At Home in Steamboat Springs, Winter 2009 by Steamboat Pilot & Today

WINTER 2009

Bunking it The Porches designed with family gatherings in mind

Hockey moms Passion, camaraderie fuel sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popularity

PLUS! Your guide to local dining Page 33

Full steam ahead... 100 years after the arrival of the railroad Winter 2009 | AT HOME

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| AT HOME | 5 WinterCO 2009 Steamboat Springs, 80477

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Inside

Hot springs bliss in Strawberry Park 30

14 Steamboat Seen

30 Road Trip

18 Cooking With

72 Family friendly

People and events across town

Rex’s American Grill & Bar tosses a mean pie

20 What’s in it for me?

Margaret Hair tests a winter staple — chicken noodle soup

Staying healthy and protected this winter

24 Staying Fit

Krav maga will whip you into shape

28 Q & A

Ski area exec Rob Perlman gets personal

The Porches of Steamboat ideal for family gatherings

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78 Full Steam(boat) ahead! The year the Yampa Valley changed, 100 years later

84 Final Frames

Scenes of Steamboat

89 New Businesses Who’s opened their doors recently

90 Ross remembers Marcellus Merrill’s time in frontier Steamboat

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23 Health & Wellness

On the cover

Take a stay-cation to Strawberry Park Hot Springs

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Hockey moms Kristi Brown has been able to balance her hockey schedule along with being a mother and a local business owner. Read about Steamboat’s maternal hockey players on page 65.

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Suzanne Schlicht Publisher Scott Stanford Director of Sales and Marketing Brent Boyer Editor Allison Miriani Editor and designer Meg Boyer Creative Services Manager Steve Balgenorth Circulation Manager John F. Russell Photographer Writers Melinda Dudley, Brandon Gee, Margaret Hair, Tom Ross, Blythe Terrell Advertising Design and Production Suzanne Becker, Andrew Bumpas, Kailey Fowler, Meghan Hine, Julie Molema, Fran Reinier, Russ Savage, Gayle Yovis Advertising Sales Genesis Dionne , Aimee Weekslynn Copy editing Molly Keller, Nicole Miller, Amanda Phillips, Steven Reckinger, Christopher Woytko

At Home in Steamboat Springs is published quarterly, in January, April, July and October, by the Steamboat Pilot & Today. At Home magazines are free. For advertising information, call Scott Stanford at 970-871-4202. To get a copy mailed to your home, call Steve Balgenorth at 970-871-4232. E-mail letters to the editor to bboyer@steamboatpilot.com or amiriani@steamboatpilot.com or call Brent Boyer at 970-871-4221 or Allison Miriani at 970-871-4207.

PHOTO

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2032096

BARB STIMSON cabinet designs PHOTOS BY TIM MURPHY

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From the Editor

Train a comin’ L

Mail your comments, criticisms or ideas to: At Home in Steamboat Springs, Attn: Brent Boyer, P.O. Box 774827, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477. You can also e-mail bboyer@steamboatpilot.com.

ife is a collection of chance encounters and fated circumstances, but seldom do we stop to consider the sequence of events that lead us to our present day. Consider for a moment where we would be today if David Moffat hadn’t been steadfast in his desire to bring the railroad to Northwest Colorado. Or if former Steamboat Springs mayor J.G. Houston hadn’t rallied the townspeople to dig deep and pitch in additional funds to ensure the tracks wouldn’t circumvent this small but growing pioneer town, and stop instead in the long-defunct mining town of Mount Harris. Perhaps the descriptor “long-defunct” answers that question. This January marked the 100th anniversary of the ﬁrst train to arrive in downtown Steamboat Springs. The event altered Steamboat’s history forever, bringing new opportunities and visitors to our remote corner of Colorado. In reality, the arrival of the railroad signaled Steamboat’s beginning as a tourist destination. Front Range travelers could make the trip to Routt County to see the quirky Winter Carnival held on snow-covered Lincoln Avenue or bathe in the area’s hot springs. Riding the train sure beat the arduous journey via stagecoach or early automobile.

But like so many other things in our world, the utility of trains to Northwest Colorado was ﬁnite. The growing popularity of automobiles and the completion of a highway connecting the Yampa Valley to the Front Range diminished the popularity of the train. Passenger trains arriving at the Depot in downtown Steamboat have been a thing of the past for more than half a century now. Of course, trains are still part of daily life in Routt County. But today we consider them mostly a nuisance — a loud, clumsy mode of transportation for the high-grade coal mined just a few miles outside city limits. We sit helplessly at the crossings, waiting for the blinking of the lights to cease so we can go about our lives, hoping not to get caught behind the descending arms again on the way back to wherever it is we came from. At least that’s what I used to think. Not anymore. The next time I’m forced to wait for a passing coal train, I’ll close my eyes and imagine the scene in downtown Steamboat Springs in January 1908, when the sound of the locomotive chugging toward the historic depot on the west side of town represented something far greater. — Brent Boyer

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Fair and Square Construction Since 1980, Fair & Square Construction, Inc has been building a reputation of quality workmanship at a fair price. From remodels to custom homes, we can provide the experience and service that your project demands! We are a member of the Green Building Council and have a LEED credited professional on staff.

go to www.fairandsquare.org for a picture gallery of our projects.

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PO Box 817 | Clark, CO www.fairandsquare.org

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Steamboat Seen

John and Sarah Floyd dressed for a night on the Maria Hillenbrand, from left, Taylor Miller and Shelby Dyer Olympic gold medalist Debbie Armstrong and Blair town at the 2008 Ski Ball. were hard at work raising money at the 2008 Ski Ball, held Seymour at Ski Ball. Dec. 6 at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort.

Snowboarding coach Spencer Tamblyn Skiing legends Billy Kidd, left, and Lonny Vanatta were part of the Peter, left, and Gretchen Daley rub elbows with Olympic shares a hug with Bernadette Murray. “in crowd” that attended this year’s Ski Ball. Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick, middle.

Barkley Robinson and Megan Gregg jumped at the Scott Lewer and Carole Krohn dressed to the nines. opportunity to support the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club during the ball.

Alan and Jane White showed their support for the Boatie Ward and Howard Cooper chat it up. Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

Winter Sports Club Executive Director Rick DeVos, left, hangs out with former U.S. Ski Team member and Olympian Chris Puckett.

Jamie Temple, left, joins Amy and John Hillenbrand during the cocktail portion of the Ski Ball.

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Steamboat Seen

Scott Bell and Shannon Eckhaus

Steamboat Ski Area marketing chief Rob Denny and Olivia Kimmeth Perlman and his wife, Erin, stopped by the 2008 Ski Ball.

Fred Gardner gives the 2008 Ski Ball a festive feel.

Andy Wirth, back left, Jim Schneider, Peter Hunter and Christine Lee Trish Sullivan, front left, and Natalie Wirth pose for a photo at the 2008 Ski Ball.

Janine and Tom Lake were all smiles at the 2008 Ski Ball Tim and Colleen Grubbs held Dec. 6 in the Sheratonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grand ballroom.

Chris Puckett poses with Sean Colgan at the ball.

Maren Berge and Peter Hunter

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Steamboat Seen

Deb Babcock talks at the International Teapot Show’s Will and Carol Markowitz check out the art on display at Sue Oehme, left, joins artist Rob Williams and gallery owner Kimberly Saari at the K.Saari Galley during the opening reception at The Depot Art Center on Dec. 5. The Depot as part of the First Friday Artwalk. First Friday Artwalk on Dec. 5.

Johnny Walker, from left, Gigi Walker, Chula Beauregard, Author Caryn West, from left, joins Debbie Hoing and Artists Bill Sanders and Sue Gallion at the Artists’ and Elaine and Win Dermody at the Depot Art Center in Kari Sandvig during a book signing at the Off the Beaten Gallery of Steamboat during the First Friday Artwalk. Path Bookstore. West wrote “The Trouble with the AlDecember. phabet,” a book intended to raise awareness about human rights in Third World countries.

Mary Haws and Mary Beth Galer, right, check out the scene at the K. Saari Gallery during the First Friday Artwalk on Dec. 5.

Barbara Youngs, left, and Emily Williams at the K.Saari Sophia Benjamin enjoys a moment with her mom, Jaila, Gallery. at the Artists’ Gallery of Steamboat during the First Friday Artwalk on Dec. 5.

