Only 16 miles from Vail, a small sign on the side of Highway 24 announces the town in the small valley below: Red Cliff. Sitting at an elevation of 8,650 feet, Red Cliff’s history is rich and complex, and the survival of the town to day is thanks to the staunch mountain dwellers who refuse to abandon their quiet valley nook and the locals who commute down to work in the resort areas of Beaver Creek and Vail.
Photo courtesy of Maddie Rhodes
Red Cliff is the oldest town in Eagle County, named for the red-hued quartzite cliffs hanging above valley dwellers. Originally, it was part of Summit County when the bounds included both of the current Summit and Eagle counties, and it was home to the first county seat. Red Cliff is known today as a small, quiet town with the restaurant Mango’s offering tacos, burgers, beer and margaritas. The school has been converted to the town’s community center and historical museum. Only one hotel and small convenience store remains. It is the idyllic environment for fly fishing in Turkey Creek or the Eagle River, backcountry skiing, cross country skiing, trail running, hiking, mountain biking, wildflower viewing, wildlife spotting and so much more.
Towns like Red Cliff are a reminder of centuries past — when settlers rushed toward suspected riches and spent decades digging deeper and deeper into the bellies of mountains seeking precious metals. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the silver boom in Leadville encouraged miners to further explore the Colorado mountains and their potential for riches. Officially established in 1879 when prospectors traveled over Tennessee Pass from Leadville in search of more minerals, Red Cliff was a mining town and “the first permanent settlement on the Eagle River,” writes Shirley Welch in her book The Eagle River Valley. The town supported a population of less than 100 before the town boomed to life just a year later. By the mid-1880s, the town supported a population that “peaked at about 400,” says Dave Southworth in Colorado Mining Camps, before dropping to around 250, which it sustains today.
Like many other mining towns, Red Cliff was born of a riverside mining settlement, inhabited predominantly by men. By 1881, though, the Denver Rio Grande Railway reached the small town with passenger service trains. At the turn of the century, the town boasted an opera house, saloons, a school, a bank, sawmills, many hotels, three grocery stores, two drug stores, one clothing store, a post office, a meat market, stationary and newspaper stores and more. Living in Red Cliff offered every amenity as other new mountain towns, and it succumbed to the same pitfalls. In the early 1880s, fires repeatedly destroyed parts of the town constructed of timber and canvas. Red Cliff lacked a water system, so when sparks flew, they were nearly impossible to stop. The town built a water system in 1887, helping to prevent the spread of future flames.
Colorado declared its statehood in 1876, and citizens of Colorado demanded that the Ute people be removed from land that could be mined, ranched or farmed. On the Western Slope, new settlers defended themselves and actively fought against the nomadic Ute people, whose way of life worked against private land ownership. The Ute traversed the land of present day Colorado and Utah for countless generations before settlers and miners arrived. Nathan C. Meeker served as the Indian Agent of White River Indian Reserve in 1878, and after attempting to force the Ute people to settle on the Indian Reserve and become an agrarian people, shots rang out signaling a war between the Ute and the white settlers. No one knows which side fired the first shot, but the bloodshed outside of present day Meeker is a reminder that the land we call home in Colorado belonged to the native Ute people first. In fact, Welch writes that “As far back as 8,000 years, archaic humans . . . roamed the Eagle River Valley . . . When they disappeared, new people took their place. They were called Ute Indians.” The Meeker Massacre was the catalyst for the remaining Ute people to be pushed to the Uintah reservation in Utah.
Though the Meeker Massacre occurred near present day Meeker, over 150 miles away from Red Cliff, word spread of the rising tensions between Ute and settlers about the possibility that Utes were on their way to Red Cliff, ready for war. The settlers of Red Cliff acted fast, building a small fort on top of one of the cliffs in town. It was known as Fort Arnett, and allowed the settlers to see an expanse of land from which they expected the Ute people to appear. Despite their preparation, the Ute never arrived to attack Red Cliff, and soon life in the small town went back to normal. Fort Arnett no longer stands, but there is now an American flag on the cliff where it stood in the center of town.
By 1900, the town of Red Cliff began to decline as mines closed. Many of its residents moved on to other towns and other mines. Those who stayed in Red Cliff kept the town alive. Many residents worked other mines, like the Gilman mines down the road, but the valley community lasted.
Photo courtesy of Eagle Valley Library District
The Red Cliff bridge is one of many iconic American bridges described as “spectacular” in The Bridges of Eagle County by Kathy Heicher. It was “completed in 1941 . . . a product of the ambitious road improvement programs born out of the Great Depression.” The bridge was a feat of engineering. Now, it has been declared one of Colorado’s endangered sites. This indication does not mean it is unsafe, only that it is a piece of history that should be preserved and enjoyed by many generations past, present and future. The bridge was notably built without a single accident, despite the dangers of building a bridge over a deep gulch on the cliffside road that is Highway 24.
The cliff at the edge of Red Cliff is known by legend as “Lover’s Leap.” The story goes that two Native American tribes — the Arapaho and Ute — were at war with each other over land. During the conflict, an Arapaho brave fell in love with a Ute maiden. When the Ute tribe earned the upper hand, the Arapaho brave swept the Ute maiden onto his horse so they could run away together. When they were pursued by Utes, Welch writes, “In stead of separating, the lovers jumped off the top of the cliff and lived forever together in the next world.” Today, the cliff comes into view with the Red Cliff bridge in the background, reminding residents and visitors of the centuries of legends and lore defining the town.
Red Cliff’s history is palpable in its historic buildings, dirt roads and cemetery with graves dating back to the town’s initial years. Though it is not the bustling town it once was, it’s worth a stop; have a drink at Mango’s, take a walk through the cemetery and see the names of families who built and still inhabit the Vail Valley, and imagine how it must have felt to arrive in the town on a passenger train in 1881.
