Mary Eshbaugh Hayes | The Aspen Historical Society
“Local resources need advertising,” claimed J. Will Thomas of Kansas City in the Aspen Daily Times on Sept. 13, 1908. Thomas urged a boosting campaign for “surrounding scenery and what possibilities are offered in Pitkin County,” and went on to describe many places, including “another drive which has a world of possibilities, and yet is comparatively little frequented even by residents of Aspen, is the Brush Creek Road. You are all familiar with this road for a few miles out of Aspen, as it winds its way up the beautiful valley. But, do you know that the farther you go the prettier it gets? Try it on its full course of 30 miles, 60 on the round trip, through a country worth seeing.”
To get there in those days, you had to drive up Owl Creek Road, as pictured, to Brush Creek since what is now Highway 82 was the Colorado Midland Railroad.