Santa arrives at the downtown tree lighting ceremony in Kylie, left, and Karlie Siscoe were among the hundreds of people Santa listens to Brody Skinner during the downtown tree lighting ceremony. Steamboat Springs on Nov. 28 who showed up for the Community Tree Lighting on Nov. 28 16 | AT HOME | Winter 2009

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Steamboat Seen

Eula Yancey, left, and Lindsay Minck on opening day Kirk Hamilton, left, and Jan Good. at the Steamboat Ski Area.

Steamboat Springs residents Fred Gardner, left, and John Hillenbrand.

Volunteers Mary Bramer, left, and Andi Karvay at the Danielle, from left, Justin, Gordon and Christina Haxton Twelve-year-olds Brendan Morton of Georgia and BrenCommunity Thanksgiving Dinner at the new com- recently moved to Steamboat and were volunteering at nan Lynk of Minnesota volunteer at the dessert table. the dinner. munity center.

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Cooking With

Rex’s American Grill & Bar

The Memphis Belle, front, and Buffalo Bill are two new pizza pies offered at Rex’s American Grill & Bar in Steamboat Springs this winter.

The art of a perfect pie

or Ben Hunt and Rex Brice, a pizza recipe calls for art and science. Hunt, executive chef at Rex’s American Grill & Bar in Steamboat Springs, said his favorite thing about a homemade pizza is the opportunity it provides him to be imaginative. “You can experiment with what you want,” Hunt said. “You don’t have to be rushed. It’s really like your dough is a canvas and you can do whatever you want. It’s a good outlet for creativity.” But before anything makes it on the menu at Brice’s restaurant, it also must adhere to a strict formula — one he recommends people also consider when they make their own pizza at home. “When we look at creating a dish like this,” said Brice, referring to one of the new custom pies on Rex’s winter menu, “one of the things you’re always going to look for is ﬁve ﬂavors.”

Those ﬂavors, Brice said, are “salt, sweet, acidic, savory and fats.” The Memphis Belle and Buffalo Bill pizzas satisfy the formula. And yet, although regimented, both are quite artful and strive to be experiential. With ingredients such as apple butter and barbecue pulled pork, the Memphis Belle elicits memories of a summer cookout. And the Buffalo Bill mimics the experience of eating hot wings — all the way down to celery sticks and carrots on the side, which are great for a refreshing rest to strong ﬂavors like the blue cheese and Buffalo wing sauce in the pizza. There are, of course, other keys to a great pizza. Hunt advises that people resist the urge to use a lot of cheese. “I like to have people really taste all the ingredients,” Hunt said. “Sometimes the cheese can drown everything out.” Brice stressed the need for quality, fresh ingredients.

“Anything we do, we try to do it fresh and homemade,” Brice said. “I think people notice that. I think the ﬂavors come out.” Brice acknowledged the hesitation some feel about cooking at home and said the biggest inhibition people have about pizza is making their own dough. However, he said restaurants such as Rex’s are more than happy to sell customers a ball of dough for a reasonable price. “I think a lot of people are intimidated about cooking at home because they think they have to make everything from scratch,” Brice said. “Just because we make it from scratch doesn’t mean they have to.” There’s also no requirement to try to toss the dough like a pro. “If you can’t dance, you’re probably not going to be very good at tossing,” Brice said as Hunt expertly sent dough spinning above his head. “Ben must have learned how to dance.”

Story by Brandon Gee ❘ Photos by John F. Russell 18 | AT HOME | Winter 2009

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‘

I think a lot of people are intimidated about cooking at home because they think they have to make everything from scratch. Just because we make it from scratch doesn’t mean they have to.

Ben Hunt spreads sauce on pizza dough at Rex’s.

Memphis Belle Pizza 1 homemade pizza dough (11 ounces) 2 ounces apple butter 2 ounces barbecue pulled pork 1 ounce grilled red peppers 1⁄4 cup white cheddar cheese 1⁄2 cup pizza cheese 1 ounce barbecue sauce

Heat stone hearth oven to 500 degrees. Throw pizza dough into a 12-inch pizza crust. Spread apple butter on pizza surface. Spread pizza cheese and cheddar cheese

evenly on surface. Layer barbecue pork, grilled onions and roasted peppers evenly. Drizzle barbecue sauce over pizza. Bake at 500 degrees for four minutes, turning in oven during cooking process.

Buffalo Bill Pizza

1 homemade pizza dough (11 ounces) 1⁄2 ounce buffalo sauce 2 ounces blue cheese dressing 1 ounce sliced pepperoncinis 3 ounces fried chicken nuggets 1 ounce blue cheese crumbles

’

3⁄4 cup pizza cheese blend Serve on the side: 2 ounces celery sticks 2 ounces carrots 2 ounces ranch dressing Heat stone hearth oven to 500 degrees. Throw pizza dough into a 12-inch pizza crust. Spread buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing on dough surface. Layer fried chicken, pepperoncinis and all cheese evenly on surface. Bake at 500 degrees for four minutes, turning in oven during cooking process. Serve with celery, carrots and ranch dressing on the side.

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What’s in it for me?

Comfort soup A look at a winter staple — chicken noodle soup Number of Servings

Calories (For 1 cup of soup)

Calories from fat

Total fat

Saturated fat

Cholesterol (milligrams)

Sodium (% daily value)

Carbohydrates (grams)

Protein (grams)

Campbell’s homestyle chicken noodle condensed soup 1,880 mg (74%) 16 g 8g 1.25 140 40 4g 2g 20 mg Where to get it: City Market or Safeway Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken stock, enriched egg noodles, cooked chicken meat, water, carrots Also contains: Salt, chicken fat, modified food starch, celery, monosodium glutamate and yeast extract The dish: You can’t pretend that this soup is good by any culinary standard. But it’s classic — even with those thin noodles that dissolve when you touch them, those little rubbery, purple bits of chicken, and the thin, greasy broth. It’s flawed, but comfortably so. Campbell’s Chunky classic chicken noodle 890 mg (37%) 2 110 25 2.5 g 1g 20 mg Where to get it: City Market or Safeway Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken stock, cooked chicken meat, carrots, enriched egg noodles, celery Also contains: Water, modified food starch, salt, chicken fat, monosodium glutamate and sugar The dish: This one lives up to its “chunky” name, with big globs of noodles, carrots, celery and chicken. It’s all covered in a thin layer of salty oil. Yum.

15 grams

Progresso traditional chicken noodle 950 mg (40%)) 12 g 7g 2 100 20 2.5 g 0.5 g 25 mg Where to get it: City Market or Safeway Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken broth, cooked white chicken meat, carrots, enriched egg noodles, celery Also contains: Modified food starch, water, salt, chicken fat, monosodium glutamate and hydrolyzed vegetable protein The dish: The first thing you see when you pour a can of this into a bowl is the big pieces of carrot, followed by a mass of egg noodles and a couple of cubes of chicken. The noodles are the best part, chewy and salty. Everything else is decent. Campbell’s Select Harvest Healthy Request chicken with egg noodles 480 mg (20%) 12 g 7g 2 90 20 2g 0.5 g 20 mg Where to get it: City Market or Safeway Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken stock, roasted natural white meat chicken, carrots, egg noodles, celery Also contains: Lower sodium natural sea salt, onions, garlic, modified potato starch and chicken fat The dish: Select Harvest advertises “Real ingredients. For real taste.” It’d be hard to argue that the ingredients aren’t real, but sacrificing the artificial, MSG-filled broth of most canned soups leaves this one bland. The pieces of chicken are big and chewy, but don’t taste like anything. Streit’s chunky chicken noodle 900 mg (37%) 17 g 7g 2 120 30 3g 1g 30 mg Where to get it: Safeway Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken stock, carrots, celery, egg noodles, chicken meat Also contains: Onion, potato starch, chicken fat, salt and sugar The dish: Streit’s holds the shape of its can when you pour it into a bowl, which is unnerving. That shape stays the same after two minutes in the microwave, which is unappetizing. It might have something to do with the consistency of the broth — which, once you mix it up for about 30 seconds, isn’t bad — but the visual takes away any appeal Streit’s might have had. Wolfgang Puck organic chicken with egg noodles 760 mg (32%) 11 g 6g 2 110 45 5g 1.5 g 20 mg Where to get it: City Market, Safeway or Bamboo Market Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Organic chicken stock, organic cooked chicken meat, organic onions, organic carrots, organic egg noodles Also contains: Organic celery, organic tapioca starch, organic chicken fat, sea salt and organic spice The dish: Metal. I don’t have a ready explanation for this, but the chicken in Wolfgang Puck’s canned chicken soup tastes like metal. The rest of it is fine — not great — but it’s hard to get over the initial flavor of an organic soup not originating from an organic material. Signature Café chunky chicken noodle soup 750 mg (31%) 14 g 13 g 2 160 45 5g 1.5 g 25 mg Where to get it: Safeway Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken stock, cooked white chicken meat, cooked enriched egg noodles, celery, carrots Also contains: Onions, corn and rice starch, chicken fat, salt, water and sugar The dish: The difference between a canned soup and one made that day (or possibly a few days before) is obvious. The vegetables don’t mush immediately when you eat them, the broth has flavor that goes beyond salt, and the ingredients retain their original flavors. Private Selection homestyle chicken vegetable noodle soup 1190 mg (50%) 24 g 11 g 3 170 35 4g 2g 25 mg Where to get it: City Market Top five ingredients (in order of appearance): Chicken stock, cooked enriched egg noodles, cooked white chicken meat, onions, carrots Also contains: Celery, milk, cream, corn starch, salt and sugar The dish: I can’t imagine what possible motivation you would have to make chicken noodle a cream soup. This one tastes more like warm chicken pasta in cream sauce — it’s way too thick, and it would make you feel worse if you ate it while bed-ridden. Information compiled by Margaret Hair Winter 2009 | AT HOME

