When you purchase real estate in Breckenridge, you get more than a house in Summit County, Colorado. Fulltime residents, along with Breckenridge vacation-home owners, become tightly woven into the tapestry of the rich Breckenridge community and continue to make history. During the upcoming Kingdom Days Celebration of the heritage of Breckenridge, buyers looking for some Breckenridge real estate can preview some of the town’s history. But the red carpet will roll out when she celebrates her 150th anniversary in 2009 during the Grand Celebration.
Most people are aware of stories of Breckenridge’s Victorian real estate—former hotels, saloons, and brothels—and the explorations, gold booms and busts, and a rowdy mountain lifestyle. Kingdom Days are a reference to a time between the mid 1800s until 1936 when the community was inadvertently left off the official U.S. maps. Having no reference point, the town became known as “Colorado’s Kingdom.” The mistake was finally discovered during the official incorporation. So, the fun-loving Kingdom Days reminds us of a little slice of unique history that made this Victorian mining and resort town what it is today.
During the summertime guided or self-guided walking tours through the historical museums, new residents and visitors learn how a small group of men and one woman founded the town in 1859 to establish some type of governance for the droves of settlers who came from across the country and around the world to seek their fortunes.
Some people did find gold but all discovered the glory and bounty of the Ten Mile Range. One of these people was Father John Lewis Dyer, an itinerant Methodist minister who made his way in the 1860s. Father Dyer regularly skied across the Continental Divide on 12-foot long wooden skis to deliver the Gospel, sacks of gold, and mail to the mining population. He founded a Methodist Church in 1880, which is still active today.
Another was Edwin Carter who first came to participate in the gold rush, but when he saw the destruction that mining and a growing population wreaked on local wildlife, he changed goals. During his career as a naturalist, Carter assembled over 15,000 specimens, many of which are displayed at the Carter Museum in town and at the Denver Museum of Natural History.
Barney Ford became the town’s first black businessman when his Chophouse opened. , and he is considered Colorado’s first great leader of African American heritage. His fine home is now the Barney Ford House Museum that highlights his life story: an escape from slavery, work with the Underground Railroad in Chicago, far-flung business endeavors, and starting the first adult-education program in the state. He became rich from investing in the Oro Mine and Mill in French Gulch.
On July 23, 1887, the largest gold nugget ever found in the state of Colorado was discovered here by Tom Groves. “Tom’s Baby” weighed in at 13.5 pounds but was not seen for 85 years after he put it on a train to Denver. In 1972, the Colorado State Historical Museum examined gold specimens that had been deposited in a Denver bank in 1926 and found all but five pounds of Tom’s Baby.
Stay tuned for more adventures after you contact Jonna Beardsley at (970) 453-2200 for information about available real estate in the area.
