Stagecoach
A Colorado resort built to sell real estate that lasted two seasons before its financier pulled out in 1973; its Heron-Poma chairs stood on the hillside for years and the valley below is now a state park.
- Region
- Colorado
- Country
- USA
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1972
- Year closed
- 1974
- Reason for closure
- The ski area existed to sell condominiums and home sites rather than lift tickets, and it was too ragtag an operation for the property side to get any traction. Westinghouse Credit Corporation withdrew its financing in 1973 and development stopped; the area closed after the 1974 season.
History
Stagecoach sits in the Yampa valley about twenty minutes south of Steamboat Springs, and it is the classic Colorado example of a ski area built as a sales device. The Woodmoor Company of Colorado Springs developed it at the start of the 1970s with three Heron-Poma double chairs - Little Hitch, Yellow Jacket Express and Big Hitch - on around 2,000 ft of vertical, the whole point being to move condominiums and home sites in the subdivision below. It opened for the 1972 season. The skiing was thin and the operation shambolic enough that the real estate never sold, Westinghouse Credit Corporation pulled its financing in 1973, and the area shut after 1974 having run two full winters. The Big Hitch chair was salvaged and re-erected at Silver Creek and later at Winter Park, so it outlived the resort by decades. The mountain has stayed in private hands - one owner has held it for more than twenty-five years with no intention of reopening - and the base area parking lot is blocked off, while the valley floor and its reservoir became Stagecoach State Park. Individual trail names and the precise lift installation and removal dates are not recorded in accessible sources.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Hitch | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | Heron-Poma | One of three Heron-Poma doubles installed for the resort's brief life |
| Yellow Jacket Express | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | Heron-Poma | One of three Heron-Poma doubles installed for the resort's brief life |
| Big Hitch | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | Heron-Poma | The main lift. Later relocated to Silver Creek and from there to Winter Park, where it continued to carry skiers long after Stagecoach itself was finished |
Sources and further reading
More in USA
Location
40.2773, -106.8571