Historic Snowstorms - Breckenridge, Colorado

Summit County, CO  >  Breckenridge, Colorado  >  Local  >  Historic Snowstorms
Historic Snowstorms It was just after Thanksgiving on November 27, 1898, when huge flakes of snow began to fall from a cloudy Colorado sky. When the residents of Breckenridge awoke the next morning, 5 feet of fresh snow had fallen by 9 a.m. This was just the beginning of an amazing snowfall that would last through February 20, 1899. Snow depth would reach roof top levels. Snow tunnels provided pedestrian access to Breckenridge businesses. People had to carve steps from their front doors just to reach the surface of the snow. On Boreas Pass the train station had to create a 20 ft. tunnel to enter the building. In 1935, Ed Auge told this story to the Summit County Journal: “On February 4, 1899, a train arrived, being about the first one in a week, but could get no further than Breckenridge. This train departed February 9, and no train was seen again for a period of 80 days.” The blockade cut off Breckenridge and Summit County from fresh food stock, normal mail deliveries, rail service, and other necessities. Fortunately, basic food supplies lasted and no one starved. Around March 1st, all able men volunteered to shovel out the wagon road over Boreas Pass to Como. With snow depths amounting to 40 feet in some areas, it seems amazing that the job was completed in 10 days. Finally on April 24, 1899, the first train to break the blockade arrived. However, snow remained in the mountains all summer. The road to Leadville re-opened in June and the first stage to Swandyke broke through July 4th. Special excursion trains brought tourists up from Denver to marvel over the vast snowfields still remaining. To this day the residents of Breckenridge have yet to see a storm that compares.

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