is once again enjoying a renaissance.

Breckenridge is located approximately 80 miles west of Denver via I-70 and Colorado Highway 9, in the central Colorado Rocky Mountains.

The County Seat of Summit County, Breckenridge has a population of about 2,500 and is at an elevation of 9,600 feet above sea level.

Average daytime high temperature in the summer is 70 degrees and 28 degrees in the winter. The average annual snowfall is 300 inches. It is home to the 13th highest mountain in Colorado - Quandary Peak at 14,265 feet in elevation.

The major industry is tourism and the major employer is the Breckenridge Ski Resort.

Recreational opportunities abound - the Breckenridge ski Area, two nordic ski areas, a 27 hole Jack Nicklaus golf course, the town Rec center (including rock climbing walls, pools, hot tubs, basketball courts, tennis courts, softball fields, soccer/rugby fields). The town ice rink complex - including indoor and outdoor ice rinks. The surrounding county includes 3 additional ski areas (A-Basin, Copper Mt. and Keystone), Lake Dillon and Green Mt. Reservoir. A lively arts community including The Backstage Theater, the NRO and the Breckenridge Music Institute.

Dillon, Colorado

Looking West Over Dillon at Buffalo Mt..

When Bayard Taylor passed through Summit County in the summer of 1866, he camped near the present-day site of Dillon. The group's exact location is known because the journals they kept mention the confluence of three streams - the Blue, the Snake and a third, unnamed one (we know it today as Ten Mile Creek).

Taylor's book, Colorado: A Summer Trip, tells of dense pines, thick green grass, hills of aspen, sagebrush in higher, drier areas, and fields of wildflowers. The Snake River, "saddle-deep and "swift," was forded with great difficulty. The Blue River was a "foaming" stream with an "impetuous" current that almost carried one horse and rider to their deaths. The raging water completely submerged one pack mule while it was fording the stream. The valley of the Blue, here narrowed by mountains, was full of pools, quagmires, fallen timber and rock slides.

To make the same trip today, Bayard Taylor would need a submarine. Gone are all of the landmarks he noted - flooded over by Lake Dillon.

The idea of bringing water from the western slope to the eastern slope began early. In 1913 the City and County of Denver began buying water rights west of the Continental Divide. What would become Lake Dillon began with the Collier Mountain Tunnel Project, proposed by W. H. Meyers and George J. Bancroft in October of 1907. While the proposal never got beyond the filing stage, in May of 1913 the first filing for a Blue River water diversion project was made by the State Engineer and the plan was based on the original Meyers/Bancroft plan.

In February 1946 the Denver Water Board recommended that the Blue River water diversion project (at that time called the Montezuma tunnel) be approved for consideration.

Thus began the moving of an entire town.

Clearing for the dam began in April 1960. The 231-foot-tall earth fill dam would eventually impound 252,678 acre feet of water.

During the depression years, the Denver Water Board gained control of much of the reservoir site by buying property in the old town of Dillon at tax sales. By the 1950s as much as three-fourths of the town was owned by the Water Board.

The photo you see on the right is Dillon's Main Street sometime in the 1950s.

Representatives of the Denver Water Board and people in the Dillon area met at the Wildwood Lodge near Dillon on November 3, 1955, to hear the Water Board's plans and to air the concerns of local residents. The Water Board predicted that the proposed new town as well as the homes and businesses in it would be better than what existed at that time. Residents had the option of buying land in the new town or exchanging their property for some land in new Dillon. As you might imagine, local residents expressed strong feelings about a number of concerns.

Responses to the Water Board's desire to buy the remaining necessary property were mixed. Some resisted; some held out for higher prices. By the Beginning of 1959, the Water Board was completing negotiations with the few residents still owning property within the site. A letter mailed to Dillon residents in December of 1959 indicated the old town must be evacuated by April 1, 1961. That date was later pushed ahead to August 1, 1961.

By January of 1960, seventy-eight land owners had already sold their property to the Water Board. Throughout the next tow years, the Summit County Journal reported on the movement of people and buildings out of the old town. Some went to Denver; some to Breckenridge, Keystone, Frisco or the new town of Silverthorne.

The dam was completed in July 1963 and water storage began in September of that year.

Perhaps the most unusual item moved from old Dillon was the Dillon Cemetery. Established in 1885 it was the only cemetery patented under Federal law. The patent was signed on June 30, 1901 by President McKinley. The Western Vault Company moved over three hundred graves to the new 38 acre site located east of the new town, along U.S. Route 6.

Many sites had been considered for the new town of Dillon. After much deliberation the town board chose the ridge north of the old town of Dillon and south of Straight Creek, where present-day Dillon resides. The firm of Trafton Bean was awarded the contract for designing the new town.

The result is the beautiful town of Dillon, overlooking Lake Dillon we see today. Consisting of many homes and condominiums - many overlooking the lake - the town offers a small-town atmosphere with a vibrant business community.

Located approximately 75 miles west of Denver via I-70 and U.S. Highway 6, Dillon has a population of about 750. Dillon's beautiful location on the shore of Dillon Reservoir provides an unrivaled scenic backdrop for an abundance of summer activities. Its close proximity to the famous Summit County ski areas makes it a convenient spot for winter vacationers.

At an elevation of 9,087 feet above sea level, Dillon enjoys the typical high mountain weather of all the towns in Summit County - 300 days a year of sunshine, average temperatures of 75 degrees in the summer and 30 degrees in the winter.

