       |
|
 |
|
The Town of Breckenridge is a historic resort community located 86 miles west of Denver via Interstate 70 and Colorado State Highway 9 in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Colorado Springs is 106 miles to the southeast, Vail is 34 miles to the west, and Steamboat Springs is 100 miles to the north. Breckenridge is a community of 4.7 square miles with a permanent population of approximately 1,900. At 9600 feet in elevation, Breckenridge enjoys a high-alpine climate. The average annual snowfall is in excess of 250" and the average winter daytime temperature is 28 degrees F. The average summer daytime high temperature is 70 degrees F. The Town of Breckenridge is a political subdivision of the State of Colorado organized as a Home Rule Municipality with a Council-Manager form of government. The Towns' legislative authority is vested in an elected seven-member Town Council, which includes the Mayor.
Breckenridge was born out of America's mid-nineteenth century rush to settle the West. General George E. Spencer was one of the hundreds of "town builders" who trekked across the West, fathering boom and bust communities. General Spencer traveled long and hard to find his town. Intent upon locating in the Blue River Valley near Fort Mary B, General Spencer reportedly seized Felix Poznansky's town site of Independence by offering the miners free property in exchange for surveying the town. The General proved to be a shrewd town boomer. He formally created the Town of "Breckinridge" in January 1860 and named it after President James Buchanan's Vice President, John Cabell Breckinridge. By flattering the United States Government, Spencer hoped to gain a post office. At the outbreak of the Civil War, however, Spencer may have regretted that he had not named the new settlement for himself. Breckinridge's sympathies were clearly with the South, and he received a commission as a Confederate Brigadier General. The U.S. Senate expelled Breckinridge for treason. The embarrassed little town of Breckinridge quickly and quietly changed the spelling of its name to "Breckenridge," changing an "i" to an "e". An ambitious grid was eventually platted for the 320 acre Breckenridge town site. Main Street was laid out parallel to the Blue River. Residences developed along Main Street, to the north and south of the commercial core, and also to the east. On the west side of the Blue River, in "West Breckenridge," industry, inexpensive housing, and a red light district were established. By June 1860, a row of log cabins, tents and shanties lined Main Street. By mid-1861, Breckenridge boasted nearly 100 people, several stores, hotels, saloons, and a post office. On October 11, 1861, the Town secured the Denver, Bradford, and Blue River Road Wagon Company connection, giving new lifeblood to the struggling little community. Breckenridge's wide boardwalk-lined Main Street allowed for ease in turning around freight wagons and became the center of social and athletic activities. A short time later, Breckenridge was established as the permanent county seat of Summit County. By the mid-1860s, the Civil War and an increasing difficulty in
locating free accessible gold led to a drop in the Breckenridge
population. The 1870s saw the introduction of hydraulic placer mining
to the area. Breckenridge was once again engrossed in another mining
phase. By 1882, Breckenridge secured a depot site for the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad and thereby brought rail service to Town. By the mid-1880s, Breckenridge added two newspapers and a cemetery. The Town also managed to organize three hook and ladder fire companies to protect the vulnerable wooden structures. A major fire in 1884 destroyed numerous buildings along Ridge Street. Despite the fire danger, local builders continued to build with wood because of the availability of materials and the reduced time, effort and cost of construction. As a result, few stone buildings ever appeared in Breckenridge.
The population of Breckenridge dropped to under 1,000 people by the turn of the century. Despite a successful gold dredging boom from 1898 to 1942, the population continued to drop throughout the first half of the twentieth century. More and more buildings were abandoned. Thinking the Tiger Placers Company would provide jobs in an era of national depression, Breckenridge town administrators allowed the Tiger #1 Gold Dredge Boat to chew its way from the northern town limits through the south end of Main Street. The two-story pontoon boat supported an armature that carried a line of moving buckets that dug up placer mining ground to depths of 48 feet in the riverbed. The dredge removed all vegetation and buildings in its path. As a result, no historic buildings survive on the west side of the river. World War II finally silenced the dredge. Rock tailings were originally piled on the west side of the river, but today, these deposits have been leveled out, leaving the east bank higher than that on the west. Hard rock and small-scale placer mining continued during this transition period while the population declined to its lowest point of 254 individuals. Many of Breckenridge's historic buildings were lost during the "post-war" period for a variety of reasons. Breckenridge, however, maintained itself as a small town until the advent of the ski industry. In December 1961, Rounds and Porter, a Wichita, Kansas lumber company, opened the Breckenridge Ski Area and a new boom era began. Transportation improvements fueled the Breckenridge "rush." The Eisenhower Tunnel, on Interstate 70, was completed in 1973, which reduced the driving time from Denver to Breckenridge to an hour and a half. In the 1980s, additional recreational activities increased in popularity, including bicycling, hiking, fishing, and snowmobiling. The ski industry's "white gold" and the quality of the Town's additional outdoor activities led to a rise in population and construction. The Breckenridge permanent resident population has grown from 393 in 1960, to nearly 2,000 today. In addition to the small but steadily growing local population, the Town continues to experience a rapid increase in its "peak" population. The peak population, which includes residents, second-home owners, skiers, and day visitors, has nearly doubled in the last decade, from approximately 11,600 in 1984, to over 24,000, as of January 1, 2000. The number of Breckenridge housing units has increased from 325 units in 1960, to 3,455 units as of January 1, 1996. Expansion of the Ski Area facilities and an increase in the local and tourist populations has also resulted in an increase in Breckenridge's commercial construction. Between 1983 and 1995, the Town's commercial area square footage has approximately doubled, from over 500,000 square feet to over 1,000,000 square feet.
|
|
Back to Top |
