Colorado
In Colorado’s devastatingly dry winter, hope abounds for big snows to round out the season: ‘It’s not time for panic’
Anu Koiv emerged from her Gunbarrel home in the middle of January and spotted something she hadn’t seen in the seven years she’s lived there: pink flowers blooming on a backyard viburnum shrub. In winter.
As the 72-year-old retiree was admiring the unexpected burst of color, she noticed bees dancing on the flowers. The sun was out, and temperatures in Boulder County hovered in the mid-50s.
“The weather is pulling the pollinators out of their dormancy,” Koiv said enthusiastically. “A multitude of bees.”
A few miles away in Arvada, Susan Burgmaier was headed to the outdoor pickleball courts at the Simms Street Recreation Center for a match. The weather was heavenly, and Burgmaier, 61, had been playing the game al fresco once a week for much of the fall and early winter.
“The only thing that stops us is the gazillion-mile-per-hour winds,” she said.
The warm, snow-free weather that many in the city have enjoyed for weeks — extending the active season for cyclists, hikers and runners — is bringing less joy to the high country, where the nearly $5 billion-a-year Colorado ski industry is struggling to salvage its season.
“We haven’t had many powder nirvana days this year,” said Melanie Mills, the president and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA, a trade association representing 20 of the state’s ski areas. “Visits are down enough that they will not recover, even if the rest of the season is very snowy.”
Colorado is getting a break with this weekend’s arctic blast — with forecasts of accompanying mountain snow — but the broader dry-weather pattern that’s set to return in coming days is raising worries not only about the ski season but also about impacts this summer for Colorado’s water supply and the farms and industries it sustains.
Despite the thrill of playing pickleball outdoors on a January day, Burgmaier fears the darker implications of what’s happening with the weather.
“It’s nice to be outside, but what’s happening is not good for the environment,” she said. “That one time it snowed this season, I was thrilled. I can get my exercise shoveling — and I’m happy about it.”
State Climatologist Russ Schumacher said figuring out the ramifications of a dry and mild end of fall and start of winter is a complicated thing.
Colorado just clocked its warmest December since records started being kept in 1895, while Denver had its second-warmest final month of the year. The city broke daily temperature records seven times last month, including on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It also documented 21 days where the average temperature was more than 6 degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service.
The balmy days have extended into 2026, with Jan. 4 setting a new high-temperature record of 67 degrees for metro Denver for that date.
“What makes this year so unusual is it’s been so warm for so long,” said Schumacher, who is also a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.
In the high country, the warm temperatures have claimed the Rotary Park Ice Rink in Ouray for the season. Last week, the city announced its closure because there hadn’t been “the necessary cold days or snow pack to produce the level of ice our community deserves.”
Closer to the Front Range, Dillon Reservoir was creeping towards its latest freeze-over on record. The current record was set on Jan. 31, 1981. Denver Water, which owns and operates the Summit County lake, estimated last week that ice cover was around 60% — not sufficient for ice fishing or cross-country skiing enthusiasts.
Conditions may have briefly flipped this weekend, with a deep freeze settling over the state and heavy snow — up to 10 inches or more — forecast for many mountain locations as of late last week, according to OpenSnow.
But it will take more than that to make up for the dearth of snow so far this season.
“You need February and March to be nonstop snowstorms,” Schumacher said.
Temps on an upward march
The reasons behind the rise in temperatures and the increase in dryness are fiercely debated, with a mix of focus on the impacts coming from global climate change and those that are attributable to the weather variability that has long shaped what is experienced on the ground.
Globally, the 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the last decade, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The same group determined that the global average concentration of carbon dioxide in 2024 surged to the highest level since modern measurements began in 1957.
Carbon dioxide is a pollutant that scientists say helps lock heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
“That’s where the climate change signal really comes out,” Schumacher said.
According to a series of scientific studies published last year and collated by the Yale Center for Environmental Communication, researchers determined that climate change is complicit in the drying and warming of the American Southwest. The studies found emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are driving an ongoing 25-year shortfall in winter rains and mountain snows across the region.