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C   M A  H The sacred spiral is the vibrational foundation of every being. It is an ancient symbol of growth and evolution. It represents the divine energy, cycle of life and earth and the continuous renewal of one’s being. Sacred Spiral Healing Arts is a group of unique healing practitioners, working together to provide support and vibrational healing to the community.

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Health & Wellness A safer, sunless tan

Just because Steamboat is covered in champagne powder all winter does not mean your skin has to match. There are plenty of sun- and UVfree options available to safely meet your selftanning needs.

➤ Dove Energy Glow

While some self-tanners have a reputation for offending the nose, Dove’s daily moisturizer with gradual self-tanner leaves you a little more sun-kissed without the accompanying chemical stink. $7.99 for 8.5 ounces

➤ Jergens Natural Glow Express

Jergens started the gradual selftanner revolution when it released its Natural Glow line. Its latest product — Natural Glow Express — darkens a full shade in three days, instead of a week with the original Natural Glow, and lighter results are visible after just one application. $7.42 for 4 ounces

➤ Neutrogena Color Boosting Sunblock SPF 30

Protect your skin

n the wintertime, three factors combine forces to wreak havoc on your skin: cold weather, dry air and harsh sunlight. “It’s almost a daily battle to help your skin stay protected during the winter in Steamboat,” said Dr. Maryann Wall, who is boardcertiﬁed in facial and plastic and reconstructive surgery and otolaryngology. During Steamboat’s much-touted 300 days of sunshine a year, you are subjected to more UV radiation than you would be at the Equator. Every 1,000 feet above sea level brings a 10 to 15 percent increase in UV exposure — a key factor in sun damage. “I call that a recipe for baking at altitude,” Wall said. But all too often, people neglect to protect their skin during snow activities in the winter. Wall has

seen more than one spring skier come to Steamboat Springs from sea level and end up seeking medical attention after a sunny day on the slopes. “They don’t wear sunscreen on March days, because it’s winter,” Wall said. “They get UV radiation at altitude, reﬂection off the snow, and have no melanin in their skin to protect them.” “We see the most outrageous second-degree (burns), where their eyelids are swollen shut and lips are bleeding, and we have to put them on oral steroids just to calm it down,” Wall said. Wall advised everyone, especially those who participate in outdoor recreation activities, to choose their sunscreen wisely, look over the active ingredients, and pick one they will wear daily. About 80 percent of the average person’s life-

Neutrogena has added a “gradual color booster” to its broad-spectrum, non-comedogenic sunscreen. Color Boosting Sunblock also is waterproof and sweatproof, so you can use it on the slopes, in the hot tub and in the backcountry this winter. $11.29 for 4 ounces

➤ Neutrogena Sun Fresh Sunless Foam

For would-be tanners who want a traditional one-time application, Neutrogena’s self-tanning foam promises a sheer summer tan and a fresh grapefruit-nectarine scent. To foolproof your tan, be sure to apply evenly and wash your hands thoroughly after use. $9.18 for 4 ounces — Compiled by Melinda Dudley

See Skin, page 85

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Student Stacey Luster works on her moves during a krav maga class.

Staying Fit

Fight to get ﬁt B

Krav maga whips class into shape

y the end of a heart-pumping, gutbusting krav maga class, even the hard-core participants are dripping and gasping. Krav maga is the fighting style used by the Israeli Defense Forces. It’s structured to be appropriate for men and women of all shapes and sizes and includes a grueling physical fitness component. Nick Bosick, a detective with the Steamboat Springs Police Department, offers classes with instructor Holly Wilde at High Altitude Krav Maga in Riverside Plaza. “There’s a huge physical fitness component,” Bosick said. “We make people sweat, but at the same time, they’re learning.” An Eastern European Jew, Imi Lichtenfeld, invented the self-defense and hand-to-hand combat method in the mid-1900s. He taught it to the Israeli Defense Forces after Israel was founded, and later adapted krav maga for civilians. Krav maga means “contact combat” in Hebrew, Bosick said.

Bosick takes that literally. High Altitude classes include one-on-one fighting, with one person holding a pad while another slams it with fists, knees or shins. Participants, after jumping jacks, sit-ups and push-ups, start by learning the proper fighting stance. People who are right-handed place their right leg back so their feet form two diagonal points of a rectangle. All 10 toes should face forward, which allows the fighter to explode into action. The back heel is up, and the knees are bent. The hands are in front of the face, a bit above chin level and 6 to 8 inches apart. From there, the fighter can defend and attack. Although krav maga has the feel of boxing and martial arts, it’s different, Wilde said. “It’s not meant to be pretty,” Wilde said. “It’s meant to keep you safe.” Krav maga incorporates several principles, Wilde said: ■ Fighters use their instinctive reaction to defend themselves.

■ The techniques are applicable in more than one situation. ■ Techniques address the immediate danger and are usable by people of all shapes, sizes and athletic abilities. ■ Each defensive reaction includes a counterattack. Bosick teaches Tuesday and Thursday, and Wilde teaches Monday and Wednesday classes. Beginners are welcome. A krav maga class Wilde taught in the fall ended with a dog pile exercise. One person lay flat, and five others piled on top, pressing pads down. The person on the bottom had to wriggle out and then run forward to throw punches at a pad or heavy bag. Even the smallest person accomplished the feat. “What we believe is that the person who has the heart to keep fighting is the person who will win the fight,” Wilde said. — Story by Blythe Terrell Photos by John F. Russell

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A krav maga sequence 2

Holly Wilde faces Nick Bosick in her ﬁght stance.

Wilde delivers a groin kick.

Wilde delivers the hammer ﬁst downward. (This assumes that if she had kicked Bosick in the groin, he would be bent over, and she would deliver this hammer ﬁst to the back of his head.)

Wilde drops her kicking leg and loads up for a hammer ﬁst.

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Staying Fit Try krav maga

What: High Altitude Krav Maga When: Classes offered Monday through Thursday evenings Where: 2851 Riverside Plaza, Suite 140

Cost: $10 per one-hour class; one-, sixand 12-month memberships available Call: Nick Bosick at 970-819-4862 More information: www.kravmaga.com

A krav maga sequence 1

Nick Bosick holds Holly Wilde in a choke Wilde plucks the hands off her throat, simultaneously delivering a groin strike. from the side.

Wilde moves directly into an elbow under the chin.

Wilde brings her knee up in a groin strike.

Wilde prepares for a front kick to the Wilde delivers a front kick to the groin. groin. 26 | AT HOME | Winter 2009

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all ages * located next to All That Jazz

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Question & Answer

Ski Corp.’s Rob Perlman

On favorite ski runs, memories and getting shown up by his daughter in Giggle Gulch Interview by Blythe Terrell ❘ Photos by John F. Russell

he desktop of Rob Perlman’s computer features a single photo. It’s his family — wife Erin and daughters Amanda and Morgan — skiing together for the ﬁrst time. The photo was taken during spring break 2007, at Steamboat Ski Area. More than a year later, that would be the Perlmans’ home mountain. Rob Perlman was hired in May 2008 as Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp.’s vice president of sales and marketing. He was hired away from his spot as chief executive ofﬁcer of Colorado Ski Country USA and has a long history of skiing Colorado’s slopes. Perlman was born in Chicago but moved to Evergreen before he was 2. He grew up skiing in Winter Park and worked there and in Vail. He graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson and spent years in Colorado and then in the communications arena at Mammoth Mountain in California before heading to Colorado Ski Country USA in Denver. He moved here with Erin, 8-year-old Amanda and 7-year-old Morgan. The girls are big recreational skiers, Perlman said, and the family hopes to build new traditions in Steamboat Springs. Perlman sat down with At Home in November to talk about his past and his future here.

