{"id":2453240,"date":"2020-01-14T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=319098"},"modified":"2020-01-14T22:20:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T05:20:00","slug":"new-willoughby-book-traces-aspens-beginnings-and-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/new-willoughby-book-traces-aspens-beginnings-and-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"New Willoughby book traces Aspen\u2019s beginnings and evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Writer, educator and Aspen native Tim Willoughby will speak about his new book, \u201cBackside of Aspen Mountain: How Five Men Forged a Community,\u201d at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Aspen Historical Society\u2019s Wheeler\/Stallard Museum, 620 W. Bleeker St.<\/strong>
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You might know of Tim Willoughby from his time teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College, or through his weekly musings on local history in The Aspen Times.<\/p>\n

Willoughby, 71, will be in Aspen on Wednesday to promote and sign his new book \u201cBackside of Aspen Mountain: How Five Men Forged a Community.\u201d His talk, hosted by the Aspen Historical Society, begins at 4:30 p.m. at Wheeler\/Stallard Museum, 620 W. Bleeker St.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to get as much information about Aspen\u2019s history as possible,\u201d Willoughby said in a recent telephone interview. He currently lives near Santa Cruz, California, and stays active in politics and writes columns for two local newspapers. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my lifetime trying to correct misinformation by having a book out there for people to read and understand the history of Aspen.\u201d<\/p>\n

A common misconception, Willoughby noted, is that Jerome Wheeler, the mining magnate president of R. H. Macy & Co., lived in Aspen. He did not, but B. Clark Wheeler, no relation to Jerome, paid his Aspen dues in spades \u2014 after all, he helped found the town.<\/p>\n

Both Wheelers get ample attention in the book, which notes, \u201cIf you walk Aspen\u2019s streets today, you will find two iconic Victorian structures associated with the name Wheeler, the Wheeler Opera House and the Hotel Jerome; but that is a different Wheeler, Jerome B. Wheeler. The contrast between the two Wheelers highlights the difference between an outside capitalist and a pioneer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That contrast and other stories of Aspen, from its evolution from a mining town to a global skiing destination, are highlighted in the book, which Willoughby actually embarked on writing in 1975.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I first started writing it,\u201d he said. \u201cI would write and then I wouldn\u2019t be happy with what I was writing, and I\u2019d given up on it for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willoughby enjoyed access to a trove of documents, photos and other relics of Aspen lore through his family archives, which date back to the 1880s when they arrived to the valley. His new books covers five men over three generations in Aspen.<\/p>\n

His grandfather, Fred D. Willoughby, arrived in Aspen in the 19th century and became interested in mining, and his father would be immersed in the trade and get know such old-time miners as John Atkinson, for example, by working at Little Annie mine on Aspen Mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of family archives that no one else has access to,\u201d said the younger Willoughby, an Aspen native whose childhood memories include picnicking on the backside of Aspen Mountain, home of both the Little Annie and Midnight mines.<\/p>\n

The Willoughby family holds a prominent role in the book, and the writer said he struggled with that fact. But the facts are that Willoughby family members served as mayor, mine operators and other significant positions during Aspen\u2019s first 60 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just sort of worked out that way,\u201d he said. \u201cI had all of this information about them and after I did all of this research, they really were important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBackside of Aspen Mountain\u201d is available at Explore Booksellers in Aspen, Bookbinders Basalt and Book Grove in Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer, educator and Aspen native Tim Willoughby will speak about his new book, \u201cBackside of Aspen Mountain: How Five Men Forged a Community,\u201d at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Aspen Historical Society\u2019s Wheeler\/Stallard Museum, 620 W. Bleeker St. You might know of Tim Willoughby from his time teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2453240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-28 10:14:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}