Click on photo to see ski jumping from 1912 and a 50 cent lift ticket!
Click on photo to see ski jumping from 1912 and a 50 cent lift ticket!
On January 24, 1997, Grand Lake lost its oldest resident, Patience Kemp.
Her 88 years stretch back to when Grand Lake looked like a marginal frontier town from
the 19th century. The only thing that really kept the area alive was the power of The Lake
itself. Patience's mother, Mary Lyons Cairns wrote two excellent books to capture the spirit
of the times: Grand Lake, The Pioneers, and The Olden Days. They are available in a single
paper back edition called Grand Lake: The Pioneers. A wealth of photographs are in these
books, but they do not have the clarity they could have. Our historical sketches have been
delayed, in part, because we are trying to obtain digital scans of the original photographs.
You may obtain a copy of Mary Cairns book through our office or the Grand Lake Historical
Society. Excellent museum exhibits are kept at the Grand County Museum in Hot Sulphur Springs
and at the Kauffman house in Grand Lake. The Denver Public Library also has a collection of
original photographs and other source material. There is also a pioneer museum in Fraser and
one near the northern boundary of Winter Park. Our presentation here is a rough preview ...
120 years ago there were regular Stage Coach runs during the summer over Berthoud Pass
to Middle Park. The big wheeled iron horses of the Denver Northwest and Pacific Railroads
helped to bring Granby into being in 1905. (The town was named after Denver lawyer Granby
Hillyer). In 1906, Granby had 32 homes, 2 livery barns, 2 hotels, 2 restaurants, 4 barrooms and
one Presbyterian church. The first paved road in Grand County was Hwy. 40 which runs right
through Granby and the Windy Gap area. Hwy. 40 was paved just after WW I and sometimes
called "Victory Road". In Denver, Hwy. 40 is Colfax Avenue; it runs by Colorado's domed
Capitol. Hwy. 40 runs from St. Louis, Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah.
© Text & Structure of this site is Copyrighted 5/1/96.