The Dillon Marina is a full-service marina offering access to Lake Dillon. World class sailing, boating, trout fishing and mountain recreations opportunities abound. With 26 miles of shoreline, the lake offers many secluded spots.

Great shopping values abound at the Dillon/Silverthorne Factory Outlet Stores. And recreational opportunities are almost limitless. Across from the marina is a trail-head to miles of paved bike paths offering spectacular scenic tours. The surrounding National Forest also provides mountain-biking, rafting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding and camping. Jeep tours on old mining roads will take you to nearby historical mining towns.

Frisco, Colorado

The Entrance to Frisco's Main Street

In the early 1800s, American fur trappers penetrated the isolated reaches of the valley the Utes called Nah-oon-dara (roughly translated as "land where the Blue River rises"). The basis that later became Frisco provided the beaver the fur trappers were looking for.

During the fur trade years, 1810 - 1840, the area provided a favored lair for the rugged trappers. Early cartographers showed a rendezvous site "at the place where the rivers meet," called La Bonte's Hole, located beneath the Present Dillon Reservoir.

Colonel John C. Fremont described Frisco's environs in the diary of his 1843 expedition.

"In the afternoon the river forked into three apparently equal streams. The Snake, Blue and Ten Mile Rivers. . . I proceeded up the middle branch (the Blue), which formed a flat valley bottom between timbered ridges on the left and snowy mountains on the right (the Ten Mile Range) terminating on large buttes of naked rock."

Henry A. Recen, a stonemason turned prospector, arrived in the spring of 1871 and decided to stay. He constructed a cabin on a beautiful island at the confluence of the Ten Mile and North Ten Mile Creek (today's Ten Mile Island).

How the town got its name is shrouded in mystery. According to one account a former government scout named Captain Leonard passed by in 1875 and, on impulse, the visitor tacked up a sign, with the carved name, "Frisco City." over the cabin Recen built. Colorado historians have had a heyday with the mysterious "Captain Leonard" and the story of Frisco's name. The most reliable account states that Captain Henry Learned, an 1879 Frisco town founder, former scout, civil war veteran and early town mayor, postmaster, school board organizer and mine owner was the "government scout" that was responsible for the name.

Frisco stands at the junction of two vital 1860s-built wagon roads, the Argentine Pass route from Georgetown and the Breckenridge Pass route (later named Boreas) from Denver.

An energetic group of Frisco founders filed incorporation papers for the Frisco Town Association, on April 17, 1879, according to the April 18, 1879 Rocky Mountain News.

"The Frisco town Association filed articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State yesterday morning. The company organizes for the purpose of surveying and laying out a town site on the Ten Mile Creek in Summit County."

The photo to the right is an early
picture of Frisco's Main Street.

People poured into 1880s Frisco , putting up buildings, discovered silver and generally thrived. By 1881 the town boasted a variety of stores and had a population of 300.

But, everything went wrong in the 1890s. While Breckenridge had homes lined with elegant wallpaper, plush private rail cars and the 13 pound gold nugget "Tom's Baby," Frisco scraped the bottom of the barrel. Henry Learned scurried to wear all the hats on the town board as trustees quit showing up for meetings. An April 1892 blizzard canceled the election and not another town meeting took place till 1899.

Norwegian immigrant Peter Prestrud arrived in Frisco in 1910 to manage his father-in-law's investments in the King Solomon and Square Deal mines. Discovering the mines to be less than thriving, he opened a grocery store and turned his leisure time attention to his favorite sport, ski jumping. Almost singlehandedly, Peter Prestrud put Frisco on skis.

By 1946 Frisco's population had grown 50, one-seventh of Summit County's paltry population of 350. The arrival of Dillon Reservoir spawned dissension in Frisco. After the new lake submerged area ranches, road builders commandeered a pathway through the new ranch locations. Tempers also flared over re-locating the school to Dillon in 1952.

Frisco took a great leap forward in the years from 1970 to the present. Explosive growth took place. Copper Mountain ski area opened in 1972. The Summit County library built its main branch in Frisco. Interstate 70 progressed from the Silverthorne interchange to Frisco in the early '70s, then on into Ten Mill Canyon and over Vail Pass. The Summit Medical Center opened, and on and on.

Present day Frisco has one of the nicest Main Streets of any small town in America. Continued growth of both the business district and residential homes make it one of the finest spots in Summit County.

Located approximately 75 miles west of Denver via I-70 and Colorado Highway 9, Frisco has a population of about 2,700. At 9,100 feet above sea level Frisco enjoys the high mountain weather of all of Summit County's towns - summer highs in the 70s winter highs in the 30s.

Central to four world-class ski areas, a world-class bike path system and along the shores of immaculate Lake Dillon, Frisco is literally at the crossroads of Summit County. It's no wonder the headquarters for the Summit County School District, Colorado Department of Transportation, Summit Stage bus system, Summit County Library and the Colorado State Patrol are all located here.

In terms of commercial and residential growth, Frisco is unmatched by any community its size in Colorado. Numerous restaurants, shops and hotels have opened in just the last few years. Literally hundreds of new residential units have been constructed. The town has taken advantage of the outstanding tourist economy to invest in numerous improvements, including adding pathways, installing athletic fields and a disk golf course at the Peninsula Recreation Area.

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