Basalt’s 125th Anniversary: Midland Avenue History and Events

The red caboose outside Town Hall at 101 Midland Ave sits on a triangle of land that once had a job. The Basalt Chamber's historic walking tour says it was the original Wye, where three tracks met so trains could turn around. Every drive into downtown loops around what was a railroad turnaround, and everything else in the old town grew up beside it.

Basalt incorporated on October 8, 1901. This year that date falls on a Thursday, and the town's birthday party follows two days later, on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Arbaney Park. Most of the 125 years can still be seen on a normal walk through downtown.

A Junction Before It Was a Town

The Chamber's history describes a place that was named after things passing through. Frying Pan Junction came first, in 1882. Aspen Junction was forming by about 1885. The Colorado Midland Railway arrived in 1887. A post office opened on February 13, 1890. On June 19, 1895, the town changed its name from Aspen Junction to Basalt because its mail kept getting mixed up with Grand Junction's.

According to the walking tour, Aspen Junction had a "boarding house, general store and seven saloons" by 1886. It was a railroad camp for the crews building the Colorado Midland. The incorporated town came well after the railroad camp, and the years between are what built the downtown.

Sources for the table: the Chamber's history page and its walking tour.

Two Fires Explain Why the West End Is Brick

On a single short stretch of Midland Avenue, the buildings line up with this timeline. The walking tour puts the 1886 Colorado Midland Depot in front of 137 Midland Ave, where Alpine Bank is now. It was the first passenger stop and mail station in the central Roaring Fork Valley, and many new arrivals spent their first night sleeping on its benches. The 1892 fire destroyed it completely, and it was quickly rebuilt.

Up the street at 165 Midland Ave is the Colorado Midland Hotel, built in 1896 with 10 sleeping rooms, a dining hall and a saloon. It changed owners and uses many times during the slow decades. In 1965, as the ski areas up valley began to bring in money, it became a restaurant again with apartments upstairs. Today it houses Tempranillo, which lists dinner daily from 5 to 9 p.m.

At 104 Midland Ave, the Snell Building started out around 1890 as Frank Snell's home. Snell was an engineer for the Colorado Midland. The 1897 fire, which again hit the western end of town, destroyed the house, and he rebuilt it in brick. The tour's verdict on the building today is that "little has changed today except for its use."

A railroad engineer chose brick after a second fire, and that is why one corner of downtown looks the way it does. The town was shaped by the railroad's needs in both its street layout and its building materials.

The Ranch Half of the Story Is Where the Party Is

The railroad explains how downtown is laid out. The ranches explain why Basalt held on after the mining boom ended. The walking tour says settlers came in 1880 to good soil and grass, and that 20 families had land by 1881. They raised cattle, vegetables and hay for themselves and for the miners pouring into the valley.

Families from the Aosta valley in Italy's Western Alps became part of that ranching base. The tour says they saw a resemblance to home and bought farm and ranch land instead of continuing as miners in Aspen. Their stop on the tour is off Cottonwood Drive, between the elementary and middle schools. By 1922 potatoes were the valley's biggest crop. At the peak, the Roaring Fork Valley shipped more than 3.5 million pounds a year to outside markets, and the crop carried many families through the Great Depression. That stop is next to 227 Midland Ave.

That history makes Arbaney Park a fitting place for the celebration. The Arbaney Barn, a horse and hay barn from the Arbaney ranch, is the ranching stop on the Chamber's tour. Aspen Public Radio's event listing invites people to tour inside the barn during Saturday's celebration. The barn has no confirmed regular public hours this fall, so Saturday is the opening that is certain.

Basalt Chamber Director Kris Mattera told The Aspen Times that the event takes its inspiration from the 2001 centennial. She said that "much of that founding history is still visible around town today," and she also noted the Ute tribe's deep roots in the area and that it is the tribe's ancestral land.

Saturday at Arbaney Park

The Town of Basalt's announcement lists a full afternoon from noon to 6:30 p.m.

• History tours led by the Basalt Regional Heritage Society
• A Ute Tribal performance
• Live music from A Band Called Alexis and Malqueridøs
• Lunch from the Basalt Lions Club, plus local farmers selling fall produce
• For kids: pumpkin crafts from The Art Base, a bouncy house and obstacle courses run by the Basalt Regional Library, and a kids' lemonade stand
• The 125th anniversary photo at 1 p.m. in the park
• A community pie contest with fruit, non-fruit and kids 14-and-under categories. Bring two pies to the Arbaney Park picnic shelter between noon and 2 p.m.

The Town asks people to walk, bike, ride RFTA or use Basalt Connect if they can. Drivers should park at Basalt Elementary or Basalt Middle School and take the path to the park. ADA parking is available at Arbaney Park. "We added one more event to come together as a community and celebrate 125 years of our beautiful mountain town," Mayor Pro Tem Hannah Berman told The Aspen Times.

The heritage society leading the tours was founded in 2005. Its archived photographs and interviews with longtime residents are kept at the Basalt Regional Library, which also has recorded history talks available.

A Walk That Follows the Timeline

The Chamber's historic walking tour starts at the caboose. Bear paws set into the sidewalks around town mark the route. Walked in this order, the stops roughly follow the town's history in sequence:

1. The Wye at 101 Midland Ave. This is the railroad turnaround the town grew around.
2. The depot site in front of 137 Midland Ave. Arrivals slept here on their first night, and the building was rebuilt after the 1892 fire.
3. The Colorado Midland Hotel at 165 Midland Ave. Built in 1896, it returned to restaurant use in 1965 and is a good place to time dinner.
4. The Snell Building at 104 Midland Ave. Rebuilt in brick after the 1897 fire.
5. The Swinging Bridge, reached between 211 and 227 Midland Ave. A wooden wagon bridge for the Aspen-to-Glenwood stage crossed the Fryingpan here from 1880 and washed out over and over until the town replaced it in 2001.
6. The Riverside Drive bridge over the Fryingpan. In 1937 the Colorado Highway Department took over the original railroad bridge near the confluence and turned it into a highway bridge for Highway 82.
7. The charcoal kilns off Elk Run Drive. Aspen Silver Co. built seven kilns here in 1884 from unfired brick and native stone to supply charcoal to Aspen's smelters. They are a tour stop, but current access at the site is not confirmed, so view them from the route.

The tour also lists the Luchsinger Halfway House across from 145 Riverside Drive, an early-1880s stage-line lodging house. It is private property, and the Chamber asks walkers to respect that.

The 2001 bridge and the 2001 centennial both fall within the town's last 25 years. The Wye, the depot block and the brick on Snell's corner are from the first 25, and they are still in use.

The rest of fall continues the anniversary weekend. Public Works takes leaves and small yard waste at 20536 CO 82 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 10, 17, 24 and 31 and Nov. 7. TACAW in Willits hosts the Backcountry Symposium and AVSC Sports Swap on Oct. 17, The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Oct. 30 and Margaret Glaspy on Nov. 8. The 2026–2027 Discover Basalt guide, published by WDR Aspen with the Basalt Chamber, is built around the 125th anniversary and ties the history to today's neighborhoods and landmarks.

Knowing which Midland Avenue corner survived which fire is the kind of local detail Theo Williams brings to every conversation about the Roaring Fork Valley. If you are curious how Basalt's historic downtown blocks fit into the valley today, Theo is glad to walk it with you.