Ute People: Pre – 1879

Before the first mining prospectors arrived in the Roaring Fork Valley in 1879, the area had been home to the Ute people for more than 800 years. Though our knowledge of how the Ute lived during those centuries is limited, their heritage and respect for the land remains a central tenet of their lives and beliefs today.

Pre – 1879
Ute hunt throughout the upper Roaring Fork Valley, often establishing summer campsites near ground-source springs (Ute Springs, near present-day Glory Hole Park at Ute and Original Streets a few blocks from the gondola, may have been a campsite).

1876
Colorado becomes the 38th state.

1879
In the “Meeker Massacre” or “Meeker Incident,” a band of Ute people revolt against the local “Indian agent,” Nathan Meeker, who had been trying to convert them to Christianity and force them to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and become farmers. Meeker and 10 other men died.