Telluride Lodging - Rent vacation condos, hotels, and homes direct & save!

Telluride Lodging  - Telluride Lodging & Activity Guide

• Telluride Lodging - Find Vacation Condos, Motels, Homes, and Vacation Packages in Telluride, Colorado.

VacationLodgingNetwork.com

VacationLodgingNetwork.com is a network of vacation homes, condos, cabins, and hotels offered as vacation rentals by professional management companies and property owners. Find Telluride Lodging; search the network checking availability and pricing on your initial search. You can book online, or contact the manager or owner directly to reserve or ask questions. You will also find an entertainment guide for the area you are searching.

Telluride is the county seat and the most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains. A Telluride Historic District which includes some or all of Telluride is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and further is one of Colorado's 20 National Historic Landmarks. The town population was 2,221 at U.S. Census 2000.

Telluride, Colorado's elevation is 8,750 feet and sits in a box canyon. Steep forested mountains and cliffs surround it. Bridal Veil Falls is at the head of the canyon. Numerous weathered ruins of old mining operations dot the hillsides. A free gondola connects the town with its companion town Mountain Village, Colorado at the base of the ski area.

Only one road reaches Telluride year round, but there are also two off-road routes. Telluride sits in an isolated spot in the Four Corners region of Colorado where the New Mexico, Utah and Arizona borders come together. From the west, Colorado Route 145 is the most common way into Telluride, however there are two alternate passes to enter the town as well. Telluride is situated at an elevation of 8,750 feet.

Telluride's remoteness, is also what makes the resort special. Weekend warrior skiiers from the big cities don't get there by car. This makes Telluride a more out of the way, full-service ski resort with exceedingly short lift lines.

Prospect Bowl (2002) - Effectively doubling the amount of skiable terrain, Prospect Bowl was opened in 2002. Prospect Bowl is a veritable Disneyland of ski runs in and around islands of trees, with interesting ups and downs and its own lift #12. It includes High Camp, a new Warming Hut/Food Stop. With the opening of Prospect Bowl, two new high-speed lifts were added, Lift #12 (mentioned above) and Lift #14, to access Gold Hill.

Gold Hill encompasses the highest portion of the ski area, previously only accessible by a hike of 30 minutes to an hour. A short hike still remains for those who wish to add an additional 200 ft from the top of Gold Hill's Lift #14 to the highest ski run of the resort at 12,255ft. Although most of the runs descending from the top of Lift #14 are double black, there is an easy descent from this lift, coming down the See Forever ski run on top of the ridge with among the best alpine vistas in the world.

• Top Elevation: 12,570 ft (3,676 m)
• Base Elevation: 8,750 ft (2,625 m)
• Skiable Area: 1,700 acres (6.88 km˛)
• Runs: 92 Total (24% Beginner, 38% Intermediate, 38% Advanced/Expert)
• Longest Run: "Galloping Goose" - 4.6 miles (7.4 km)
• Lift System: 18 lifts (2 gondolas, 8 quad express lifts, 2 triple chairs, 2 double chairs, 4 other)
• Terrain Parks: 3
• Snowfall: 309 in/year (789 cm/year)

Telluride History

Gold was first discovered in 1858. John Fallon made the first claim in Marshal Basin above Telluride in 1875 and early settlement of Telluride followed. The town itself was founded in 1878. Telluride's mines were rich in zinc, lead, copper, silver, and, of course, gold.

Telluride began slowly because of its isolated location. In 1881 a toll road was opened by Otto Mears which allowed wagons to go where only pack mules could go before. This increased the number of people in Telluride, but it was still expensive to get gold-rich ore out of the valley. In 1890 the railroad reached town, which brought in more mines and brought out more ore.

In June 1889, Butch Cassidy before becoming associated with his gang, "the wild bunch", robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride. This was his first major recorded crime. He exited the bank with $24,580, and later became famous as a bank robber.

Around the turn of the 20th century there were serious labor disputes in the mines near Telluride. The Colorado National Guard was called out and there were deaths on both sides. Unions were formed as miners joined the Western Federation of Miners in 1896. 1899 brought big changes with most mines granting miners $3 a day for an 8 hour day’s work plus a boarding pay of $1 a day. This came at a time when workers were putting in 10–12 hour days and the mines ran 24 hours a day. Work conditions were treacherous, with mines above 12,000 ft and a lack of safety measures, not to mention bitter weather in winter months. Even the boarding houses were precariously placed on the mountainsides.