Dryness has accompanied the elevated temperatures felt by Coloradans this fall and winter, with the state tallying its 34th-driest December in 130 years of record-keeping, according to the Colorado Climate Center. Much of the state is in some level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, though a broad swath of the Eastern Plains is not.
Denver had its second-latest first accumulating snow — on Nov. 29. As of Thursday, mountain snowpack was at 56% of the median for that date, according to data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Water and Climate Center.
The snowpack was well below the lowest level recorded at this point in the season in records that go back to 1987.
But Schumacher said aridity in Colorado within a shorter window of time is tough to pin on global warming, given the complexity and interplay of major weather systems and cycles, like El Niño and La Niña.
“Changes in precipitation in Colorado are harder to connect to global climate change because the natural variability can be so big,” he said.
It’s not like anemic snowpacks are new to Colorado. Nearly half a century ago, during the winter of 1976-1977, the state endured one of its worst winters for snow paucity in memory, prompting then-U.S. Sen. Floyd Haskell to urge President Gerald Ford to declare Colorado’s snow-starved high country a disaster area eligible for economic relief.
Just four winters later, in 1980-1981, it happened again.
Jason Ullmann, the state engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources, said that despite the recent dry conditions, water storage levels across the state were in pretty good shape.
“We’re in an OK position with reservoir storage on average statewide,” he said.
But Ullmann noted that if things didn’t ramp up significantly on the storm front over the next two months or so, a different conversation could be in the offing by spring.
“It’s not time for panic — there is time for it to improve,” he said. “One of our snowiest months, March, is still to come.”
High country woes
Rick “The Pup” Ascher has seen “really good” years and some “less-than-good” years in his nearly 50 years in Summit County.
He moved to Breckenridge from Minnesota in 1979, at age 18. For the past two decades, he’s owned the ski and snowboard business Pup’s Glide Shop, just off Main Street on Ski Hill Road.
“This year started out pretty slow,” Ascher said, “and it just continued really slow.”
Snowmaking equipment, he said, has done “an incredible job of putting snow on the main trails for the general public” at Breckenridge Ski Resort, but he knows a truly successful ski season can’t be had without the real stuff coating the slopes at some point.
That’s where Ascher puts on his optimist hat.
“Records show it’s going to snow,” he said. “It always has.”
Sonja Chavez, the general manager of the Upper Gunnison Water Conservancy District, which covers Crested Butte and Gunnison, said the snow water equivalent in the Upper Gunnison River Basin was at 67% of average. Snow water equivalent is a crucial measurement of the amount of liquid water contained within the snowpack.
“Right now, I would say I’m moderately concerned,” she said. “If you talk to me in the spring and we still haven’t seen any significant snowfall, I would characterize my state of mind as highly concerned. If we go into another year with poor snowpack, or below-average snowpack, we’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
Joel Gratz, founding meteorologist of the OpenSnow reporting and forecasting service — which is relied upon by diehard skiers and snowboarders — said temperatures have been rising over the last 60 years. But blaming climate change for current conditions in Colorado, he said, is a facile calculation that fails to account for other meteorological factors at play.
A persistent high-pressure ridge over the West and a low-pressure trough over the eastern United States have been deflecting storms to the north of Colorado, he said.
And while the La Niña weather cycle now occurring over the Pacific Ocean tends to dry and warm the American Southwest, he said, its effects are felt more strongly north and south of the state.
“The atmosphere has multiple factors that create storm tracks. Sometimes they’re not in our favor, sometimes they are. And sometimes it’s a little bit of both,” Gratz said. “There is low to zero confidence that there have been any long-term changes in storm tracks or the amount of precipitation that falls here in Colorado.
“This is not climate change. This is simply bad luck.”
Ski resorts try to ‘stay nimble’
Regardless of the cause, the impacts of this season’s dismal conditions in the high country are indisputable.
Weekend traffic through the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels in November was down 3.6% from the previous November, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Traffic thinned even more in December, with 11.6% fewer weekend warriors transiting the tunnels compared to December 2024.
