THE FIRST GRAND WINTER CARNIVAL WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI
THE SPARK OF OUR MODERN SKI INDUSTRY IN COLORADO HAPPENED IN GRAND COUNTY
By Tim NIcklas and Dede Fay / Photos Courtesy of Grand County Historical Association

FLYIN’ HIGH: Spectators watch the Nordic ski jump competition from the top of Bungalow Hill (near the entrance to Byer’s Canyon) in 1916.

December 30, 2011 through February 11, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first winter carnivals in the West. Celebrations will include fireworks, a reenactment of the Howelsen-Schmidt Trek, rail jam demonstrations, skijoring, a “Button” Parade (in honor of Horace Button, Colorado Ski Hall of Fame), a ski film fest, a Grand Snow Ball, a Mailbag Race over Cottonwood Pass, and many other activities and events.

The first two Hot Sulphur Springs winter carnivals are the humble beginnings of the state’s ski industry. Though skiing had been a part of Colorado’s lifestyle for some time, it was considered a mere necessity until the carnivals marked a change of perception –
that skiing could be an exciting recreational sport! The carnivals created what was to become a new rush to Colorado’s old mountain mining towns and ultimately made all previous booms pale in comparison.

In October of 1911, the Moffat Road Railroad announced that freight operations would be moved from Hot Sulphur Springs to Fraser. The Middle Park Times published an editorial concerned about the future of Hot Sulphur Springs. John Peyer, a new resident and real estate developer, responded with a letter that suggested that the town could be a winter sports tourist attraction.

One week later, Peyer ran a notice in the paper for all interested parties to meet and plan a winter carnival. Peyer was elected Carnival Committee Chairman and the carnival day was set for December 30, 1911. This carnival was to include a skating rink, toboggan slide, and ski slide. A Denver Post article the day before the carnival quoted, “Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Sports Club hopes to make winter sports as popular in Colorado as they are in Switzerland and Norway.”

WOMEN ONLY: These ladies are lined up for the start of a speed-skating race. The only man in this 1912 photo is HSS Carnival organizer, John Peyer, who is the starter.

The carnival had a great turnout and Peyer showed his athletic skill, placing first in both the Fancy Skating Contest and the Couples Fancy Skating Contest. At 9 pm, at the highlight of the Grand Ball, two strangers appeared on skis, with 35-pound backpacks and rifles. These were Norwegians Carl Howelsen and Angell Schmidt who had heard about the carnival and had boarded the train in Denver at 8am, then detrained at the Corona Station atop Rollins Pass to ski down the mountains. They completed this ski trek of 44 miles in 9 hours. Read more about this trek in the Winter 2010 article, Hot Sulphur First to Jump Into Competitive Skiing.

The next day, the townspeople had built a crude ski jump under the direction of Howelsen and Schmidt, and were dazzled by the two Norwegians and Williams Fork resident Gunnar Dahle. Immediately, the town decided to have another event in February and invited Howelsen and Schmidt to return. The Middle Park Times declared, “Never before in the history of the territory or the state of Colorado has such an event even been contemplated, much less held.”

In the days following the 1911 event, the organizers of the Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival decided to turn the February event into the first annual winter carnival. Howelsen and Schmidt again skied from Corona to Hot Sulphur and put on another ski jump demonstration, before a larger crowd. The event spurred several other towns to hold their own ski jump demonstrations in the following years, most notably Steamboat Springs.

DR. SKI: Hot Sulphur Springs’ town physician, Dr. Rawles, was an avid sportsman. In this photo, taken in 1912, Rawles shows off his handmade beaver gloves.

In 1914, Marjorie Perry of Steamboat Springs traveled to the Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival and persuaded Carl Howelsen to visit Steamboat to demonstrate his sport there. The subsequent visit resulted in the establishment of what would become the legendary Howelsen Hill in Steamboat, and began a two-and-a-half-decade rivalry between that town and Hot Sulphur Springs as the centers of Colorado’s young ski industry.

Athletes from the two towns would travel to the rival winter carnivals for competition throughout the 1910s, 20s and 30s. Several of these athletes would rise to dominate national ski competitions. Most notable were Barney McLean of the Hot Sulphur Springs Ski Club and Gordy Wren of the Steamboat Springs Ski Club. The two men became close friends and in later years wowed crowds in double jumps as the Starlite Twins. Their competitive careers peaked in 1948, when Barney McLean was captain of the US Olympic Ski Team and Gordy Wren was a fellow representative of that team in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

There were annual championship competitions at the Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival in the early 1920s. Reaching its peak in Colorado skiing in 1936, the carnival celebrated its 25th anniversary. The Rocky Mountain News commemorated the event by sponsoring the Snow Train, which brought an estimated 3,000 spectators to town for the event. An additional 500 came over the rails from Steamboat for the weekend and many others came by automobile.

In all, over 7,000 tourists descended upon Hot Sulphur Springs on that carnival weekend in 1936. Hot Sulphur’s carnivals continued four more years until the Snow Train started dropping its passengers off at the newly opened Winter Park Ski Area on its way to Hot Sulphur Springs. The final run for the Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival was in 1940 until reemerging this season for its 100th anniversary.

Detailed information and event schedules: www.grandwintercarnival.com

READ MORE STORIES ON LOCAL SKI HISTORY:
• History: Hot Sulphur First to Jump Into Competitive Skiing

READ MORE STORIES FROM THIS ISSUE:
• Winter 2011 Articles