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.


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).  A lively arts community including The Backstage Theater, the NRO and the Breckenridge Music Institute.  The town ice rink complex - including indoor and outdoor ice rinks. 

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.


The surrounding county includes 3 additional ski areas (A-Basin, Copper Mt. and Keystone), as well as two wonderful lake facilities - Lake Dillon and Green Mt. Reservoir. 

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.

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