Room bookings in Breckenridge this season have slipped 7.8% compared to last year, with February’s numbers alone down 13% year over year, according to the Breckenridge Tourism Office.
Earlier this month, Vail Resorts reported to investors that skier visits to its destinations across North America have fallen 20% for the season. The publicly held, Broomfield-based company owns Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte in Colorado, plus 32 other resorts in North America.
Chief Executive Rob Katz told investors that in the Rockies, “snowfall was down nearly 60% versus the historical 30-year average, resulting in approximately 11% of terrain being opened in December.”
Alan Henceroth, CEO of Arapahoe Basin, told The Denver Post that the season has “asked all of us to stay nimble, both on and off the mountain.” While hours have been cut, no employees have been fired or furloughed, the resort said.
Away from the busy Interstate 70 corridor, the challenges are no different. Said Andrew Sandstrom, executive director of the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association: “We’re hanging in there.”
The mostly north-facing slopes at Crested Butte Mountain Resort have meant less melting of the snow that is there. And with a 13-day ski patrol strike at Telluride Ski Resort that ended in early January, Sandstrom said Crested Butte saw “a little bit of a boost, last minute, of people shifting here.”
“Many destinations are facing similar things. The remainder of the season is certainly much more snow-dependent. Folks are deciding now, ‘Do I take a ski trip for spring break, or do I go to the beach for spring break?’ ” he said. “With the lack of snow, it’s certainly impacting us.”
Mills, the Colorado Ski Country USA head, said while skier visits are “down sizable double digits” this season, she is not giving up.
“We’re starting to see colder weather,” she said. “There’s a lot of season left, and we know that skiers and snowboarders, when it snows, they want to get out and ski. I think there is a lot of pent-up demand that will still turn out this season.
“We’re not writing it off, by any means.”
Snowpack means water for farms, cities
Nearly 10,000 feet downhill from A-Basin’s 13,000-foot peak sits Dale Mauch’s 4,000-acre farm in Prowers County, which borders Kansas. There, the 65-year-old Colorado native grows corn, hay, wheat and oats. He started farming at age 18.
Mauch credits an early January snowstorm for putting southeast Colorado in fairly good shape water-wise — for now. But he knows the Arkansas River watershed has a snow water equivalent that is just 44% of average. The river is critical to irrigating the farm fields in the area.
If the snowpack doesn’t build in the next two months, Mauch said, farmers on the Eastern Plains will have to tap big water sources — like the John Martin and Pueblo reservoirs — earlier and harder than they’d like.
“So lake water that would last you into September could be done by July,” he said. “Then your crop burns up.”
As crucial as snowpack is to a productive field, Mauch said, farmers can look to the heavens as a backup. He is hoping that monsoon rains materialize this summer.
“If you get the afternoon thunderstorms, you can have a river from rain that makes up for the lack of a river on the snow side,” he said. “Our life is hope — because you have a lot of reasons to say, ‘Why do I do this?’ ”
Nathan Elder’s life is maintaining resilience in Denver Water’s system, which serves 1.5 million people in metro Denver.
As manager of the utility’s water supply, he keeps a close eye on Denver Water’s reservoir system, which sprawls across 4,000 square miles and into more than a half-dozen counties west of Denver.
Denver Water taps all or part of 17 reservoirs — which, all told, hold a capacity of 708,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot, the amount of water it takes to cover an acre in a foot of water, can supply up to two single-family households’ needs for a year.
Almost all of the water the utility disperses comes from snowmelt.
Elder said the system is at 82% of capacity, which is just 4 percentage points below its normal level of 86% of capacity for this time of year.
“Our snowpack is not the worst we’ve seen for this time of the year, but it’s close to the bottom,” he said.
Elder projects Denver Water’s storage system will be at 90% of capacity at its peak on July 1.
“Denver Water plans for these types of things,” he said. “No one should go out and buy emergency tubs of water.”
But a longer-term concern for water managers is developing in terms of the quality of Colorado’s snowpack, Elder said. Because of rising temperatures, evaporation increases at the surface and desiccated soils suck up more water before it flows downhill.
