When he arrived as the new county Parks and Recreation Director in March 1955, Dolph Kuss immediately saw the potential for improvement of the Third Avenue Ski Area, now known as Chapman Hill. The tow was an elevator hoist cable pulled by a converted car engine. It required the use of wrenches to hold onto the bare wire and was fairly dangerous. It also only pulled skiers less than halfway up the hill. Kuss secured a rope tow from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Winter Training Facility, Camp Hale. Purchasing the lift with $1,000 raised by the local Rotary Club, Kuss drove a county dump truck to the camp near his hometown of Leadville and returned with the electric motorized rope tow. He installed the tow, which is still in use today, in November 1955. He also led a volunteer effort to clear brush from much more of the hillside’s slope, opening up nearly the whole 1,000-foot-high hill for skiing. Although wanting to make the use of the tow free for local children, insurance considerations required that children season ski passes be sold. The $1 cost also included free ski lessons. The ski hill’s name was changed to Calico Hill in 1967, and then when its longtime manager and earliest benefactor, Colton Chapman died in 1978, it was renamed Chapman Hill in his honor. Since its opening in 1942, thousands of area youths have learned to ski on the remarkable little ski hill. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum.org (Catalog Number: 92.06.1.32 & 36 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections)
When he arrived as the new county Parks and Recreation Director in March 1955, Dolph Kuss immediately saw the potential for improvement of the Third Avenue Ski Area, now known as Chapman Hill. The tow was an elevator hoist cable pulled by a converted car engine. It required the use of wrenches to hold onto the bare wire and was fairly dangerous. It also only pulled skiers less than halfway up the hill. Kuss secured a rope tow from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Winter Training Facility, Camp Hale. Purchasing the lift with $1,000 raised by the local Rotary Club, Kuss drove a county dump truck to the camp near his hometown of Leadville and returned with the electric motorized rope tow. He installed the tow, which is still in use today, in November 1955. He also led a volunteer effort to clear brush from much more of the hillside’s slope, opening up nearly the whole 1,000-foot-high hill for skiing. Although wanting to make the use of the tow free for local children, insurance considerations required that children season ski passes be sold. The $1 cost also included free ski lessons. The ski hill’s name was changed to Calico Hill in 1967, and then when its longtime manager and earliest benefactor, Colton Chapman died in 1978, it was renamed Chapman Hill in his honor. Since its opening in 1942, thousands of area youths have learned to ski on the remarkable little ski hill. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, [email protected] (Catalog Number: 92.06.1.32 & 36 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections)