Aspen Historical Society

Aspen, CO > Aspen Groups & Organizations > Aspen Historical Society

address:620 West Bleeker Aspen, CO 81611 phone:970-925-3721 fax:970-925-5347 website:Aspen Historical Society email:

Archaeologists recently discovered that ancient people made their homes in the mountains near Aspen, Colorado 8,000 years ago. Ute Indian tradition says that these "Shining Mountains" have always been their homeland. First silver, and later near perfect snow conditions enticed more recent settlers to the Roaring Fork Valley.

Leadville was the second largest city in Colorado in 1879, when prospectors from Gothic and Leadville crossed the Continental Divide into the Ute’s summer hunting territory to discover one of the richest silver lodes the world has ever known. They named their camp Ute City, but by spring the name had been changed to Aspen.

Many mining camps were temporary settlements. Aspen had the winning combination of rich silver ores, two competing railroads, and ample investment from wealthy Victorian capitalists such as Jerome B. Wheeler, President of Macy’s Department Store and Cincinnati lawyer and businessman David Hyman. Aspen quickly became an urban, industrialized community with impressive architecture, leaving Independence, Ashcroft, Ruby and other camps to become ghost towns.

By 1891 the production of Aspen’s silver fields had surpassed even rival Leadville, making it the nation’s largest single silver producing mining district. By 1893 Aspen’s 12,000 residents had six newspapers, four schools, three banks, electric lights, a modern hospital, two theaters, an opera house, and a very small brothel district.