“We just can’t expect our snowpack to produce as much as in past years,” he said. “We’re on a trend that we don’t want to be on right now.”
Whether counties and cities impose harsher outdoor watering restrictions on residents this summer — a common tactic during dry spells in Colorado — will likely be dictated by how snowy things get in the high country over next couple of months.
For now, pay attention to not just what is visible in the yard but what is happening underground, said Laura Swain, an assistant curator at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Roots are still growing and storing energy during the winter months, and they need moisture to remain viable.
“This is particularly important for newly planted trees and shrubs,” she said.
Native, drought-tolerant plants will handily weather the current conditions because “they are more adapted to these fluctuations,” Swain said.
“One year like this doesn’t mean a collapse, but it is a concerning trend,” she said.
‘Might as well enjoy it’
For now, the low snow levels have some people looking at the silver linings, whether at ski resorts or at the businesses that rely on summer snowmelt or among metro residents who are enjoying the outdoors unexpectedly.
Kerry O’Connor, a spokeswoman for the Breckenridge Tourism Office, said that while skiing conditions weren’t ideal on the mountain over the Christmas holidays, visitors turned their attention — and dollars — to Main Street.
“Over the holidays and through New Year’s, Main Street saw quite a nice boost of people visiting shops and local restaurants,” she said. “That was a nice side effect for our retail side of things, even though the mountain was suffering.”
David Costlow, the executive director of the Colorado River Outfitters Association, pins his hopes for the upcoming rafting season, which depends on the spring runoff, on past experience — and an optimism that is requisite for someone in his position.
“We’ve seen times like this before — 2002 was very dry. In 2003, it was very dry in December, January, February,” he said. “Then, on the Front Range, we got a three-foot snow on March 17 that changed the whole season. It kept snowing and didn’t stop until June.”
Even with a snowpack at 70% of average in the spring, Costlow said, the season would be just fine.
“You may not have raging high water, which is OK with us. You may just have a shorter season,” he said. “We will still raft.”
Finally, there’s just the simple human joy of being able to strip down to shorts and a T-shirt in the middle of winter.
Nick Roberts didn’t mind the unusually mild morning on Wednesday. Dressed in shorts and a light jacket, he prepared for a short hike on South Table Mountain in Golden.
He knew that January mid-morning temperatures in the 40s weren’t normal and could portend a dry summer to come. But he felt there was little he could do about it.
As he headed up the trail, he said: “Might as well enjoy it.”
Staff writer Elise Schmelzer contributed to this story.
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Colorado
Avalanche vs. Kings Game 2: Key takeaways as Colorado wins OT thriller, takes 2-0 series lead
DENVER — When getting good looks but failing to finish against a locked-in goalie, it’s not easy to stick to a game plan. But instead of pressing, Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar’s group showed maturity, even after the Los Angeles Kings’ Artemi Panarin scored what could’ve been a back-breaking first goal of Game 2 late in the third period.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog buried a perfect pass from Martin Nečas three minutes after Panarin scored. Then Nicolas Roy scored the game-winner, giving Colorado a 2-1 win and 2-0 series lead.
“I liked our mentality again tonight,” Bednar said, adding that he was pleased with his team’s defensive effort. “That’s how we have to win. It’s good practice. It’s something we’ve been talking about all year, the importance of defending, and I’m happy with the commitment that we’re getting from our guys.”
The Avalanche led the league in goals scored this season, but they also were stingy defensively, allowing fewer goals than any other team. Through two games, they’ve shown a willingness to play tight-checking, low-scoring games and get the results they need.
“We have absolutely no problem playing this way,” said Landeskog, who scored from the slot after Nečas caught the previously-impenetrable Anton Forsberg out of position and set his captain up for an open look. “If you get a little impatient with it, you start forcing plays. And I thought tonight, we just kind of kept it going. Kept trusting our forecheck, and finally, we ended up getting rewarded for it.”
Colorado has controlled the series at five-on-five. The Kings’ only two goals have come on power plays, and Colorado had 79.05 percent of the expected goal share at five-on-five Tuesday, per Natural Stat Trick.
