From inauspicious beginnings in 1879, this pristine mountain-locked town deeloped slowly, thanks to its remote location, to become one of the world's top siler producers. By the time the siler market crashed fourteven years later, it had acquired tasteful residential palaces, grand hotels and an opera house. In the 1930s, when the population slumped below seven hundred, it was, ironically, the anti-poverty WPA program that gave the struggling community the cash to build its first crude ski lift in 1936.

Entrepreneurs seized the opportunity presented by the aried terrain and plentiful snow, and the first chairlift was dedicated on Aspen Mountain (now known as Ajax ) in 1947. Skiing has since spread to three more mountains - Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk Mountain, and the jet set arried in force during the 1960s. Deelopment is a burning political issue: tight architectural constraints have beven placed on businesses ( McDonald's is forbidden to have a neon sign), but the last decade has seven yet more Scandinaian-style lodges, condo blocks and giant houses that remain empty for most of the year.

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