Skiers love Winter Park's Cranmer trail. The broad, intermediate-level run encourages speed, making everyone feel like a kid – exactly what George Cranmer envisioned when he proposed a "winter playground" for Denver in 1938.
Railroad access from Denver through the Moffat Tunnel (completed in 1927) made the idea possible, but creative financing made it real. Cranmer, an ex-stockbroker who became Mayor Stapleton's parks and improvements manager in 1935, developed the resort with city money, Depression-era New Deal programs and private donations.
Although lift tickets cost just $1 in 1939-40. the park's first season, the high cost of train travel restricted skiing mainly to locals. It wasn't until the 1960s and '70s that Cranmer's vision of a thriving ski industry really took off.
Originally a Denver Mountain Park, the resort now operates under a 2002 agreement between the city and a for-profit corporation.
Source:
Colorado: A History of the Centennial State, Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, Thomas J. Noel