It was an odd night that included a broken glass delay, a choppy first period and a waved-off goal after a puck got lodged in the side of the net. Let’s dig into all of it.
Roy plays hero
With goalie Patrick Roy and forward Peter Forsberg’s retired numbers hanging in the Ball Arena rafters, it was probably a bit disorienting seeing a Roy score on a Forsberg in overtime. But that’s what happened when trade deadline addition Nic Roy backhanded a loose puck past Anton Forsberg’s left pad, punched the air and jumped into the glass in celebration.
The goal was Roy’s second overtime goal in his career. He scored the Game 4 winner for the Vegas Golden Knights in their 2021 conference final series against Montreal. That goal also came at the net-front.
“I like to be in (that) area, and a lot of those (overtime) goals are scored there,” Roy said. “So I try to be there as much as I can.”
“He’s a really smart player,” Nathan MacKinnon said. “It might not be everyone’s first pick (to score), but it takes a full team to win in the playoffs.”
Josh Manson fired a shot from the point to create chaos around the net ahead of Roy’s goal, and Bednar also credited Nazem Kadri with making a slick play to get the puck to his defenseman.
Physicality and a penalty parade define the first
D.J. Smith didn’t quite get his exact wish of his players hitting Colorado’s defensemen more in the first half of the first period, but he did get big hits. Shortly after Colorado’s Josh Manson laid a massive body check on Scott Laughton, Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson hit Martin Nečas in the neutral zone, seemingly catching him in the head.
Nečas went down, bloodied, and chaos ensued. Brett Kulak went after Anderson. Scrums broke out next to the Kings net. Sam Malinski brought down Quinton Byfield, and Mathieu Joseph did the same to Artturi Lehkonen. Anderson did not get a penalty for the hit, though he and Kulak were handed matching roughing minors. Kulak got an extra penalty for a cross check. (Nečas briefly left the game, presumably because he was pulled by a concussion spotter, but returned.)
“There were big hits,” Bednar said. “We gave some. We took some too, but it’s all right. That’s what’s going to happen this time of the year. You’re playing a big, strong, physical team, and sometimes I like it. Can wake some guys up if they’re not going, and you can ramp up your competitive spirit.”
It was the most dramatic stretch of a rugged first period that included seven minor penalties. The string of infractions slowed some of the momentum Colorado gathered from a furious start. The Avalanche led 9-0 in shots through the first 6:04. The period ended with Colorado leading 14-6 in shots.
After Anderson’s hit, scrums broke out after seemingly every whistle. At one point Jeff Malott caught Cale Makar with an elbow. Nečas also took a chance to hit Anderson toward the end of the period.
“There were a bunch of melees on the ice today,” Bednar said. “It felt like playoff hockey, which is the way you want it to feel. It tests your team, and it’s why it’s the most fun time of the year to play in the playoffs.”
In total, the period took around 45 minutes. The Kings got big saves from Anton Forsberg, allowing them to stay in the game and shift it into a rugged style that favored them, at least temporarily. It wasn’t enough in the end.
“To a man, this team’s playing hard,” Kings coach D.J. Smith added. “We have to find a way to win, though.”
Goalies continue strong start to the series
Darcy Kuemper started the year as Kings starter, but Anton Forsberg became their go-to goalie during their late-season playoff push. He has continued his strong play into the first round. In Game 1, he made 30 saves on 32 shots. He was sharp again Tuesday, helping the Kings withstand Colorado’s early onslaught of shots. Colorado gave him a tough look early in the second. Kadri fed Landeskog on the slot, and Forsberg managed to parry it away. Late in the second, he got in front of turnaround shots from both Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon. The Avalanche eventually beat him in the third when he overcommitted to Nečas, who instead passed to Landeskog in the slot.
He finished the night with 34 saves. He wasn’t quite able to make a 35th, giving up the game-winner to Roy.
“We’re right there, playing well,” Forsberg said. “We’re fighting hard. We just have to stick with it and turn this around.”
