STEAMBOAT RESORT OPENS CHILDCARE FACILITY FOR CHILDREN OF EMPLOYEES

In early 2021, several employees at Steamboat Resort faced the difficult decision to continue working or to stay home with their children. The lack of childcare in the valley was evident but instead of giving in, these employees created a solution – in the form of a new childcare center for children of resort employees which opened midDecember. After receiving a grant from the state, the project was also chosen to participate in a program from a company called Colorado EPIC which created a design lab to help companies start an employer-based childcare facility. The company guided the resort through the process of opening the facility, including educating them on licensing and requirements, how to serve food, financial structure and tuition, and more. Ten companies were selected to participate in the program and Steamboat Resort was the only ski resort among them. Loryn Duke, director of communications for the resort, calls the program “vital to our success.”

Now 19 children of resort employees attend the new childcare facility which is located at the intersection of Walton Creek Rd. and Lincoln Ave. Since the space has the capacity for 35 students, the resort opened up remaining spaces to the community and is now operating off a waitlist. Any resort employee can take advantage of the childcare center which is run in a priority system with full-time employees prioritized, down the line to seasonal workers.

Children ages two months to five years can attend year-round and the center has three different rooms for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

“It’s great not only for retention of employees but also for recruitment of new ones,” says Duke. “It makes us stand out as an employer not only in the community, but also in the ski industry.” SM

“Ernie Arnold owned a key piece of property at the base of Storm Mountain that stretched up to the top of Bear Claw. This was ski area co-founder Jim Temple’s first purchase. Temple met with Arnold many times, but he wouldn’t sell. One day Arnold mentioned he needed a new tractor, and Temple said, ‘I have just the tractor for you!’ Temple drove his Ford tractor 52 miles from Focus Ranch in North Routt County to deliver it to Arnold’s ranch, and with it Temple received an option on Arnold’s place: One hundred acres for $4,600. Today this includes Vogue, Voodoo, See Me and All Out (See Ya).”

–Jeff Temple

Cub Claw (Headwall) Pomalift: The lift opened Dec. 22, 1961, marking the beginning of lift-served skiing at Steamboat Resort. Martin Kleinsorge was the lift operator. This lift was replaced by a chairlift, which was removed in 2007. Its present-day track would be from the gondola terminal to the mid-station of the Christie Peak Express chairlift.

On opening day, “I wanted to charge $3.75, and John insisted that it be $3.25. He won that argument so that’s what we charge.”

–Storm Mountain financial investor, Hank Perry

(STEAMBOAT:

SKI TOWN USA BY TOM BIE © 2002)

“We only had one customer that first day. And Hank Perry backed into him in the parking lot. There was one single car in the whole lot, and Hank managed to hit it.”

–Ski area pioneer John Fetcher

(STEAMBOAT: SKI TOWN USA BY TOM BIE © 2002)

COURTESY OF TREAD OF PIONEERS MUSEUM