Aspen, Colorado, 1963: On June 21, this once-sleepy mining town girds itself for the arrival of yet another wave of warm-weather tourists. “Happy first day of summer,” proclaims a columnist in the Aspen Times. “It’s Bermuda shorts and straw hat time again, with bearded artists, shutterbugs, and convertibles once more setting the scene for another busy season.” The next day, Lift 1 on Aspen Mountain begins whisking guests (who pay $3—the equivalent of $29 today—for the ride) up to the Sundeck, including Hollywood stars John Wayne and Lucille Ball.

“I was 15 that summer, and we’d go to the Hotel Jerome and knock on random doors,” recalls writer Tony Vagneur, an Aspen native. “If a celebrity answered the door, we’d get an autograph. If it wasn’t a celebrity we’d apologize and tell them we had the wrong room.”

From late June through July, the sweet strains of Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven enchant sold-out audiences gathered in the Eero Saarinen-designed orange tent/amphitheater at the 14th Aspen Music Festival. “Anyone attempting to describe the weekend of music in Aspen,” one Denver Post music critic writes breathlessly on July 31, “is faced with the same happy frustration experienced by a person who suddenly gains possession of a treasure chest of precious gems: which jewel to display first?”

But the festival’s success brings unintended consequences: more and more newcomers smitten with Aspen who invest in vacation homes. “It’s actually what attracted a lot of the second homeowners to the area,” explains Vagneur. “They’d come and listen to the music and stay for the summer.” With most of Aspen’s core already developed, stately old homes are torn down for ostentatious new ones; ditto with commercial landmarks downtown. 

Writing in a nationally syndicated column later that summer, CBS news anchor Eric Sevareid rings a warning bell that resonates today, declaring that Aspen is a “Shangri-la … in danger of being spoiled by commercialization and overuse.”
In response, local leaders charter the Aspen Historical Society (AHS) to preserve and protect the town’s endangered historic structures, and its heritage, enlisting residents to submit “writings, recordings, and photographs that relate to Aspen history,” which are put on public display on June 28, when the AHS opens a new museum at city hall.

Sixty years later, the Aspen Historical Society is thriving. It maintains one of the largest public archives in the region and operates four historical sites: the Wheeler/Stallard Museum, the Holden/Marolt Mining and Ranching Museum, and the ghost towns of Independence and Ashcroft. It also provides free history education for local schools, including field programs, tours, and in-classroom lessons.

On July 10, the AHS hosts a 60th Birthday Bash (aspenhistory.org/programs-events) at the Wheeler, inviting all comers to “don their favorite ’60s attire for a free event to mark six decades of preserving and sharing the area’s past, from the defining mining era to the wild and crazy stories that make this community unique.” 

One of those stories is its very own.