Across the ice, Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves. Panarin beat him with a dangerous shot from the slot for the lone goal he allowed in regulation, but overall he continued to give Colorado the dependable goaltending expected of him. His highlight came when he stopped Quinton Byfield on a penalty shot. He robbed Byfield again in overtime, making a glove save on a shot off the rush.
A penalty, a penalty shot and a long wait
Jeff Malott took an ill-advised boarding penalty on Artturi Lehkonen in one of many instances of the Kings’ fourth line toeing the line of too much physicality. The Avalanche were in position to gain the lead — or at least some momentum — but Cale Makar mishandled a puck at the blue line, leading to a Quinton Byfield breakaway. Makar got called for a hook as he raced back to catch the forward, and the referees awarded a penalty shot.
Byfield tried to beat Wedgewood glove side, but the goalie made the save. The crowd erupted in excitement, but that came with an unexpected drawback. Fans banged on the glass behind the Kings’ bench, and a pane of it shattered. Kings coach D.J. Smith got smothered with shards. It caused a 19-minute stoppage for clean up.
If the Wedgewood save was going to serve as momentum for the Avalanche power play, the delay stopped that. Nathan MacKinnon got called for interference on Alex Laferriere shortly after play resumed.
“I think the flow would kind of come and go a little bit,” MacKinnon said. “Not ideal with the glass, but it was the same for both teams.”
“They just handled it better coming out of that,” Bednar added.
MacKinnon and Bednar both felt the Avalanche were able to push the pace more in the second half of the second period.
Another waved-off goal
Sam Malinski fired a shot toward the net to start the third period. It got caught in the side of the net, but not on the inside. Malinski thought he scored, and the goal horn went off. After review, though, it was clear the puck was lodged on the side of the cage.
It was the second Avalanche goal waved off in as many games. Logan O’Connor had a goal waved off for goaltender interference last game.
Panarin shows why Kings traded for him
The Kings acquired Artemi Panarin from the Rangers to bring a gamebreaking offensive talent into a lineup that lacked it. He validated their trust late in the third period. He played his normal shift with the top power-play unit, then stayed on with the second grouping. Trevor Moore found him with a pass in the slot, and he buried it.
Colorado’s top skilled players had more chances than Los Angeles’, but Panarin came through when he got his best look of the night. He also scored the Kings’ only goal of Game 1.
(SOUTHERN COLORADO) — Spring brings the first fresh produce, which means it will soon be time for farmers’ markets to kick off around the area.
For those in Southern Colorado who want to buy their products from local vendors and growers, check out the list below.
North Colorado Springs
Western Museum of Mining and Industry
- 225 North Gate Boulevard, near the I-25 exit
- Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Runs from May through September
Briargate Farmers Market
- 7610 North Union Boulevard, near Briargate Boulevard
- Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Runs from May 27 through Sept. 30
Cordera
- 11894 Grandlawn Circle, near Briargate Parkway and North Union Boulevard
- Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Runs from May 24 through Sept. 6
Colorado Farm and Art Market
- 7350 Pine Creek Road, near East Woodmen Road and I-25
- Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Runs from June 20 through Oct. 17
Banning Lewis Ranch at Vista Park
- 8833 Vista Del Pico Boulevard, near Dublin Boulevard and Marksheffel Road
- Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Runs from May 28 through Aug. 27
Backyard Market in Black Forest
- 6845 Shoup Road, near Black Forest Road
- Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Runs from May 23 through Oct. 17
South Colorado Springs
Colorado Farm and Art Market
- 132 West Cimarron Street, at the corner of Sierra Madre Street, Downtown
- Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Runs from June 17 through Oct. 21
Old Colorado City Farmers Market
- Bancroft Park at West Colorado Avenue and South 24th Street in Old Colorado City
- Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Runs from June 6 through Oct. 17
Colorado Springs Sunday Market
- Acacia Park 115 East Platte Avenue, Downtown
- Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Runs from May 10 through Oct. 25
Southeast Farmer’s Market
- 2050 Jet Wing Drive, near Chelton Road
- Sundays from 11 a.m. through 3 p.m.