At Home: I think you mentioned when you ﬁrst got here that you’d done some skiing at Steamboat as a kid, so tell me a little bit: What kind of skiing were you doing here? Were you competing? Rob Perlman: Yes. I was young, and growing up in Evergreen, I was on the Winter Park ski club, Winter Park ski team. … We would frequently, probably once or twice a year, come over to Steamboat for races. So I remember, you know, skiing the super-G or the downhill … and Buddy’s Run, I think it was. … I remember driving from Evergreen to Steamboat and seeing the F.M. Light & Sons signs along the way. The drive hasn’t changed much. In addition to Steamboat, we raced on Howelsen Hill, and one of those races I think was even a night race. AH: Did you win any of the races you competed in here? RP: No. I was always in the top 10; I don’t think I won here. … I was more stylish than speedy. I looked good. AH: Have you always been a skier? Have you ever snowboarded? RP: Yeah, I do snowboard as well as telemark. Both not as well as I Alpine, but I still enjoy snowboarding. I tele with my kids. That way, we’re all at the same speed and pace, and I try to keep up with them when they’re on their skis and I’m on my teles. AH: Describe your ideal day on the mountain here. RP: My ideal day on the mountain would be actually out on the mountain. Probably like 28 inches of fresh snow, Billy (Kidd) asking me to go skiing with him so he could show me, do some market research as he calls it … or on-mountain product testing. Going powder skiing with

Billy would be an ideal day for me. AH: Has anything really embarrassing ever happened to you when you’ve been out skiing, either here or elsewhere? RP: No. AH: No yard sales? RP: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I’ve had my share of yard sales. Did I have one here? Oh, I had my most embarrassing moment on the mountain two seasons ago when I was skiing with my daughter Amanda, and she took me into Giggle Gulch and some of the whoop-de-doos, and there came one point where I couldn’t get under, so I laid on my back to get under the branches and fell. And then she talked about it, and she still talks about it to this day — when she didn’t fall, but Daddy fell, because I was tangled up in the munchkin land forest trying to keep up with my daughter zipping through the trees. She tells everybody about that time. AH: So, how has your family adjusted to being here after living in Denver for a while? RP: Again, my wife and I kind of grew up in mountain towns and spent time obviously in Vail and Mammoth, and me in Winter Park, so we love it. It was always our goal to return to the mountains. They’re loving life. (The girls) go to Strawberry Park Elementary; they walk to school every day … and they’re involved in ice skating, and they’re looking forward to the ski season. AH: So, do you have a favorite piece of gear or favorite type of skis?

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RP: I’m not currently sponsored but willing to (laughs). … You know, I like to Alpine ski probably the most, and as my dad says, it’s not the skis, it’s the guy on top. So I just enjoy getting outside, and frankly, the skis underneath me are secondary. And at the same time, I like to snowboard and I like to tele. I like to mix it up and have fun. AH: Do you do any backcountry or cross-country skiing? RP: I’m going to say no. I mean, I’ve had a couple of great backcountry days at Silverton, but that’s liftserved with a little bit of hiking. I go to Alaska every year to go heli-skiing with some friends, so that’s not lift-served and that’s not hiking, but that’s getting a ride. Expensive lift. AH: Do you have a favorite run here in Steamboat? RP: I’d probably have to say Shadows, just because of the memories of skiing that in deep snow in between the trees. And Why Not (laughs). Rob Perlman enjoys taking a few turns whenever he gets the chance — especially when it’s with his family.

AH: How many days are you looking to ski this year? RP: Me? I’d love to ski over 40; that’d be great. AH: So when did you learn to snowboard? Was that a tough adjustment? RP: Uh, no. I actually learned when I was in Vail, and I resisted for as long as I could to go over to the dark side. And as a kid, I skateboarded quite a bit and then obviously skied all my life so it was a very quick adjustment. I remember distinctly that by the end of the ﬁrst day I was making linking turns, and by the second day I was going through blues, and by the end of the ﬁrst week I was going down blacks. I call it the “short attention span sport” and told them it was totally easy, so I picked that up pretty quickly.

AH: Do you remember your ﬁrst big fall while skiing? RP: My dad talks about it, and I remember it. It was at Loveland. He was a ski instructor at Loveland, and we went over to … a black run and I think I was 5 or 6, maybe, and he retells the story that I took one turn and tipped over and fell all the way down the run. Yard sale. Tears, cold, (I) went in for the hot cocoa break and then asked to go back and ski it again. Went back up and skied it without falling after the hot cocoa break.

AH: If you could say one thing to visitors and locals in Steamboat who plan on skiing here this winter, what would it be? RP: I think Steamboat is a very special place. I mean, the community’s unlike any other resort in the state of Colorado, frankly around the nation, and it has that warm, Western, genuine feel to it, and just embrace that so you can enjoy it. Take a deep breath. Look around.

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Road trip

Anthony Miriani and Allison Finn enjoy one of the pools at Strawberry Park Hot Springs in December.

Photo: John F. Russell

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Road trip

Hot, dark and exotic Strawberry Park is so close, yet so far away

ithin the realm of vacationing close to home, there are few stay-cations, as they’ve come to be known, that can boast the restorative powers of an overnight excursion to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs. Steamboat’s famous hot springs are just 5 miles from downtown and the equally famous Heart Spring at Old Town Hot Springs. Both offer a quality soak, but if you seek to get out of town without really leaving, it’s Strawberry Park that has the most to offer. Whether you’re from the Yampa Valley or the Front Range, we can promise you a memorable experience at Don Johnson’s funky but charming little resort in its own secluded valley. True, hot water is hot water, and you can soak in your own hot tub back at the condo. But if you’re making that assumption, you’ve been missing the ’Boat for all these years. What’s so magical about spending the night at the hot springs? Yes, it’s the natural setting and the meteorites streaking through the sky. But there’s a quality to a soak in a natural hot spring that defies words. We’ll attribute this indefinable quality to the vapors generated by the mineral-rich spring. The water in Strawberry Park comes out of the ground at 147 degrees Fahrenheit. Johnson said a geologic fault runs right through the hot spring and that the water flows upward through a fractured vein of quartzite. One geologist in the area has theorized that the source of the heat lies deep (perhaps thousands of feet) beneath Hahn’s Peak, a relatively young volcano. Manager Joe Stepan moderates the water temperature to a range between 103 and 105 degrees simply by adjusting a wooden sluice gate. The gate determines how much of the cold water from Hot Springs Creek is allowed to mingle with the water flowing from the hot springs. The mineral vapors come in the form of sodium, chloride, fluoride and bicarbonates that have been confirmed in Steamboat Springs during formal chemical testing.

Nervous about nudity?

Don’t be. Clothing is optional at Strawberry Park Hot Springs after dark. If you think sharing the large hot springs

This remodeled sheep herder’s trailer is available for overnight guests in the summer.

Photo: Tom Ross

pools with naked bathers might make you uncomfortable, be reassured. Unless you choose to visit on a full moon night, you’re unlikely to be able to discern who is wearing a bathing suit and who is not. There is a changing room in the form of a teepee, adjacent to the springs. We recommend you make reservations well in advance, secure a cozy but rustic guest cabin for $60 a night (includes admission), arrive before night fall so that you can form a mental picture of the layout of the various pools, but plan to return after dark (possibly more than once) to maximize your visit. Overnight guests and day-soakers are required to leave the springs by midnight. However, overnighters can enjoy the relative privacy of the hot pools from daybreak until 10 a.m., the earliest the public is admitted with the $10 daily fee.

Springs’ future

Could an earthquake someday alter the Strawberry Park Hot Springs? “I try not to think about those things,” Johnson said. All the more reason to get it while you can. It’s an experience that will keep you coming back, no matter how far or near you are to the Yampa Valley. — Tom Ross

Photo: John F. Russell

Getting there Strawberry Park Hot Springs is at the end of an unpaved county road that is winding and sometimes steep. Along the ﬁnal two miles to the springs, Routt County regulations limit winter travel to vehicles with four-wheel drive or two-wheel drive vehicles with tire chains. The county has imposed stiff ﬁnes to back up that mandate. Fortunately for visitors with rental cars, there are two excursion companies that take the worry out of getting to the hot springs in winter. For information about Sweet Pea Tours and Hot Springs Adventure Tours, plus the details of renting a cabin and hot springs rules (no alcohol), visit www.strawberryhotsprings.com. Winter 2009 | AT HOME

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Steamboatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s maternal hockey players are far more than pit bulls with lipstick

Rink

mothers Story by Blythe Terrell â?&#x2DC; Photos by John F. Russell

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Jamie and Marie Winter enjoy the hockey scene in Steamboat Springs. Marie plays for the Storm, and her daughter plays for a U-19 team.

t often starts with a woman nudging a friend: “Psst. Try this.” Sometimes the second woman hesitates: “Um, I don’t know. I’ve never done that before. Is it really that great?” The ﬁrst woman urges her on: “Trust me. You’ll love it. Once you start, you won’t want to stop.” The second woman, wary but adventurous, agrees to take maybe just a small taste. And another Steamboat Springs hockey player is born. For a town of about 10,000, Steamboat seems to have more than its share of female hockey players. The coaches snag ’em young: Alexa Pighini aims her recruiting at middle-schoolers. But it’s never too late to hit the ice, and women in their 40s and 50s are a standard feature of Chix with Stix, the Edge and the Steamboat Storm. As they lace up their skates, master the basics and face down the competition, these women are redeﬁning the term “hockey mom.”

What learning curve? Kristi Brown grinned as she recounted her humble hockey beginnings. Sitting at a table at Cantina, which she owns with her husband, Brown described picking up that hooked hunk of equipment. “I remember the ﬁrst day when I showed up to practice,” she said. “I wasn’t sure whether I should have a right-handed stick or a left-handed stick — they both felt so uncomfortable.” And this was after Brown had taken an introduction to hockey and a skating class at Howelsen Ice Arena. But she’s now in her third season as an Edge player and is part of the chorus of women who describe the sport as “addictive.”

‘

It’s a constant learning thing, and when you’re out there, you’re not thinking about anything but what you’re doing. It clears your mind.

’

Brown’s team is sort of the starter pool for Steamboat women. The Storm is a step up, and the Chix are the highest-level squad, players agreed. Brown said learning the sport has been challenging. “I think the ﬁrst few times I went out in the game, I was trying to do things I couldn’t do,” she said. “I was trying to skate faster than I could skate, and I was on my rear end a lot. And it wasn’t that way in practice. I was able to do things and then in the game I would be trying to skate really fast and just — whoop — wipe out. ... In the beginning, I would say, every time I touched the puck, I would fall — as a rule.” Brown and Chix player Val Dietrich said it was tough to pick up hockey as an adult. “You have sports you’ve been doing your whole life,” Dietrich said. “It’s a constant learning thing, and when you’re out there, you’re not thinking about anything but what you’re doing. It clears your mind.” The athletes pledged that the effort was worthwhile, and Pighini, who coaches girls and women and plays for the Storm, said skiers pick up the sport quickly. They make great hockey players, she said, because the sports require similar balancing and stopping skills. Storm President Marie Winter said her athletic abilities transferred smoothly to the rink. Her 16-year-old daughter, Jaime, also plays hockey and other sports.

“I telemark; I have for 25 years,” Marie Winter said. “My whole family’s just huge athletes, and this fits right in there.” Winter said she loved the hard-core elements of hockey. “It’s just a great thing for women to do,” she said. “I just think it teaches them teamwork. It teaches them strength — you know, how to be tough as a woman. It’s an aggressive sport, and you learn to take a little bit of a beating.” The Storm has proved that its players have the mettle of winners. The team won the Mountain Division championship last year. That was its second first-place finish, said Kim Bonner, who founded the team about 13 years ago as the Ladies of the Ice. Her husband, Dan, and their sons, Eric,

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Hockey has always been a family affair for Kim Bonner. She plays for the Storm, and all three of her sons — Eric, Jace and Brad — played in Steamboat Springs.

Jace and Brad, also play. Kim Bonner decided to play after seeing how much other parents enjoyed parent-child games. “Sometimes I’m called the founding mother of the team because I arranged the ice time and started inviting people that I’d see out walking or whatever,” Bonner said. That’s how Bonner hooked Deb Rose. Rose was out walking when Bonner stopped her and asked her to play. Rose signed on. Ten years later, Rose still plays for the Storm. Her 12-year-old daughter, Olivia, also has picked up the sport. Rose said she wasn’t sure when the team dropped its Ladies of the Ice moniker. “I’m not sure how that evolved to the Storm,” she said. “We’re far from a storm — more like a light rain.”

Kids and complications

Edge, Storm and Chix members agreed that children and family come before hockey. For some players, however, they come right alongside it. Bonner said her family supported her forming the team. “They thought it was great,” she said. “You know, when you have three boys and all three of them hunt and stuff, I’m kind of left out of the mix a lot because I don’t hunt. I think everybody recognized that it was something that would bring the family together.” The Chix members on average are a bit younger than women on the other teams, ranging from about 20 to 50. “The Chix started as a bunch of 20-year-

olds who want to play hockey,” Riley Polumbus said. The team is in its 17th season. “We’ve grown, and now that we’ve grown, we’ve become a family. We’re all used to each other’s kids being around, and we know them really well.” Dietrich has been on the team for about 11 years. Her son, Dylan, 5, and daughter, Amanda, 2, don’t play yet. Dietrich said that it’s gotten tougher to ﬁt hockey into her schedule but that her husband, David, has been an asset. “Of course, you can’t play on a women’s hockey team with young kids without a super-supportive husband,” she said. Pregnant Chix players stay involved by working the scoreboard, Dietrich said, and hockey can be an escape for moms with Winter 2009 | AT HOME

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young children. “You’re not thinking about taking the kids to school, what you’re going to make for dinner,” she said. “You’re thinking about what you’re doing.” Other mothers said hockey was a great way to relieve the frustrations of parenting. “As I’ve aged and I’ve done hockey, I have become more mellow,” Rose said. “I felt like it’s helped me to be a mom because I’ve gotten that energy out in a good way.” Some mothers, such as Brown, started playing after watching how much fun their children had. Others, such as Winter and Rose, played long before their children considered it. Now, Jaime Winter is “totally addicted,” her mother said. “My kitchen dining room area has two hockey bags in the middle of it with hockey stuff drying every day of the week,” Marie Winter said. “My poor husband.” Jaime, who plays for a youth team Pighini coaches, said she digs her mom’s involvement. “I think it’s cool that she plays,” said Jaime, a Steamboat Springs High School junior. “She has a lot of friends on her team. … It’s cool to have her come to my games and understand, and understand how excited I am when I play.”

They want you. Really.

Players from every team enthusiastically

Val Dietrich helps her son Dylan, 5, with a skate. Her 2-year-old daughter, Amanda, hasn’t started skating yet, but that day is coming. encouraged women to join them at weekly practices at Howelsen Ice Arena. “I don’t know what it is about hockey, but it’s the most addicting thing ever,” Winter said. “I probably skated two or three times and was like, this is it.”

The three women’s teams are friendly with one another, scrimmaging, subbing on one another’s teams and going to tournaments together. “We’re such a small community, even though we’re growing, that you help ev-

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Steamboat Springs’ Deb Rose started playing hockey 10 years ago after being asked to get involved by another local player. Today, Rose’s daughter Olivia also plays.

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Marie Winter chases after a puck during a Storm practice. erybody no matter what team you’re on,” Rose said. Some women also play for the coed recreational teams in town, sometimes splitting positions with husbands or boyfriends. Pighini, who played Division III hockey in college, plays in the top men’s league in Steamboat and coaches on a volunteer basis (in addition to her full-time nursing job). She and her husband, Rick, are driving forces behind girls hockey, Winter said. The Chix, a B1 division team, travels to the Front Range more than the Storm and the Edge, both of which play in the Mountain Division. But sometimes the traveling is the best part, Winter said. “You’re all slammed into one hotel room in your PJs, and somebody’s got the wine and the chips and salsa,” Winter said. She said her team was known as a fun-loving group. “We’re absolutely nuts,” Winter said. “We giggle, we laugh, and we adore each other. We have been through everything in the world with each other — with kids, with husbands, with illnesses, with everything.”

Steamboat’s hockey community suffered a big loss last year. City Sports Coordinator Kit Rice, who played goalie for the Edge and the Storm, died suddenly in September. The women remembered her fondly. “She used to, I think, get a little frustrated with us about being too kind and polite out there,” Brown said with a laugh. “And she’d say, ‘Come on, this is big-girl hockey now.’” Rice was a huge advocate of the sport, Winter said. “She was a big force in women’s hockey in this town,” she said. “A great woman. Just a great, great lady.” Those times — the tough times — pull the women together, Winter said. The relationships drive women’s hockey in Steamboat and keep people coming back, nearly every player said. “It really helps to have that many women in your life to plop your bag down and say, ‘Help,’” Winter said. And, she said, everyone needs that support network. “How does anybody make it without their girlfriends?”

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The Edgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kristi Brown, shown here and on page 65, has been able to balance her hockey schedule along with being a mother and a local business owner. Winter 2009 | AT HOME

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Family ties The Porches designed with large gatherings in mind

The warm, inviting living spaces designed into the homes in The Porches of Steamboat were made to accommodate extended families and entertain close friends.

Bunkhouses once were a necessity on Yampa Valley ranches. Today, bunk rooms are a practical luxury in the most carefully planned vacation homes at the base of the Steamboat Ski Area. There are built-in sleeping bunks in $5 million homes at Catamount Ranch that are made of hardwood, and bunks emulating those in a Pullman railroad car — complete with privacy curtains — at a spectacular home in Agate Creek Preserve. At The Porches of Steamboat, the bunk rooms were carefully designed to build versatility into homes that have been thoughtfully planned to allow extended families to gather for relaxing vacations. The delicious anticipation of large family reunions, followed closely by the stress of pleasing daughters- and sons-in-law, is a familiar facet of modern American life. It was on comic display this holiday season in the hit movie “Four Christmases.” Bruce Shugart and his associates at The Porches at Steamboat took the phenomenon into account when they planned their comfortably furnished homes near the base of the Steamboat Ski Area. “The most successful room in the homes at The Porches is the bunk room,” Shugart said. “That’s the feedback we get from our owners. The bunk room works for a young mom and dad with toddlers. If your college student brings half the dorm to Steamboat for the holidays, they can all ﬁt in there and leave their duffels out on the ﬂoor. “We made sure there was room for a game table. If you have a bunch of cousins getting together, they can go in there and just giggle and have fun.” Winter 2009 | AT HOME

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“Steamboat is more family-oriented than anywhere else” in the mountains. “This isn’t a show-and-tell town like the others. It’s not who you are, but what you are doing.” — Bruce Shugart, Structural Associates and The Porches

Game tables and plenty of space are features of the bunk rooms inside a home in The Porches of Steamboat.

The family gathering

‘A real neighborhood’

Emilie Crider of Pinnacle Resort Management said adaptability was key when the bunk rooms were planned. In addition to two bunk beds (four berths) and the only bathtub in the homes, the bunk room has a king- or queen-sized bed. “If you’re hosting a bunch of women for a girls week, it works as an adult bedroom,” she said. The effort Shugart has put into creating homes that meet the needs of extended families is market-driven. He visualizes successful baby boomers who have reached that stage in life where they have three married children and are looking forward to the arrival of their ﬁrst grandchildren. Or, perhaps the next generation already is on scene. Either way, graying boomers are sensitive to the challenges of keeping everyone happy and entertained. At the same time, they are evaluating their portfolios and careers and plotting their exit strategies. It’s become a familiar theme in mountain resorts — tapping into the urgency baby boomers are feeling to be able to gather their far-ﬂung clans and leave them the legacy of a special home in one of the world’s most appealing destinations.

Shugart’s company, Structural Associates, is based in Glenwood Springs and has built spectacular homes in the Roaring Fork Valley for an international clientele. He has the ability to look at the Yampa Valley with fresh eyes. What he sees is a real community with a leg up on the competition in terms of its appeal to extended families. “Steamboat is more family oriented than anywhere else” in the mountains, Shugart said. “This isn’t a show-and-tell town like the others. It’s not who you are, but what you are doing” that counts for something here. He also believes his development has a niche that cannot be replicated at the base of Mount Werner. “There’s an unusual level of security at The Porches,” he said. “And it’s becoming a real neighborhood. Most of our owners tell us they spend more time here than they originally intended. You can let your children play outside here and not have to think about it.” The interior roads that wind through the development of duplex homes at The Porches are public streets, but there is no vehicular trafﬁc to speak of. And it’s within easy walking distance of shopping, dining — even the community’s newest movie theater.

About The Porches

❧ Homes are available for purchase as whole ownership ($2.24 million to $3.34 million) and in six-week intervals ($340,000 to $450,000) ❧ The largest homes at The Porches are referred to as the Grand 5 model for their ﬁve bedrooms. They measure 5,000 square feet. ❧ Developer Bruce Shugart prides himself on locating duplex homes on the site in a way that eliminates anything resembling a cookie-cutter neighborhood. Each structure takes on its own appearance. ❧ Shugart’s signature is his extensive use of unusually tall windows to allow as much natural light as possible to ﬂood the homes. ❧ Homes feature slate mudrooms, full laundries in the whole-ownership residences, and a stacked washer and dryer in fractionals. ❧ Powder rooms make a statement with their raised granite bowls and retro farmhouse faucets.

❧ Get to know Holly: Director of Housekeeping Holly Poteet takes a personal interest in all of the owners who seek her out for conversation. It isn’t unusual for the staff members of Pinnacle Resort Management, who take care of The Porches, to be invited to owners’ homes for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Details make the difference

Customized sinks and countertops give the homes at The Porches ﬁrst-class appeal.Top right: The homes were designed to allow for large families, but they also feature creative small spaces that provide places to escape for a little solitude.

The planning for extended families in the interior of The Porches homes goes beyond the bunk rooms. “In a home that offers 5,000 square feet, you feel more like you’re on vacation,” Crider said. The master bedroom, intended for the owners, is on the main level and wellseparated from the other bedroom suites as well as the reading alcove on the second story landing and a garden-level recreation room. The recreation room is large enough to accommodate an oversized sectional couch, bar and Foosball and billiards tables. There also is a bedroom suite off the rec room. The bedrooms are luxurious and have ample room for an easy chair and ﬂoor lamp for readers. However, they are deliberately a little smaller than in some of Steamboat’s competing vacation retreats. That is by design, Shugart said. While the bathrooms attached to each bedroom boast a luxurious amount of space, the bedrooms were kept relatively compact so that the square footage could be invested in shared spaces such as the rec room. It also explains why the kitchen has a stone or hardwood breakfast bar big enough to seat between six and eight people, and the dining table comfortably seats 10. When you’re trying to stoke the furnaces and send a family of 16 out for a powder morning, it’s those details that make all the difference.

Story by Tom Ross ❘ Photos by John F. Russell

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This home in The Porches features a large recreation room where the family can gather for a game of pool, watch TV on one of the big screens or simply hang out with friends.

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❘ Photos courtesy of Tread Story by Tom Ross

of Pioneers Museum

Altered course

amboat te S to e m a c d a ro il The ra changing r e v re fo , o g a rs a e 100 y life in the valley

er” The “Exposition Fly llinsville One mile east of Ro

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ad it not been for a courageous group of men known as Argo’s Squirrels, Steamboat Springs might never have become a winter resort. The great coal mines of Northwest Colorado might have languished for decades longer, and the stockyards just west of downtown might never have been built. If Argo’s Squirrels hadn’t been willing to dangle from the cliffs of Gore Canyon, the Moffat Road might never have reached Steamboat at all. Even the Depot Art Center would surely have a different name today. Jan. 6, 2009, marked the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first passenger train in Steamboat. Denver banker and mining magnate David Moffat is correctly credited with bringing the railroad to this valley. He possessed the vision, tenacity and financial means to build the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railroad over the top of the Rocky Mountain Front and press on to Steamboat in early 1908. Moffat was focused on paying for his railroad with freight in the form of cattle that previously were driven over land to graze on the lush grass of northern Routt County. And, of course, he counted on his freight trains carrying the high-grade coal being mined from West Routt. Residents of the valley were focused on economic development, too. But the arrival of the railroad meant more than that. It meant a connection to the outside world. Before the railroad, residents of the valley depended on horse-drawn wagons for the manufactured goods and food stuffs that made life more comfortable. And personal travel to Denver was arduous at best. The late newspaper editor Dee Richards

The Harbor Hotel sle igh gers arriving in Steam picks up train passenboat Springs.

