20 Facts Celebrating Breckenridge's 150 Years of History

  1. Please check back with us this fall to view the complete 150 Facts for 150 Years.
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  3. 1) Before the mining era, Breckenridge was part of the summer migratory hunting area for bands of the Northern Ute Indians. Animal trails used by the Ute Indians became early wagon roads, and present day highways follow some of these same routes.
  4. 2) The first recorded discovery of gold along the Blue River occurred on August 10, 1859. Prospector Ruben Spaulding recovered $.13 worth of gold in his first pan from the Blue River. The second pan yielded $.27.
  5. 3) Stories relay that Breckenridge was named after President James Buchanan's vice-president, John Cabell Breckinridge (1857-1861). Other accounts claim the town was named for Thomas E. Breckenridge, a renowned prospector and member of the historic Fremont Expedition of 1848 and 1849.
  6. 4) Hydraulic placer mining began in 1860. Using water under high-pressure, miners scoured mountain hillsides, collecting the released dirt and sediments from above and recovering gold deposits in long sluice boxes.
  7. 5) At least nine dredge boats operated on the Swan River, French Creek, and Blue River between 1898 and 1942. Huge buckets on dredges took gravel from the riverbeds and extracted gold in on-board sluice boxes. The rock piles that are still visible along Highway 9 north of downtown Breckenridge, Tiger Road, and French Creek are a by-product from the gold dredging process.
  8. 6) On January 20, 1900, the Denver Times stated “Breckenridge (is) a camp that has turned out more gold with less work than any camp in Colorado.”
  9. 7) The last major mining operation in Breckenridge was the Wellington Mine. It operated sporadically until 1973.
  10. 8) Many of the commercial buildings on Breckenridge’s main streets were built with false fronts to give them a statelier look and to provide advertising space for businesses. False fronts are still visible on many of these buildings today.
  11. 9) Breckenridge was home to two dancehalls, ten hotels, and eighteen saloons in 1880. There are currently more than 75 restaurants and bars located in Breckenridge.
  12. 10) In 1882 the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad arrived in Breckenridge after the rail line over Boreas Pass from Como was completed, directly connecting Breckenridge and Denver. Boreas Pass at 11,481 feet was the highest navigable rail pass in North America until the turn-of-the nineteenth century.
  13. 11) To keep tracks clear of snow, railroad workers used rotary snowplows that were able to blow snow as much as 30 feet away from the tracks. The winter of 1898-1899 was so harsh that trains were unable to get to Breckenridge for 78 days straight) That same winter, the snow was so deep that residents dug snow tunnels to get across from one side of the street to the other.
  14. 12) In 1887, Tom’s Baby, a 13 pound piece of crystallized, wire gold, was found and believed to be the largest piece of gold ever found in Colorado at the time.
  15. 13) Pug Ryan and his gang held up Breckenridge’s prominent Main Street Denver Hotel in 1898. In June 1908 a group of children in Kokomo (about 20 miles from Breckenridge) found some of Pug Ryan’s loot from the Breckenridge robbery.
  16. 14) The Summit County Courthouse was completed in Breckenridge in 1910. On July 31, 1909, local Masons laid the cornerstone of the new courthouse, which included depositing a box of mementoes in the center of the stone. A quantity of gold dust was mixed in with the mortar that fixed the stone.
  17. 15) The Breckenridge Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
  18. 16) The Town of Breckenridge embarked upon the Blue River Reclamation Project in 1984. Over the next five years, the Town restored a one-mile stretch of the Blue River between Valley Brook Road and Coyne Valley Road, to its natural state by removing more than 300,000 tons of rock and cobble.
  19. 17) In the 1920s ski jump contests were organized on Shock Hill in Breckenridge. The first organized ski club and motorized rope tow in Breckenridge was at Carter Park Hill. It started operating in 1940.
  20. 18) The Breckenridge Ski Area opened in 1961 on Peak 8. During its first year of operation, 17,000 skier visits were recorded. During the 2007-08 season, there were 1.63 million skier visits.
  21. 19) The highest chairlift in North America - the Imperial Chair - opened in Breckenridge in December 2005. It reaches an elevation of 12,840 feet.
  22. 20) Breckenridge celebrated the opening of the BreckConnect Gondola in 2007, directly linking the town to the ski area.