Trivia

1. What was the name and location of the first ski hill in Summit County? 

John Younger shares:  The sledding hill at Breckenridge's Carter Park is the oldest still-in-existence hill that was specifically created for downhill winter activities (as opposed to "natural" slopes like Loveland Pass, for instance).  First opened in 1946, Arapahoe Basin is the oldest still-in-existence downhill facility with lifts.  As an interesting factoid, next to Dillon's old town cemetery on Cemetery Hill (now located beneath the waters of the reservoir), the Bailey brothers (John, Tink and Dick) built a rope tow and ran it on weekends for a single winter starting in Jan 1949.  This would be the earliest town-adjacent downhill facility with lifts (preceding the slightly more well-known Breckenridge Ski Area by 11 1/2 years).

2. What industry occurred in the old town of Tiger? 

Logging or running the sawmill. Linda Gilmer Polhemus shares: 

My family lived at the Old Town of Tiger on 2 different occasions. The first time in 1959-1960. At that time there were several people living at Tiger. Everyone worked for Henry Jarvis of Breckenridge by logging or running the sawmill at Tiger. The second time we lived there was in 1964-65. That time there were very few people living there as Mr. Jarvis was having trouble paying his help and people were moving off. We were the last family to move and stayed only part of the winter. We moved into Breckenridge and mom and dad got jobs running the Breckenridge Bowling Center that year. Dad went to work the next winter at the Breckenridge Ski Area as a lift operator and mom cleaned houses and ski lodges. There was plenty of work in Breckenridge in those days with all the building going on with the newly built ski area. I had jobs very young. At the time the minimum wage was around $1.90 an hour. I was getting anywhere from $5-$7 an hour to clean rooms at The High Tor, and sling hash at the Bergenhoff, and wash dishes at the Gauthaus. Then on weekend nights I would work at the candy counter at the movie theater. That job paid $3 a night plus apopcorn and a fountain drink.

3. Are there still bodies under the Lake located in Dillon's old cemetery?  

No.

4. Why is the tiger the high school mascot?

Brad & Robin Foster Bremner share:  The “Tiger” mascot for Summit County schools came from Tiger, Colorado.  It was the 1st mining Company that provided Medical Services, a School and a Grocery for the miners’ families in the 1880-1890’s.  The place to be was Tiger!!  And so - the name stuck for the Mascot.    

5. Who was the famous co-founder of the Breckenridge ski area who was born in Norway, is an Olympian, met Sophia Loren, survived a plane crash and who celebrated his 90th birthday in April of 2022 on Breckenridge Ski Area's slopes?   

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares: Trygve Berge 

6. When was Silverthorne incorporated?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares: September 1967

7. How did the Town of Dillon force the Denver Water Board to build Swan Mountain Road?  

John Younger shares:  Due to a Federal patent that was given to the Town of Dillon for the Cemetery by President McKinley, it gave Dillon unilateral rights to that property. So, when the Denver Water Board wanted to take over that land, it was discovered by Dave Ray that this land patent existed and it was found that Dillon had the keys, lock, stock, and barrel, over the Cemetery’s disposition. By requiring a vote of the Town Board to resolve their ownership of the Cemetery, Dillon now had the clout to have their citizens fairly compensated at the loss of their properties, to help the town purchase, survey, and plat the land where the new Town was to be, and build the Swan Mountain Road to ensure that people on the south end of the county (Breckenridge) could get to the east end of the county (Keystone) without having to go all way around lake via the Damn road.

8. When did Frisco's Elementary school close?  

Linda Gilmer Polhemus shares:  The Frisco Schoolhouse was built in 1899, by Oliver Swanson. Its original purpose was to serve as a saloon, but never opened as one. The Summit County school district purchased the newly constructed building and opened it as a school in 1901. The Frisco Schoolhouse remained in operation until 1963, when it was turned into administration and storage space. 

9. What was the name of the Town that was removed when (Reservoir) Lake Dillon was built?  

Dillon

10.  How many locations has Dillon occupied? 

John Younger shares:  Four

11.  Life magazine in 1948, honored what man as an “indefatigable general practitioner” that served a 400-mile radius area around Kremmling during the 40s, 50s and 60s? Many Summit County residents were under his care. 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares: Dr. Ernest Ceriani

12.  Who in this room was born in Kremmling?

We’d love for you to share.

13.  What is the current name of the building that housed Frisco's original post office?  

Foote's Rest (but we might be wrong)

Linda Gilmer Polhemus shares:  William Vanatta was the Frisco Postmaster according to the 1911 Colorado Business Directory at that time, L.A Wildhack is listed as Justice of the Peace and surveyor. However, Wildhack did own the Foote Property and may have also had the post office there.  Prior to Robert Foote becoming the postmaster in the early 1940's, Mary Ruth was the postmistress and the post office was in her home on the corner of Main and 4th Street.  I know another family had the Foote property between Wildhack and the Foote's during the time Mary Ruth was postmistress.