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cited an editorial from the Denver Post in her historical text, “Steamboat ‘Round the Bend,” to illustrate how the railroad changed life in the Yampa Valley. “One who has not lived in a town remote from railroads, particularly in this western country, where mountain roads are none too good and where stages break down and freight outﬁts are stalled in the mud and snow for days at a time, cannot realize the sensations that thrill the residents of the gritty little towns in Northwest Colorado when they hear the locomotive whistle,” the Post wrote.

Argo’s forgotten Squirrels Moffat’s ultimate dream of extending the railroad through Craig and on to Salt Lake City, Utah, was never realized. However, the events that took place 100 years ago gave this remote outpost its ﬁrst real connection to distant markets and changed the course of history in Northwest Colorado. The remarkable feat of building a railroad over and through the Rockies could not have been realized without the intrepid Squirrels, a band of acrobatic surveyors under the supervision of a man named J.J. Argo. The archives of the Colorado Historical Society are among the last links to the men who risked their lives to help get the railroad through treacherous Gore Canyon and the rapids of the Colorado River. Only then could it replace the horse-drawn stagecoaches that brought passengers and freight north to Toponas and, ultimately, Steamboat Springs and Craig.

‘

You should rise in your might and show the people that there are no freer souls on God’s footstool than the good citizens of Steamboat Springs! — Steamboat Springs Mayor J.G. Houston in 1908

’

The Historical Society recounts the difficulty of finding a way through the deep and narrow canyon for the new railroad tracks. Gore Canyon is six miles long and bracketed every mile of the way by sheer granite walls that rise 3,000 feet. A crew of mostly immigrant workers, the Squirrels dangled from ropes dropped over the cliffs in order to drive steel pegs into the rock above the river. The Squirrels took logs floated down the river and hung them from the pegs to form the crude scaffolding from which they could survey the best route for a rail bed through the canyon. By the time the Squirrels were doing their work in the summer of 1905, the most difficult phase of building the railroad already had been accomplished. The engineering puzzle of maintaining a surmountable grade from the Front Range up through Rollinsville to the 11,666-foot summit of Corona Pass (now Rollins Pass) had been solved.

Steamboat-bound However, even in 1905, with the railroad barely 50 miles from Steamboat, there still was a strong chance that instead of coming through town, it would skirt around Emerald Mountain. Moffat realized he could save many thousands of dollars in construction costs by heading straight for the (now defunct) coal mining town of Mount Harris, downstream from Steamboat. Only a chance friendship between Moffat and Sam Perry, together with the fundraising efforts of Steamboat community leaders, kept the rails on course for Steamboat. A well-curated Tread of Pioneers Museum exhibit about the history of the Moffat Road and its impact on Steamboat recalls how Perry, who owned a coal mine in Oak Creek, used his relationship with Moffat to help persuade him to continue on to Steamboat. His motivation came in part from the fact that his daughters, Marjorie and Charlotte Perry, had launched a summer dance school just outside Steamboat in Strawberry Park. Residents today know it as Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp. However, the financial implications were significant. It was costing Moffat an estimated $40,000 a mile to lay track (three times that cost in Gore Canyon), and Steamboat residents who already had put up $15,000 to secure the railroad for Steamboat were asked to dig even deeper for funds.

de the train A band poses outsi ad in about 1915. Ro t ffa along the Mo

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The Moffat Road entering Stea mboat Springs in December 1908.

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In “Steamboat ’Round the Bend,” Richards recalled the depth of local sentiment for ensuring the railroad did not bypass Steamboat. She quotes Mayor J.G. Houston, who was pressing in early 1908 for local leaders to come up with more cash and sign an additional contract with Moffat: “If there ever was a time to show our colors in a ﬁght which means thousands of dollars to your pocketbooks, it is now! You should rise in your might and show the people that there are no freer souls on God’s footstool than the good citizens of Steamboat Springs,” Houston exclaimed. “Two years ago, we raised $15,000 in less than a jiffy, and this year, we want to convince the world that perfect unity prevails in the best town on the Western Slope and that everyone is a cheerful giver!”

A joyous arrival

Steamboat’s downtown buildings were deserted Dec. 18, 1908, when the ﬁrst whistle sounded from the “pioneer car” that led the track-laying train into town. The front page of the local newspaper trumpeted the news on a Dec. 16, 1908, front page devoted entirely to news about the railroad: “Hundreds of people on foot, on horseback and in sleds, the old and the young, escorted the crew on its way. The band played, and a salute of 13 guns was ﬁred from Flagstaff Hill.”

The vision Steamboat residents had for the train was quickly realized. The train carried coal, cattle and even lettuce from South Routt to distant markets. Strawberries from Strawberry Park were served in the ﬁne dining rooms of the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. In time, tourists from the other side of the mountains rode the train once a winter in February to attend Winter Carnival and to see the famous Steamboat Springs ski band. It was the ﬁrst vestige of winter tourism in the valley.

Reliability problems

However, there were serious problems with David Moffat’s railroad and its reliability in winter. He never intended that the high route of Corona Pass would be permanent. It was seen as a way to get equipment and work crews to the west side of the Continental Divide, where ultimately the west portal of a tunnel under the mountains would make the route more practical. In the interim, snow drifts deeper than a locomotive often made winter travel inconvenient, if not downright perilous. Passengers sometimes were stranded and left for days without adequate provisions. In spite of early versions of giant snowblowers mounted on the front of locomotives, they could not always cope with the heavy drifts. Marcellus “Celly” Merrill, who moved

to Steamboat in 1905 at age 5 and grew up to become an inventor of international acclaim, recalled an early train ride. In a new collection of Celly’s stories compiled and edited by his grandson, David Merrill Primus, Celly described how the severe winters forced the railroad to build two miles of wooden snow sheds to protect the tracks. A crew of railroad workers lived in shacks attached to the sheds. Merrill and his father often made a winter trip to Denver in January during the Denver Stock Show so they could buy cattle and horses. He described one ill-fated trip when they were stranded: “One time, we were stuck on top for about four days in a snow shed because of a terrible storm,” he wrote. “The passenger train had a dining car, but they ran out of food. We ate all of the food that was in the cook shack at Corona (except for eggs — they must have had thousands of eggs). “I will never forget the time we spent on top. They brought some Chinese in to shovel the snow. It was impossible. The big snowplow chewed up two or three of the Chinese. After that, they refused to go out and shovel. I don’t blame them. We had to walk through the snow for about three or four miles to reach a train down the Western Slope that had to come pick us up.” Moffat died in March 1911 in New York City, and his ultimate goal of building a

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through Colorado and limited the future of the route to Northwest Colorado. The historians at Tread of Pioneers Museum point out that by the mid-1950s, the railroad no longer dominated commerce in this part of the state. Cattle ranchers had switched to trucks to haul their cattle to market. The lettuce and spinach industry here no longer could compete with the irrigated ﬁelds of Arizona and California. And high labor costs undercut the demand for Routt County strawberries. Tourists came to favor their own automobiles against the six-hour train trip (in good weather), and the last passenger train ran in April 1968. The Union Paciﬁc Railroad continues to haul coal from Northwest Colorado to distant power plants, an industry that supports many high-paying jobs in the valley. But the days when courageous men such as Argo’s Squirrels labored to bring the future to Northwest Colorado are a century in the past.

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railroad tunnel to replace the old route over Corona Pass foundered for years. The drive to bring Western Slope water to the growing Front Range revived interest in the tunnel, but it took more than a decade of political wrangling for the state to begin the challenging work of boring the tunnel under the shoulder of James Peak. After the expenditure of $18 million and the loss of 28 lives, the ﬁrst ofﬁcial train ran through the tunnel in February 1928. The tunnel drastically shortened the trip to Steamboat and Craig, but the railroad was not fated to run its main line through Northwest Colorado to Salt lake City. By that time, visionaries saw a chance to build a shortcut to existing rail lines along the Colorado River downstream from Bond. The Denver and Rio Grand Western acquired the Denver & Salt Lake Western, and with it the rights to build the Dotsero Cutoff, taking the railroad to a point just 20 miles east of Glenwood Springs. That step completed the permanent transcontinental rail route

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Final frames

Snow-covered Aspen trees on Buffalo Pass

Photo: John F. Russell

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Skin continued from 23 time sun exposure is “incidental” — not from days at the beach or on the ski slopes, but from driving your car and short walks to the mailbox, Wall said. Not all sunscreens are created equal. First, a sunscreen should be “broad-spectrum” — effective against UVA and UVB radiation. Second, ingredients that physically block radiation from reaching your skin, such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, are preferable to chemical ingredients that absorb the radiation, Wall said. The days where zinc oxide is relegated to a stripe for pool lifeguard’s noses are over — sunscreens containing the powerful sun protector are now micro-ﬁne and blend into your skin just as well as chemical formulas, Wall said. Your skin is not the only part of your body susceptible to UVA and UVB rays — eyewear and lip balms should protect against the sun’s rays,

Not all sunscreens are created equal. First, a sunscreen should be “broad-spectrum” — effective against UVA and UVB radiation. too, Wall said. To protect against winter dryness, Wall advised people to take tepid showers — no matter how good a hot one might feel on a cold day — use a non-drying liquid soap or body wash, and to gently pat your skin dry with a towel afterward, Wall said. Also, because moisturizer can only trap moisture against your skin and not add it to your skin, you have a limited time to apply it after showering or bathing, she said. “It’s all part of trying to survive Steamboat winters,” Wall said.

