Long before Purgatory was a twinkle in Ray Duncan’s eye, Southwest Colorado residents were enjoying schussing down hills in the winter.

Purgatory’s 50th anniversary was part of the inspiration for the Animas Museum’s new exhibit on the subject. It traces skiing in the area as far back as the 1870s, when skis were called “snowshoes,” and skiing was a functional way of getting around in the winter, said historian Robert McDaniel, former executive director of the museum.

One pair of longboard skis in the exhibit hails back to the pioneer Aspaas family, museum Executive Director Sherry Bowman said. While they didn’t belong to Hans Aspaas, an emigrant from Norway, they were used by his immediate descendants.

During the winter of 1874-1875, Hans Aspaas was one of several men who skied the 40 miles between Silverton and Del Norte over Stony Pass, a four-day trip, carrying not only mail but staples such as sugar, coffee and dried fruit. Other skiers helped supply mining camps in the winter throughout the area into the 1930s.

During his research, McDaniel found illustrations in the June 9, 1883, edition of Harper’s Weekly of men skiing titled, Adventures in the San Juan Mountains. The men in the drawings are wearing skis similar to those in the museum and using only one long pole instead of two shorter poles.

The museum also has a pair of skis made from barrel staves donated by a descendant of another local pioneer family, Alice Paulek Barlow.

With the advent of a new century, skiing shifted to more of a recreational activity, with women joining in the fun wearing long skirts. The museum didn’t have any information as to whether woolen bloomers were part of a woman’s sporting ensemble in those days, but it seems as though it would have been rather drafty without them.

“Rope tows ushered in big changes,” McDaniel said. The first rope tow was introduced in the U.S. in Vermont in 1933, and La Plata County got its first documented rope tow in 1937 at Cascade Meadows, located northwest of the entrance from U.S. Highway 550 to Purgatory Resort. Locals built a rudimentary warming hut, and ladies were encouraged to toboggan on the slopes as well.

The tow was moved down to Lechner Field, renamed Chipmunk Hill, in 1939, about a mile south of the entrance to Electra Lake. Southwest Colorado residents skied there until 1943, when it became a popular sledding and tubing hill. The tow then headed to its third location in less than a decade, to what later became Calico Hill – thus named because it usually had patches of brown, green and white – before being named Chapman Hill in honor of Colton Chapman, a pioneer in winter sports in the area.

This new invention raised skiing to a whole new level, McDaniel said, and led to the creation of the San Juan Ski Club.

“These people were really banding together, joining forces and going on pretty major ski trips,” McDaniel said. “They also had competitions and night club skiing. When you think that this was happening at the end of the Depression, it’s pretty amazing.”

While skiing activity in La Plata County slowed down during World War II, it rebounded with a bang after GIs came home.

Columbine Guest Ranch, just south of what is now Purgatory, offered its own rope tow and night skiing. Owned by members of the Yeager family, one of Durango’s most prominent ski families, it was just one of several rope tows, many private or shared with other families, the Yeagers had on their properties north and west of Durango.

“I think my dad had a rope tow in his garage well into the ’70s,” Patt Yeager Emmett said. “What people forget is how unsafe they were and how difficult it was to deal with them.”

It took the arrival of Dolph Kuss in 1954 for Durango youth to begin training for competitive ski teams. He began coaching junior Nordic skiers shortly after his arrival, and two of his students, Gordon Rowe and Larry Edwards, qualified for the first Junior National ski championships in 1956. Kuss also negotiated the purchase of a rope tow from Camp Hale near Leadville to replace the deteriorating Cascade Meadows tow at Chapman Hill. Kuss went on to train several champions, including three-time Olympian Mike Elliott.

And then, in 1965, came Purgatory and a new chapter in skiing in La Plata County.

While the rope tows of yore are remembered mostly by stories and remnants, the legacy they built helped Durango become a ski destination.

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This story has been edited to correct the home country of Hans Aspaas.

Animas Museum newsletter (PDF)

What’s up at Animas Museum?

New Animas Museum Executive Director Sherry Bowman finds herself leading a fragile organization, with a budget so tight volunteers take the museum’s trash home. The staff consists of three part-time employees (including Bowman), and a stalwart cohort of volunteers are what makes it work.
“One of the things I love most about this place is how much people pull together to get things done,” Bowman said about the volunteers, who contribute between 250 and 300 hours each month. “We would not be able to get the types of grants we do if we did not have the in-kind donations from their help.”
The other main support comes from members, with membership fees providing the bulk of the museum’s financial support.
“So many people come and tell us they’ve never been here before,” said retired Fort Lewis College professor Mona Charles, who oversees exhibits and collections and helps with grant writing. “Or they tell us they haven’t come since they came with their children’s classes. But this is their history, too.”
The museum has several exhibits in different stages of planning. It recently opened the History of Skiing in La Plata County, and has a quilting show coming together to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the La Plata Quilters Guild.
Bowman is beginning a fundraising push, including seeking capital dollars to repair a stair landing that is separating from the side of the building.
“We are applying for a grant from History Colorado for that,” Bowman said, “But they like you to have 25 percent in matching funds in the bank before they’ll give it to you.”
She is particularly perturbed about the lack of support from the city of Durango.
“It’s not just that this is the last community building left from Animas City,” Bowman said, “but we archive, in perpetuity, the city’s collection of 800 items that used to be kept at the Durango Public Library. And that costs money. All our costs have gone up, including utilities and archival materials.”
Bowman said she has asked for soft support, such as the city paying for garbage removal, but has been told the policy is that if they do it for one nonprofit, they would have to do it for all nonprofits.
“There are only a handful of us who have responsibility for a facility,” she said. “The last time I was in, the city manager (Ron LeBlanc) asked if we’d consider moving downtown so our 1904 building could be razed and our six lots could be used for affordable housing.”
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If you go

The Animas Museum, 3065 West Second Ave., is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays from November through April. Admission is $4 for adults; $3 seniors 65 and older; $2 for children ages 7-12; and free for La Plata County Historical Society members and children 6 and younger.