14.   Who originally opened the Arapahoe Cafe?  Where was it originally located?  

John Younger shares:  Faye and Lenore Bryant.  It was originally located at the confluence of Meadow Creek and Ten Mile Creek, then moved to the old town of Dillon before moving to its present location in the new town of Dillon.

15.  What made mining no longer profitable in Summit County?  

John Younger shares:  The silver crash of 1893 was the main cause but 19th Century mining technology didn't help.  Combining the two pretty much eliminated gold and silver mining as a profit-making industry in the early 20th century.

16.  What did many of the locals do once mining became unprofitable? 

Linda Gilmer Polhemus and John Younger share:    Many people left.  For the first part of the 20th Century, Summit County had one of the smallest populations in any County in Colorado, as well as one of the poorest.  Besides ranching many of the local people had businesses or worked for someone that did. Mining to a smaller degree was still happening. Some were loggers, government work like road maintenance town and county clerks, barbers, stage line drivers, and freighters.

17.  Where did Leland and Vera Sharp live?  What did they do?  

John Younger shares:  Montezuma.  He was a school bus driver; she was the school librarian during the 1960’s (and possibly earlier).

18.  What teacher coached collegiate level basketball, minor league basketball, and finally European professional league basketball after leaving Summit County?  

John Younger shares:  Tom Schneeman.  He died in late 2021, however, he has a German Wikipedia page.

19.  What former teacher and coach became a member of the United States Olympic Committee based out of Colorado Springs?  

John Younger shares:  Jim Balfanz

20.  What was the last graduating year for Breckenridge High School? 

John Younger shares:  1963

21.  Which classes never had kindergarten because of the building of the new school?  

John Younger shares:  1974 & 1975

22.  Who graduated from Summit High School and is known as “the Godfather of Industrial Music”?  

Lorna Younger shares:  Al Jourgensen

23.   Where was the Summit Elementary school located prior to 1963?  

Dillon

24. Is Heeney in Summit County? 

Yes

25. What was Peter Prestrud known for?  

Ski jumping and a lot of traveling on skis such as trips to Hot Sulphur Springs over Ute Pass.  From Peter Prestrud — Colorado Snowsports Museum: “Peter Prestrud, a native of Hamar, Norway, settled in Frisco, Colorado in 1910. In the process of becoming postmaster two years later, he and some friends built one of the state's first ski jumps on nearby Tenmile Creek for weekend recreation. A close friend of Carl Howelsen and an enthusiastic competitor, Peter once skied 55 miles across Ute Pass to participate in a meet at Hot Sulphur Springs. He was Colorado Amateur Jumping Champion in 1921.  The ski jump at Dillon, one of the state's best, was renamed Prestrud Hill in 1954.”

26. Why is the location of the current high school called "Farmer's Corner" (or "Farmer's Korner," as it was once called)? 

Pat Farmer whose family owned the property in the 1960’s shares:  The ski coach was Jim Balfanz, and he would tell the students to meet at Farmer’s Corner for ski jump practice after school.  There was a rather large hill back of our place and he and others built a ski jump there.  That started the name. 

27.  What little Town was located a mile or two north of the present-day Farmer’s called?

John Younger shares:  Dickey (which had both the electrical power station and ranger district offices) was actually located a mile or two north of where present-day Farmer's Korner is currently situated.  The old path of cut trees that the power lines used to follow would act as "X Marks the Spot" for Dickey's location under the lake as that path enters and exits the water at the northern end of the Blue River Arm.

28.  Why don't the kids in Heeney go to Summit schools?  

Linda Gilmer Polhemus shares:  I always heard that the kids in Heeney were bused to Kremmling to go to school.   1. To make it a shorter distance for them and 2. It was too costly to send the school bus down that far. So, Summit School District has, for some time, paid Grand County to provide the schooling for those kids. At one time there was a school at Slate Creek where many of the kids from down the blue went to school.

John Younger shares:  The boundary line for the Summit school district is just south of the southern turnoff for Green Mountain Reservoir.  Regarding northern county students going to Kremmling, I believe it was true that the Summit school district compensated the West Grand school district to take in those students in the early days.  But at some point, the two districts formally redrew the district boundary which ceded the far northern section of Summit County over to the West Grand County jurisdiction.  I would presume that some kind of a financial agreement/settlement would have been part of that deal as well.

29.  What was the area now named "Silverthorne" formerly called?  

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  Silverthorne Flats

30.  What was the name of the Elks Lodge in Silverthorne before it was moved to its present location? Where was it moved from?  

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  It was previously called The Wildwood Lodge and was formerly located just east of the Blue River bridge outside of the old town of Dillon.

31.  What are the names of the three main rivers that flow in Summit County?  

John Younger shares:  Ten Mile Creek, Blue River, and Snake River

32.  Is Dillon Valley part of the incorporated Town of Dillon?  

No

33.  Who used to own the Meadow Creek lands now adjacent to the west side of the Lake before the reservoir was built?  

John Younger shares:  The Chamberlain family

34.  What is the name of the American silent film star born in Old Dillon in 1894 that played the first Jane in the first Tarzan movie (1918's silent "Tarzan of the Apes")?  

