A Denver CO real estate search must include beautiful Aspen CO real estate at an elevation of 7,890 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains along the Roaring Fork River, a tributary of the Colorado River, only about 190 miles from Denver CO real estate. Surrounded by Red Mountain, Smuggler Mountain, and Aspen Mountain on three sides, Aspen, Colorado is best known for its snow-covered slopes and its beautiful wilderness—the site of splendid downhill skiing, snowboarding, and miles of cross-country skiing. Colorado mortgages are also readily available for buyers of Aspen real estate during summer season when they can golf, mountain bike, hike, and horseback ride.
Another draw for residents and visitors to Aspen CO homes and neighborhoods is the growing cultural scene. The Aspen Music School, Aspen Art Museum, the Wheeler-Stallard House Museum, the annual summertime Aspen Music Festival, and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival all bring a diverse mix of residents to look over Aspen’s real estate options including her Aspen single-family homes, Aspen vacation homes, Aspen estate properties (some on a grand scale), Aspen town houses and Aspen land lots.
Downtown has been largely transformed into an upscale shopping district that includes high-end restaurants, salons, and boutiques. Despite the pricey real estate in Aspen, the median income for a household in the city is $54,000. Many workers commute from Basalt and Carbondale, though affordable Aspen housing is delicately interwoven into the city’s character.
The Aspen Mountain ski area emerged following World War II with the founding in 1946 of the Aspen Skiing Corporation by Walter Paepcke, a Chicago industrialist who sought to create a utopian community. Friedl Pfeifer, a member of the 10th Mountain Division who had trained in the area, later returned and linked up with Paepcke. Hosting the FIS World Championships in 1950, the area quickly became a well-known resort.
Paepcke also played an important role in bringing the Goethe Bicentennial Convocation to Aspen in 1949, an event held in a newly designed tent by the architect Eero Saarinen. Paepcke's legacy of the Aspen/Snowmass resorts, along with such institutions as the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School have made the city a year-round international destination for recreation, arts, business, and intellectual discourse. In the late 20th century, the city developed as an off-beat haven for free spirits.
The city actually began in the winter of 1879 when, due to an uprising of the Ute Indians, a group of miners refused the pleas by the then Governor Frederick Pitkin to return home across the Continental. Originally named Ute City, the small community was renamed in 1880 and quickly surpassed Leadville as the nation's most productive mining district for silver and was incorporated in 1881 when the population peaked at 12,000. Several ups and downs in the mining era left the city with half that many people in present day.
The “rich and famous” can access the resort via the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport also known as Sardy Field. The airport has only one runway but is the state's third largest airport, boasting a massive corporate section which accommodates hundreds of corporate and private jets. The city has six sister cities around the world, a tribute to her international nature and clientele.
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