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Bill Demong is one of several athletes on the U.S Nordic combined team who are competing on the World Cup tour this year. Demong and several other athletes with Steamboat ties are vying for a place in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Photo: John F. Russell

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Final frames

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New Businesses

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Over the Moon sells jewelry and accessories.

10th Street Barber Shop has opened in The Victoria at 10th Street and Lincoln Avenue. Barb and Kenny Porteous run the old-style shop, which offers haircuts for men, women and children, as well as shaves. It is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday. Call 970-879-9809. Felix & Fido, a pet accessories boutique, has moved to 601 Lincoln Ave., next to Duck Duck Goose, from its site downstairs in Old Town Square. Kelda Combs Wall owns the shop. Felix & Fido has set extended winter hours: from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call 970-870-6400. Over The Moon, pictured, is a fashion jewelry and accessories boutique in the heart of downtown. Over the Moon, owned by Shayna Cooke, is at 601 Lincoln Ave., No. 104. The store offers the funkiest jewelry in the latest fashions as well as new hip purse lines such as Big Buddha and Sasha handbags, colorful handmade scarves from India, the latest sunglasses, trendy leggings and gifts for women of all ages. Call 970-819-7481. Note: The jewelry photo from Over the Moon was misidentiﬁed in the fall edition of At Home.

PT LLC, a body health business that offers services including physical therapy and Pilates, has opened at 57 10th St. Pamela Turner owns the business. Call 970-819-3570. Talulla, a women’s accessory shop, has opened at 601 Lincoln Ave., Suite 5. The boutique, owned by Nikki Edinger and Tammy Tighe Hazlett, offers 10 percent off everything except cosmetics to locals. Winter hours: from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call 970-870-1480.

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Urbane, a store that aims to offer affordable, stylish and functional clothing, has opened in the new Howelsen Place development in downtown Steamboat Springs. Urbane, owned by Melissa LeBlanc and Trent Kolste, is at 703 Lincoln Ave., Suite B-101. It is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Call 970-879-9169. Zirkel Trading, a men’s apparel and mountain lifestyle retail shop, has opened at Howelsen Place. Zirkel, owned by Steve Hitchcock, is at 703 Lincoln Ave., Suite B-102. The shop is across Seventh Street from Chez Nous. It is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Call 970871-1137.

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Tom Ross remembers

Coming of age in frontier Steamboat

he late Marcellus Merrill is best known in Steamboat Springs as the sponsor of a unique ski jumping competition during the annual Winter Carnival in February. What most residents don’t know about Merrill is that he is the closest Steamboat has come to producing its own Leonardo da Vinci. During the Merrill Trophy jump, the style points that are awarded to ski jumpers in most competitions are Longtime local tossed out the window. writer Tom Ross Instead, whoever lands has called the longest standing Steamboat Springs home jump gets his or her since 1979. name engraved on the silver cup. The ski jumping competition that bears his name reveals the logical personality of the ingenious inventor whose formative years were spent in the pioneer town of Steamboat Springs. Later in life, as an independent engineer, Merrill patented the design for a wheel balancing and alignment machine that greatly improved automobile assembly lines in the late 1950s and ’60s. He might have parlayed the hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from his patents on the Merrill Dynamic Aligner into vast personal wealth. But he was an inventor by nature, and he plowed much of his earnings into other inventions. Merrill was in possession of an exceptionally inquisitive mind. As a boy, he grew up ski jumping under the tutelage of none other than the renowned Carl Howelsen. As a grown engineer with a degree from the University of Colorado, he balanced the life of a mildly eccentric inventor with his passion for Colorado’s mountain towns such as Steamboat. Now, thanks to the grandson of Marcellus “Celly” Merrill, David Merrill Primus, we have new insights into life in Steamboat Springs in the early part of the 20th century. Primus has just compiled and edited a volume of his grandfather’s memoirs and stories, “Steamboat Springs: Memories of a Young Colorado Pioneer,” released by Western Reflections Publishing Co. in Lake City. The book is packed with previously unheard anecdotes about Steamboat. It should prove fascinating to anyone with a keen interest in what Steamboat was like in the first decade of the 20th century. For example, Merrill shares firsthand

knowledge of the Steamboat Spring and its previous existence as a small geyser. One of the great mysteries of modern life in Steamboat is the truth about the Steamboat Spring. There is the legend that Steamboat got its name from the bubbling spring that made a sound like a Missouri River steamboat. There also are the vague stories about the spring erupting like a geyser — not on the scale of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful, but a geyser nonetheless. What an attraction that would be today! I have always assumed the geyser was sacrificed in the name of progress. Perhaps I have unfairly blamed its demise on the railroad crews who were striving in December 1908 to push the tracks to the new depot just west of the spring. Celly Merrill’s writings shed some light on this matter. “When I was a young boy, I remember this spring sounding like a steamboat whistle and spouting like a geyser,” he recalled. “We would often drop rocks in to see how high they would go. Maury Leckenby (future publisher of the Steamboat Pilot) always said I was the boy who put too large a rock in the famous Steamboat Spring and stopped it from sounding like a steamboat and spouting. While I did drop a few rocks in the spring to see how high they would go, so did Maury and Buster.” Celly (pronounced Sell-ee), as he was known to acquaintances, moved here from Nebraska at age 4 in 1905. He and his family finished the trip in a stagecoach. Merrill’s grandfather was a prosperous banker in Nebraska and opened a bank in Steamboat Springs, only to see it fail. Celly and his brother Hollis grew up as typical Steamboat rascals, fishing in Soda Creek, playing marbles for keeps in the middle of the unpaved streets and scrounging for pocket money that had fallen through the loose floorboards of the saloon. Celly first went to school in a log cabin next to Butcherknife Creek. He quickly learned how to use his fists. “In those early days, it seemed to me that education and fights went hand in hand,” Celly wrote. “We had fights over marble games, baseball games, and there was usually a fight every time the teacher left the room.” Celly tells about how he and his gang would swipe chickens from neighbors along Soda Creek and cook their own Saturday dinners. They ran the risk that Old Man Goodfellow would get his rifle and wing a couple of shots in their direction. As an older boy, with his family’s finances in disarray, Merrill worked on a ranch and

Marcellus Merrill in 1978. milked cows. Primus confirmed that his grandfather was a rascal even into his old age. “I can remember him taking me fourwheeling and driving his Jeep right up to the edge of a cliff before stomping on the brakes, just to see my reaction,” Primus said. I was particularly intrigued with Merrill’s firsthand account of watching the old Steamboat Pilot building burn down in 1909. You might be more interested in his description of watching the famed Howelsen give the first ski jumping exhibition on Woodchuck Hill. The whole town turned out in wagons, with fur robes draped over their laps, to watch Howelsen and Peter Prestrud launch off the jump simultaneously. “Everybody yelled and hollered at that,” Merrill recalled. “I suppose they jumped about 70 feet down the hill. It was quite a sight.” In addition to many photographs from Merrill’s own collection, the book includes many of his sketches. Merrill’s mechanical drawings for the Carver Electric Plant, which brought Steamboat its first dependable household electricity, are evocative of da Vinci. Merrill died in 1986 after living as full a life as any of us could aspire to. Fortunately for us, Celly Merrill was a prolific storyteller, and dictated many stories about Steamboat to the stenographers who worked for his engineering firm. It’s equally fortunate that Celly’s grandson took the care to preserve his grandfather’s legacy in Northwest Colorado. “Steamboat Springs: Memories of a Young Colorado Pioneer,” is available in local bookstores.

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