John Younger shares:  Enid Markey

35.  Identify three locations of former nordic jumping hills in Summit County.  

John Younger and Pat Farmer share:  The Dillon jumping hill above the existing reservoir on the cliffs that were cut out to make way for the dam and spillway, Farmer’s Corner and just outside Frisco at base of Mt. Royal.

36.  Who was the first superintendent of schools when the then newly reconsolidated school district first opened in Frisco in 1963?  

Linda Gilmer Polhemus shares:  I pulled out our oldest high school annual which is for 1963-64 school year and it lists a Harold W. Hodgesas as the superintendent with Walter Byron, Gertrude Young, Dick Wellington and Melvin Long and John Jeffries as the school board members.

37.  Who opened the first boat ramp marina on Lake Dillon?  

John Bailey

38.  Where did Silverthorne get its name? 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  Judge Marshel Silverthorn – the last “e” was fashionably added later.  He created the 1851 patented placer mine on the west side of the Blue River.  He was a rancher, mining judge, and miner.

39.  Over the years, Farmer’s Corner also was called Jackass Junction.  Why? 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  The miners used to buy their donkeys and mules at the location.

40.  What is the tunnel’s name that is located on Lake Dillon’s west side that transports fresh water 23.3 miles under the Continental Divide where it meets the South Platte Basin at Grant Colorado, and eventually ends up available for the Denver area’s consumption? Did anyone in this room have parents that worked on this tunnel?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  The Roberts Tunnel.

41.  What was the Eisenhower Tunnels initial name?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  The Straight Creek Tunnel which was named from the river that runs on the tunnel’s west-side.

42.  How long are the Eisenhower and Edwin C Johnson tunnels?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  1.693 and 1.697 miles respectively.

43.  Who owned and ran the Mint in Old Dillon before and after it was moved to Silverthorne?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  John and Sena Valaer.

44.  What High School teacher taught science for the Climax school system in 1957, and the Summit School system in the 60s and 70s, and launched the Continental Ski Club for ski racing as well as contributing to numerous Summit ski programs? 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares?  If not, it was my brothers.  Bert Snyder.

45.  Who remembers the name of the local 1960’s band consisting of Rudd Pyles, Butch Rose and Brad Wellington? 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares: The Space Walkers.

46.  What famous local person was Silverthorne’s Annie Road named? 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  Anna Ballif Emore was born in Dillon in 1892. Anna’s was very accomplished.  Anna participated in politics, education, was an author, and became a favorite local historian including the creation of the Summit Historical Society. Anna wrote the book “Dillon, The Blue River Wonderland” in 1969.  Anna won the Summit Historical Society’s 2022 Women of Year Distinction award. – Source: Blanch Emore and the Summit Historical Society.

47.  Who was the famous woman that was elected the Summit Society’s 2023 Women of Year Distinction award? 

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  Hellen Foote – Source: Summit Historical Society.

48.  Who won a gold medal for slopestyle ski jumping in the 2018 Olympics – becoming the first winter Olympic medalist born in the 2000’s - and today resides in Silverthorne where he has his own ski jump playground on his property?  Silverthorne put on a Goldthorne parade in his honor.

Red Gerard 

49.  What 1967 graduate was named Cosmopolitan’s bachelor of the year, and was nominated for the Ski Club Vail’s Wall of Excellence in 2015?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  Knutzen (Rudd) Pyles

50.  When was the Town of Breckenridge established and how did it get its name?

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer shares:  It was established in November 1859, and it was called Breckinridge (with an “I” instead of an “e”) after the current vice president to gain political mining advantages - John C. Breckinridge. Breckinridge went on to fight for the confederacy as a brigadier general and was later convicted of treason at-which-time the spelling was changed to Breckenridge after an original August 1859 gold-prospecting party member – Thomas Breckenridge.

John Younger shares:  Regarding the Breckinridge/Breckenridge thang, I can only attest to the desire to "un-name" the town after Buchanan's Vice President.  Even though literally changing one (1) letter is about as least-as-you-can-do as you can get, the idea of naming it after someone with a similarly-spelled same-sounding name would at least somewhat elevate the "name change" above the least-you-can-do low bar.

51.  What is Breckenridge’s annual celebration called to praise the Norse God for an abundant snowy season?  

Source:  Google   Ullr Fest

52.  What was a favorite local name for the Gold Pan Bar in Breckenridge during the 50’s and 60’s?  

Theresa Bertapelle Dieringer:  The bed pan.

53.  Where did kids in high school during the 1970’s like to ditch school and go drink coffee?

    Lorna Younger shares:  The Log Cabin Inn in Frisco.

Bonus Question:

54.  Who was the Old Dillon first-grade teacher who finished he school year out with a walk from Old Dillon to her ranch north of Silverthorne for a hobo barbeque?

Ruby Lowe.  Although the original ranch house remains, a large amount of the property has been developed and was named Ruby Ranch.  Children dressed up like hobos with a handkerchief tied to a pole and walked a few miles towards the ranch out-of-town until parent in cars swooped up the children and drove them to the ranch.