Telluride's labor unrest occurred against the backdrop of a state-wide struggle between miners and mine owners. Bulkeley Wells was one of the mine operators expressing considerable hostility to the union. The leader of the Telluride Miners' Union was Vincent St. John. There developed considerable intrigue and national interest over the disappearance — Wells declared it was a "murder" — of mine guard William J. Barney. The accusations, animosity, gunplay, and expulsions which followed were one part of an ongoing struggle throughout Colorado's mining communities which came to be called the Colorado Labor Wars.

In 1891, Telluride's L.L. Nunn joined forces with Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse and built the Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant, the world's first commercial-grade alternating-current power plant, near Telluride. The hydro-powered electrical generation plant supplied power to the Gold King Mine 3.5 miles away. This was the first successful demonstration of long distance transmission of industrial grade alternating current power. The invention sparked the "War of Currents" between the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the General Electric Company headed by Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan. At the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 AC current and DC current both had exhibits to appeal to the 25 million people attending the fair. Following the success of the Tesla-Westinghouse exhibit, the Westinghouse Company was awarded the contract to build the power plant at Niagara Falls. Nunn and his brother Paul built power plants in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Mexico, and the Ontario Power plant at Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. Nunn developed a keen interest in education as part of his electrical power companies, and in conjunction with Cornell University built the Telluride House at Cornell in 1909 to educate promising students in electrical engineering. Later, Nunn along with Charles Walcott, started the Telluride Association. Nunn founded Deep Springs College in 1917. All of Nunn's educational endeavors are going strong today. Each year the Telluride Tech Festival honors Nunn, Tesla, and Westinghouse, along with current day technology and science leaders.

Telluride’s most famous historic mines are the Tomboy, Pandora, Smuggler-Union, Nellie, and Sheridan mines. Beginning in 1939, the hard-rock mining operations in the Red Mountain and Telluride mining districts began a lengthy consolidation under the Idarado Mining Company (Idarado), presently a division of Newmont Mining. The consolidation ended in 1953 with Idarado’s acquisition of the Telluride Mines. Idarado kept the underground workings and mill operations open at Telluride’s Pandora hard-rock mine until 1978. When the mine closed for good; the snow which once tormented Telluride's miners had become the town's new gold,in the form of skiing and tourism.

Mining was Telluride’s only industry until 1972, when the first ski lift was installed by Telluride Ski Resort founder Joseph T. Zoline and his Telluride Ski Corporation (Telco). Joe Zoline bought the land for the future resort in 1969 and began to craft the slopes. Along with his mountain manager, Telluride native Bill "Sr." Mahoney, they slowly and thoughtfully put together a plan for sustained development of Telluride and the region. As mining phased out and a new service industry phased in, the local population changed sharply.  These newcomers were drawn to the town for a casual life style and outdoor excitements such as hang gliding, mountain climbing, and kayaking.

The new population was initially anti-growth and rallied against any economic expansion, including growth due to tourism and skiing. At one point a serious effort was made to ban cars from the city limits and force visitors to use horse drawn carts. Success did not come overnight for Telluride in this environment. The seventies were a time of fluctuating snowfalls and economic recession. However, the town’s now famous music and film festivals were immune from anti-growth criticism and flourished. These festivals exposed hundreds of thousands to the grandeur of the valley for the first time and created iconic associations with elite entertainers. Meanwhile ski area founder Joe Zoline worked hard to put Telluride on the map, developing one of the best mountains in North America for expert skiers and creating infrastructure for tourism which respected Telluride's need to stay small and beautiful.

As the final ore carts were rolling out of the Pandora mine, tourists began to seriously discover Telluride for its magnificent views, expert skiing, and famous autumn color changes. After the brutal snow drought of 1976 which nearly wiped out the embryonic ski and lodging industry the town started to rebound economically. In 1978 a stake of the ski area was purchased by Ron Allred and his partner Jim Wells to form the Telluride Company. The new owners expanded the infrastructure which Zoline had put into place by adding a gondola connecting the Town of Telluride with the Mountain Village.

During the 1980s, Telluride developed a reputation for being "Colorado's best kept secret," which paradoxically made it one of the more well known resort communities. Wealthy skiers flocked to the world class mountain all winter and sightseers kept hotel rooms full all summer.

In 2003, Prospect Bowl, an extension to the ski area opened, providing the resort with many new trails and runs. In 2007-08, the ski area opened some of the most extreme, in-bound, hike-to terrain in the country. Most lifts in the area are high speed quad chairs capable of holding four passengers. The highest lift on the mountain reaches an altitude of 12,255 feet.

*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Telluride Ski Resort" and  Wikipedia article "Telluride, Colorado".

Telluride Lodging