Date: Friday, January 7, 1955
Headline: Aerial Tram To Be Built Up Prospect
Body: An aerial passenger tramway will be built this spring to the top of Big Prospect Mountain, just south of Estes Park Village, it was learned this week.
The single span will be 2630 feet long, with a vertical rise of 1060 feet, according to Robert Heron of the Heron Engineering Company of Denver. The company has purchased 240 acres of land on the mountain, and the lower terminal will be on land owned by the Crags Lodge.
An access construction road has already been built to the top of Prospect Mountain, and construction of the tram will start about April 1. Completion will be in 90 days, Heron said.
The tram will have two gondola passenger cars, capable of hauling 12 passengers each to the top of the mountain. The electric power unit will be on top. Gondolas will be supported by 1-1/4-inch steel cables capable of withstanding the 25 tons of tension which will be on each of them. Several safety devices will be incorporated in the tram.
Cost of the project is estimated at $150,000. A company is being formed to own it.
The Heron Engineering firm is one of the leaders in the nation in the field of ski lift and tram construction. Among the chair lifts constructed by the firm are those at Aspen, Arapahoe Basin, Berthoud Pass, Alta, Utah, and several to California.
Heron said it will not be necessary to cut any trees in order to install the tram; it will go above them. There will be a terrific scenic view from the top of the mountain, revealing all the country around the village, and to the west in the Continental Divide.
The line of the tram will follow, approximately, the present television cable line that goes up the side of Prospect Mountain. The parking area, capable of handling about 50 cars, will be between the highway intersection and the road leading to the Crags.
Date: Friday, March 25, 1955
Headline: Works Starts Soon On Estes Park Aerial Tram
Body: Work will start about the first of April on the aerial tram which goes from near the Crags to the brow of Prospect Mountain, it was learned this week from Bob Heron, head of his Denver engineering firm and co-developer of the project.
The cost of the tramway installation is estimated at $80,000, and of the facilities connected with it some $10,000. The corporation has purchased land and leased land over which the project will be operated, and the construction road has been built from near Estes Park’s water filtration and chlorination plant to the top of Prospect.
Mr. Heron has recently returned from a European trip where he inspected aerial tram equipment, and ordered a great many of the pieces of equipment which will be used here.
The tram will be of the to-and-fro bi-cable type, with one span 2,560 feet long, well above the trees which cover the slopes of the mountain.
Two passenger cabins will be provided, each will have a 12-passenger capacity. The hourly capacity will be 240 passengers. The vertical rise will be about 1,050 feet, and the view from the top will be a superb one of the Big Thompson Valley, as well as of the Continental Divide to the west, and the plains to the east.
With construction scheduled to begin about April 1, Mr. Heron believes that his company will have the tram in operation about July 1, barring difficulties unforeseen.
Officers and directors of the tramway corporation are: Robert Heron, president; Kenneth W. Heron, vice president; Winston S. Howard, Denver, director; W.F. Voelker, Denver, secretary.
Date: Friday, May 13, 1955
Headline: Blasted Rock, Heavy Snow Knock Out TV Line Monday Night
Body: A combination of circumstances played hob with TV reception on the community line over the weekend and Monday night.
Reception was bad over the weekend, but it was not until Monday evening that it went out completely, and owner Dick Statham of the Estes Park TV Company was able to discover the reason.
On Thursday of last week, Cliff Fulton set off a big dynamite blast on the crest of Big Prospect to make way for the aerial tram tower being constructed there. A 500-pound boulder flew several hundred feet down the mountainside, sheared off a tree, and felled it on the TV cable. That made reception bad, but it was not until Monday’s heavy snow came that the additional weight broke the line in two.
“The snow finished the job,” said Statham, “but it also enabled us to definitely locate the break, and repair it.”
Date: Friday, July 1, 1955
Headline: Traffic Ordinance Is Read, Introduced At Board Meeting Monday
Body: A standard traffic ordinance was read and introduced Monday night at the regular meeting of the town board. A publication in this issue calls for a hearing on it and eventual passage.
The ordinance will make local traffic regulations conform with others throughout the state and nation.
E.A. Armstrong, representative of the new aerial tramway up Prospect Mountain, appeared to appeal the town decision that water will be furnished at the facility when the property is annexed. He said that the by-laws of the corporation do not allow annexation. The proposal was turned over to Town Attorney Hatfield Chilson for study, and a decision.
Several committee reports completed the short board session.
Date: Friday, June 24, 1960
Column title: Corral Dust
Excerpt: The Aerial Tram is one of the better all-around indexes of business. Army Armstrong allows as how they’re able to “keep ahead of the bill collectors”…and that business is slightly ahead of last year.
Date: Friday, September 25, 1964
Column title: Corral Dust
Excerpt: Army Armstrong was telling us this week of the prize remark that originated this summer at the Aerial Tram. It seems that a young employee was always forgetting that parents and children [who] went up together should come down together; Army even warned him that his next mistake would cost him his job. One July day, the young operator was about to descend with three nuns and some other passengers when he noticed young urchins outside the cage. He turned to the nuns and inquired: “Are those your children?” Thereafter the young fellow was known as “Stupe’ – short for Stupid.
Date: Friday, July 16, 1965
Headline: $1300 Stolen From Aerial Tram Safe
Body: A safe in the office of the Aerial Tramway was opened sometime between 10:30 p.m. Sunday night and 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, and six bags of money containing about $1300 were stolen, according to Deputy Sheriff Joe Harbaugh.
Mr. Harbaugh said that entry into the building was not forced, and that the safe had apparently been opened by someone who knew the combination.
Two of the money bags were found empty and partially burned in a heavily wooded area along Highway 7 across the road from Wind River Lodge, Mr. Harbaugh said.
Jim McManus, assistant manager of the Tramway, has been in charge during the absence of Manager Pete Lohdenpera, who is ill with tick fever. Deputy Sheriff Harbaugh says he is following several leads on the robbery.
(Note: To the best of our knowledge, except for last year’s pandemic interruption, the Aerial Tramway has operated faithfully every summer since 1955, suffering no major accidents or lengthy interruptions, although there were a few unscheduled shutdowns for repairs, and one delay caused by an inability to get replacement parts. One physics major working at the Aerial Tramway in 1963 calculated that the tram’s rise in altitude moved an individual far enough away from the center of the earth to weigh approximately 0.01 pounds less at the top of Prospect Mountain than at the bottom. The view from the top was captured most famously by a photograph accompanying the gatefold of a Denver woman featured in the November 1964 issue of Playboy.)
