Stagecoach was a short-lived

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

in the early 1970s, located south of Steamboat Springs in

Routt County Routt County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,829. The county seat is Steamboat Springs. Routt County comprises the Steamboat Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. History P ...

Ski area

The ski area was developed by the Woodmoor Company of

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. Although full of great terrain on north-facing slopes, financial problems of the developer nixed the project in 1973 and it closed after its second season of skiing in 1974. Now considered a "lost" ski hill, rumors of Stagecoach reopening are common, but are always denied by the Wittemyer family, who have owned the property for over twenty-five years. The

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

was a mile south of the present-day Stagecoach Reservoir, with north-facing slopes and three double

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...

s. The vertical drop was with a summit

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

and the base at

Chairlifts

Stagecoach State Park

The

Stagecoach Dam Stagecoach Dam is a gravity dam on the Yampa River in Routt County, Colorado, located about south of Steamboat Springs. Built of roller-compacted concrete, the dam is high and long. The impounded water forms Stagecoach Reservoir, with a storage ...

was built on the

Yampa River The Yampa River flows through northwestern Colorado in the United States. Rising in the Rocky Mountains, it is a tributary of the Green River (Colorado River), Green River and a major part of the Colorado River system. The Yampa is one of the f ...

in late 1988, and its

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

filled over the next several years. The reservoir now hosts

Stagecoach State Park Stagecoach State Park is a Colorado State Park located in Routt County south of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The park established in 1989 includes a reservoir on the Yampa River formed by Stagecoach Dam. Facilities include a marina, boat ra ...

and offers fishing, boating, camping, hiking, and winter

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

and dog-sledding. The dam is at the northeast end of the reservoir; the water's surface elevation is

. Originally designed in the 1970s as an earthen dam, it is a

roller-compacted concrete Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) or rolled concrete (rollcrete) is a special blend of concrete that has essentially the same ingredients as conventional concrete but in different ratios, and increasingly with partial substitution of fly ash for Po ...

(RCC) structure.Water Power Magazine
- Stagecoach Dam

Community

The community is now quickly growing, along with nearby Steamboat Springs. A new firehouse was built in 2006 and new neighborhoods are under development. An elementary school site has been allocated when the current facility in nearby

Yampa Yampa is a Colorado municipalities#Statutory town, statutory town in Routt County, Colorado, Routt County, Colorado, United States. The population was 429 at the United States Census, 2010, 2010 census. City name is the Ute dialect, Northern U ...

reaches capacity.

References

{{reflist

External links

Stage-Coach.com
- homeowners' association - map of area Defunct ski areas and resorts in Colorado Geography of Routt County, Colorado