The History of the Buildings at Berthoud Pass

The Summit House:

The first building at the Summit of Berthoud Pass was a tollgate and home of Captain Gaskill. Today, the tollgate would have been on the west side of U. S. Highway 40.

It was referred to as the Summit House. The Tollgate was built by “Taking care to have one-half on the waters of the Pacific, the other on the Atlantic, and is now known as the Summit House, Berthoud Pass.1”

The photo above is used with permission from the Grand County Historical Association.

Frank S. Byers wrote a “History of Berthoud Pass” in the 1923 Municipal Facts: “In 1874 Capt. Gaskill and others started to build a wagon road across the continental divide into Grand country. Mr. Gaskill built a road house at the summit of the pass which became well known for its hospitality.”

An article in the Summer 1984 Alpenglow Magazine called “High Road Over the Rockies” by Jake Wilcott describes the tollgate: “One of the dominant individuals in the company that financed the toll road, Captain Lewis Dewitt Gaskill, deserves special mention. His rank he acquired from a particularly bloody Civil War encounter. His prominence, youthful though he was at the time (34 when the road was completed), was due to his successful development of a highly profitable mine in the Idaho Springs area. He was not so successful, however, that he was above putting himself and his family in a position of hardship.

That was at the Summit House, a 10-room log cabin erected at the top of the pass. In it, the Gaskill family lived for 10 years, taking tolls and taking in travelers when the weather became intolerable.”

The Old Stage Coach Routes in Middle Park 1870 – 1910 booklet by the Grand County Historical Association states: “At the summit there rose a large house, forty feet by eighteen, of hewn logs with a ‘ten foot storey.’ For more than a year after the road opened Lewis Gaskill and his family occupied the house where he ‘not only saw to the collection of tolls but succored the storm bound.”

1Harrison, Louise C. Empire and the Berthoud Pass published by Big Mountain Press, Denver 1964 Page 240

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The Berthoud Pass Inn

The Berthoud Pass Inn was built by Charles Fitchett in the early 1920’s. The forty-foot square building served motorists sandwiches, soft drinks and souvenirs. At first it was open only in the summer because the road would close with the heavy snows, but when the road remained open all year round, so did the Inn. A cabin on the east side of the Inn that had six sleeping rooms. The Berthoud Pass Inn was struck by lightning and dismantled in 1939. There are many wonderful photos of the Inn and only a few are here. A great resource for discovering more is the Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection on line.2 The photos below are from this source with the exception of the photo in the lower right-hand corner. This photo has been donated by Daryl Boone, owner of the Glenbrook Gallery in Empire, Colorado and shows the Inn under construction in 1925.

The Berthoud Pass Shelter

2 Pages 439 – 440. The History of the Buildings at Berthoud Pass (PAW 2012) 2

The Shelter construction was begun by S. S. Huntington in 1943. Construction was slow because of the demands of World War II. Harrison writes that the work was almost completed when on November 17, 1946, a fire razed the shelter house as well as the new engine house and its machinery.3

All of the photos below are from the U. S. Forest Service. The top two are dated February 15, 1942 and the bottom one is dated February 25, 1946.

1947 dated photos from the Grand

3 Pages 440 -441 The History of the Buildings at Berthoud Pass (PAW 2012) 3

County Historical Association

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The Berthoud Pass Lodge

Louise Harrison in her book Empire and The Berthoud Pass provides the following information on the beginning of the Lodge. The U. S. Forest Service granted a permit to “Sam” Huntington, William W. Grant III, Henry W. Toll and Morrison Shafroth to a new lodge of native stone and logs.

The Lodge was opened in December 1949 and had a cocktail lounge, a public lounge, a dining room and dormitories.

Photo from an old postcard.

The author met Harlan “Bud” O’Conner in 1998 at the Lodge and he gave her several old photos of when he first visited Berthoud Pass in 1952. These photos are his.

Author’s note: it is thought that the long, low building in Bud’s photos was the shelter house used during the construction of the Lodge.

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A photo showing the long hall in front of the Lodge. Exhibits telling the skiing history of Berthoud Pass were placed here. Much of the displays from these cases are now in the Museum in Hot Sulphur Springs.

The last lifts on Berthoud Pass.

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The Berthoud Pass Lodge was torn down on June 9, 2005.

Today the U. S. Forest Service provides a restroom with vaulted toilets for the comfort of the many visitors to the Summit.

All photos not credited are the author’s.

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