Tuesday evening, the Aspen Historical Society hosted an event that looked at the history of Aspen Mountain’s Lift One -- at a time when Aspen voters will decide the future of a new lift and development proposal.
Tuesday evening, a standing-room only crowd at the Hotel Jerome watched films and heard the history of the first chairlift on Aspen Mountain. Lift One was built in a single year in 1946, and it was the world’s “highest, fastest and longest” chairlift at the time. It took more than 30 minutes to get to the top of Aspen Mountain.
The single-chair lift could transport 275 people in an hour. Today's high speed quads can transport almost 2500.
Lift One cost an Aspen local as little as 25 cents per ride, or 75 cents a day. Tourists paid 2 dollars per ride and 3 dollars and 75 cents for a full day.
Nina Gabienelli from the Aspen Historical Society presented a letter that described riding the lift for the first time. "We were ascending the mountain, over housetops, tree tops from tower to tower but always up. You’ve heard of walking on air? I know what it feels like to ride on it," she read.
Today, one of the amenities included in the 1A ballot issue involves a proposed ski museum from the Aspen Historical Society. If voters approve the ballot issue this March, the building that used to house the Skier Chalet lodge would be moved down to the base of the new development in order to house the museum. The ballot issue mandates that the developer would deliver it in what’s called “white box” condition.
Kelly Murphy, CEO of the Aspen Historical Society, said the rough estimates from architects are that finishing the space with fixtures and bathrooms would cost at least 2 million dollars, which doesn't include finishing the museum itself.
Murphy says the monumental fundraising effort the Historical Society would need to undergo to build the ski museum would be worth the trouble. “Our history of skiing here in aspen and snowmass is so interesting and so important to not only the history of skiing in Colorado but in the United States and frankly in the world,” she said.
Murphy said Tuesday's Lift One presentation was not a campaign event, and that the Aspen Historical Society planned this well before they knew that 1A would be on the ballot.
She said that the goal was to inorm people about this part of Aspen’s history as debate about the ballot issue takes place. "People need to vote how they want to vote, but we just want to make sure that, with all the discussion, that people understand what the actual history of the area is," she said.
