Aspen, Colorado

Aspen is the largest city and county seat of Pitkin County, Colorado. Founded as a mining camp in the Colorado Silver Boom, the city is now a ski resort and cultural center, named because of the abundance of aspen trees in the area. The city emerged as a skiing mecca following World War II and the foundation of the Aspen Skiing Company by Walter Paepcke, a Chicago industrialist who sought to create a utopian community of the mind and body. Paepcke's legacy of the Aspen/Snowmass resorts, along with such institutions as the Aspen Institute, have made the city a year-round international destination for recreation, business, and intellectual discourse. In the late 20th century, the city developed as an off-beat haven for misfits, attracting such free spirits as John Denver and Hunter S. Thompson, who was glorified by many locals for his embodiment of the "freak power" ethic of the community.

Further reading

• Malcolm Rohrbough, Aspen: The History of a Silver Mining Town 1879-1893, Oxford University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-19-564064-3
• Frank L. Wentworth of Aspen (1866-1942), Aspen on the Roaring Fork, Sundance Publication, hardcover, ISBN 1112829911 (earlier editions exist), (common in the used book market, look on ABE)