Beaver Creek is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Eagle County,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States. Beaver Creek is located immediately south of the town of Avon and encompasses the Beaver Creek Resort and adjacent business, lodging, golf course, and residential areas. The U.S. Post Office at Avon ( ZIP Code 81620) serves Beaver Creek postal addresses.

History

The Beaver Creek area was settled about 1865. Tucked away in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Beaver Creek Resort has had a rich history since it first opened to the public in 1980. Located in Eagle County, Beaver Creek is a major ski resort owned and operated by Vail Resorts. Talks of opening a ski resort in Beaver Creek first arose in 1956, as Earl Eaton and John Burke sought possible ways to enter the ski resort operation business. When

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won the bid for the

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 (), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 4 to 15, 1976. The games were awarded to Inn ...

, Beaver Creek would have hosted the alpine skiing events.

White River National Forest

Beaver Creek ski area operates on

National Forest System In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands that are largely forest and woodland areas. They are owned collectively by the American people through the federal government and managed by the ...

lands under special use permit to the White River National Forest. The 30-year permit assigns a portion of the bundle of rights associated with land ownership to the permit holder. All lifts, ski trails, and facilities must be approved by the Forest Service in advance prior to construction. Master development plans, construction plans, and summer and winter operating plans are approved by the federal agency prior to each season of operation. Vail Resorts pays a fee to the U.S. Treasury for the use of federal lands amounting to about one dollar per skier. Beaver Creek was originally conceived by Erik Martin, Forest Service Program Manager for Ski Area Administration (1972–2003), White River National Forest, to be a small portion of a larger ski area connected on the east by ski lifts and trails to the Town of Minturn via Meadow Mountain and Grouse Mountain, as well as, Battle Mountain, and Vail ski resort, and on the west to a new entrance portal in Lake Creek. Grouse Mountain was rated excellent for skiing and comparable to Snowmass-at-Aspen by the Forest Service. Skiing connections to Minturn, Battle Mountain, and Vail ski resort was stalled in 1976 due to public opposition.

1976 Winter Olympic Games

When Colorado sought to host the

, Beaver Creek development was part of its successful bid in May 1970. The prestigious alpine downhill race, the showcase event of the Winter Olympics, was planned for Beaver Creek by the Denver Olympic Organizing Committee. After state voters handily passed a referendum in 1972 to stop state funding for the Olympics, the 1976 games were reassigned to

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

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, which had hosted in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Alpine racing

The

Birds of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and smaller birds). In addition to speed ...

downhill course was constructed in 1997 and Beaver Creek resort has regularly hosted

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

races in early December, primarily in the men's speed events. Vail and Beaver Creek co-hosted the World Championships in 1989,

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and again in

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Grand opening

The Beaver Creek Resort opened in 1980 with of skiable terrain, 4

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. They are the primary on-hill tran ...

s and 28 runs. Although he had originally opposed it, Governor Richard Lamm referred to the ski area during the grand opening ceremonies as the "Tiffany's" of ski resorts. As a legislator in 1972, Dick Lamm was a leader of the opposition to the 1976 Olympics. As of December 2014, the Resort reported of skiable terrain, 24 lifts, and 150 trails. The late U.S. President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

(and wife Betty) owned a home in Beaver Creek. Adventurist

Steve Fossett James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – September 3, 2007) was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraf ...

also lived here, and actor

Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained fame for his role as the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984–1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993–2004, and again F ...

(and his ex-wife Camille) had a house in Beaver Creek, and an episode of '' The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'' was shot here.Ali Trachta, 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: The Creaky Beavers Hit Beaver Creek', in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', Sep. 13 201

Gerald Ford

The community is home to the annual AEI World Forum, founded by Ford, and the annual Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Beaver Creek was the host to Gerald Ford hosted annual summits for the retired heads of Europe at Beaver Creek.

References

External links

Vail Valley Partnership – The Chamber and Tourism Bureau

Beaver Creek Lodging Rentals
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Eagle County, Colorado Unincorporated communities in Colorado