Tuesday, January 29, 2008

About Winter Park and Mary Jane

About Winter Park from an online article on www.earthtimes.org. Here is an exerpt:

Winter Park was first settled in 1925 by lumberjacks, miners and railway workers who were building the Moffat Tunnel through James Peak. We are very proud of our town's origins and that is reflected in the atmosphere which scorns anything flashy or snobbish. It also means visitors get great value for their money when they come here.

You will not be bumping into any film stars as can happen in Aspen. Winter Park is more family oriented.

"Nobody is interested in whether I have got new skis or if my woolly hat matches the colour of my anorak," says Jonelle Sandel who comes here from Denver as often as she can with her husband and two young daughters.

Winter Park is considered Denver's local mountain, but it's often used by the US ski team to train.

Winter Park's more extreme ski runs are notoriously steep and regularly selected as the best on the continent by ski magazines and that's the way locals want them to remain.

"Mary Jane really did exist," says Jim Ellis. She was a lady of pleasure who allowed her services to the local men to be paid in land - the same land on which the Mary Jane trail is located today.

And thanks to its curves, the trail enjoys a reputation just as its namesake did in her day.

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