- Runs from June 14 through Oct. 11
Fountain
Fountain Community Market
- Metcalfe Park, 618 East Ohio Avenue, near Fountain Mesa Road
- Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Runs from May 30 through Sept. 26
Woodland Park
Woodland Park Farmers Market
- At Memorial Park, 117 Center Avenue, near East Lake Avenue
- Fridays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Runs from June through September
Pueblo
Pueblo Farmers Market
- Mineral Palace Park, 1604 North Santa Fe Avenue, at West 15th Street
- Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to noon
- Runs from May 2 through Oct. 31
Colorado
Thornton marks 70 years: Exhibit traces Colorado city’s roots from developer’s dream to thriving suburb
Seventy years ago, a housing developer looked at an empty stretch of land north of Denver and saw the future. What Sam Hoffman built there became the city of Thornton — and a free public exhibit is now telling that story for the first time in a generation.
CBS Colorado is excited to shine the spotlight on Thornton, as Colorado marks 150 years as a state.
“The history of Thornton is really the history of suburbia,” said Lance Jones, the historian and curator of the city’s 70th anniversary exhibit. “Thornton was planned. Thornton was intentionally created as a city.”
Hoffman, Jones explained, recognized an opportunity in the postwar boom. “He realized the Denver Metro area was going to really explode and he wanted in on the ground floor,” Jones said. To sell his 5,000 planned homes, Hoffman turned to an unlikely marketing asset — Hollywood.
Three of his employees happened to be the brothers of Jane Russell, one of the biggest film stars in America at the time. “She was an A-list actress. I mean, she was really top of the game,” Jones said. Hoffman asked the brothers if their sister might make an appearance, and she agreed.
“One day in 1954, his grand opening celebration, she came out. And a lot of people came out to see her — big, big crowd,” Jones said. “Thousands of people showed up to see her, to get a glimpse, to take a picture.” Russell would return to Thornton more than three decades later, appearing at the opening of the Thornton Parkway interchange in 1986.
The homes Russell helped promote were advertised at $9,950, with a down payment for GI’s of $532.30 and a monthly mortgage of $65. Jones noted those were not trivial sums for working families of the era. “That represented a big chunk of the average person’s paycheck. People would have to save up for that,” Jones said.
A Denver Post clipping from Jan. 31, 1954, on display at the exhibit, documents the arrival of the city’s first residents. “This is one of the first families in Thornton moving in,” Jones said. “This was a unique thing. They created the city. It just sprang from nothing.”
By 1956, residents had established enough civic infrastructure to pursue formal incorporation. “There were a lot of civic organizations, a lot of clubs, a lot of veterans organizations — it was a big joiner kind of town,” Jones said. “And, eventually, in 1956, they were able to get incorporated.”
That civic spirit, Jones argued, never left. “The culture here in Thornton kind of developed from that. It’s still a city with a lot of civic involvement, a lot of events, a lot of cohesion.”
The exhibit highlights several residents whose stories reflect the city’s early character. Among the artifacts is a cheerleading uniform that belonged to Loretta Garcia — the first baby born in Thornton after its incorporation. She and the city share the same milestone birthday. “Thornton is 70, and so is she,” Jones said. Garcia was delivered at home on Rowena Street because the trip to a Denver hospital was considered too far. “The doctor came up here and delivered her at home.”
Another featured resident is Norma Ellman, a Thornton High School teacher, who in 1956 traveled to California to compete on a CBS game show called “High Finance.” She won the equivalent of what Jones estimates would be more than $1 million today. The victory was significant enough that the mayor authorized Ellman to present the show’s host with a key to the city of Thornton.
Jones said the exhibit is designed to connect newer residents with the people who built the community, noting that from its earliest days Thornton had a strong Hispanic presence that continues today alongside a growing diversity of other ethnicities.
“The younger people really do need to hear from the folks who made Thornton, Thornton,” Jones said. “You have to know where we came from to know where we’re going.”
The 70th anniversary exhibit is free and open to the public at the Thornton Arts and Culture Annex. Visit this page for days and hours.
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