Steamboat Pilot & Today Year in Review: What were the top stories of 2023?
Looking back at 2023, the year produced a wealth of headlines with major developments, big breaking news and a volume of impactful stories that will continue to shape Steamboat Springs and Routt County for the years ahead.
Some of the biggest headlines from 2023 were long, drawn-out efforts that spanned dozens of individual reports and stories. Others came from trends in local news coverage, or in some cases even a singular event rose to the top by itself.
The following list was complied by the Steamboat Pilot & Today newsroom with the staff trying to take a story’s impact, newsworthiness and reader interest all into consideration. While we worked hard to produce the best roundup of the top headlines and stories from 2023 that we could, our biggest hope is this helps spark conversations reflecting on the year behind as well as looking to the year ahead. What do you think were the top stories of 2023?
1. Plans for Brown Ranch progress despite opposition
The proposed Brown Ranch affordable housing development dominated headlines in Steamboat Springs this year. Negotiations and project planning consumed hundreds of hours of Steamboat Springs City Council meetings and city staff’s efforts. The proposed project also drove heated social media exchanges and public debate, and even drew the involvement of Gov. Jared Polis.
If completed by 2040, the development would see 2,264 affordable housing units built on 420 acres of land that was purchased by the Yampa Valley Housing Authority in 2021 with a $24 million anonymous donation.
Ten months of negotiations between city and housing authority officials led to a finalized annexation ordinance passed by council members in October. The agreement is necessary to bring the land into the city and outlines infrastructure needs, performance metrics and unit delivery schedules along with how costs will be shared to complete the project.
In the November election, Steamboat voters passed a ballot measure that will see the city’s 9% short-term rental tax directed toward the housing authority through 2041 for the purposes of funding the project. However, the need for the short-term funding could become moot as a citizens’ petition will turn the Brown Ranch annexation decision over to the voters with a referendum tentatively scheduled for March 26.
Throughout 2023, Brown Ranch was a recurring front page headline with visions for the project taking shape and opponents pushing back against them over fears about the size of the project and the effect it might have on Steamboat Springs.
Whether for or against it, few people seem to disagree that Brown Ranch is a massive effort intended to address one of the most pervasive issues in Steamboat Springs today — the lack of affordable housing — and what becomes of the project is likely going to be one of the biggest determining factors for the future of the community.
2. Iconic winter leads to reduced hunting, spring flooding
The 2022-23 winter season was one for the record books with 428 inches of snow from mid-November through mid-April making for the second snowiest season on record for Steamboat.
While skiers and riders enjoyed the plentiful snowfall, many big game animals in the area did not survive the harsh winter, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife sharply reduced the number of hunting licenses issued this fall for Northwest Colorado with hope the cuts will help the herds recover.
Interestingly, the heavy snowpack had an opposite effect on smaller animals like the voles who remained protected under the snow longer into the spring and saw large population numbers this year.
But that wasn’t the end of the issues related to the heavy snowfall because, when spring came around, all that snow melted, resulting in heavy flooding in parts of Hayden. The floodwaters spilled over the banks of Dry Creek on April 13, and a number of homeowners were left swamped.
If there was a silver lining to the loss of property, it was seeing members of the Hayden community come together to help each other protect their property and recover from the flooding as best they could.
3. Wild Blue goes all out
The multi-year, $200 million Full Steam Ahead project came full circle in December 2023 with the opening of the top portion of the Wild Blue Gondola giving Steamboat Resort the fastest and longest 10-person gondola in North America.
Wild Blue’s lower leg opened in winter 2022-23, and finishing the second leg this season puts the gondola at 3.16 miles while increasing the resort’s base capacity from 6,000 people per hour to 10,000. Running at full speed, Wild Blue can take skiers and riders from the base to the top of the mountain in 13 minutes.
But Wild Blue was just the exclamation point for Full Steam Ahead, and the second phase of the project also included completing Skeeter’s Ice Rink, named after Olympian and local legend Gladys “Skeeter” Werner Walker, and The Range Food and Drink Hall, among other resort improvements.
Now that the Full Steam Ahead project is complete, development at the resort continues. In fact, in 2023 there have been even more efforts to keep improving the guest experience and take the next step after Full Steam Ahead.
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Director of Lift Maintenance Kurt Castor, a 30-year Steamboat Resort employee, explains the back motor during a tour of the terminal for the new section of the Wild Blue Gondola.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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A section of the tow rope remains on the spool near the terminal for the second leg of the Wild Blue Gondola at the Steamboat Resort Sept. 28, 2023. The second leg will take riders to the top of Sunshine Peak.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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New gondola cars for the top section of the Wild Blue Gondola at Steamboat Resort sit in rows in the Meadows Parking Lot.
Suzie Romig/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Gondola cars wait to be uploaded on the second leg of the Wild Blue Gondola on Sept. 28, 2023.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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The lift line for the second leg of the Wild Blue Gondola climbs through the aspens and up the slopes of the Steamboat Ski Area on Sept. 28, 2023.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Travis Iveson, job site supervisor for Doppelmayr USA, works to get the upper leg of the Wild Blue Gondola ready for the season. When finished, the gondola will take riders from the base area to the top of Sunshine Peak.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Trevor Kuehn with Doppelmayr USA works on the huge Doppelmayr Direct Drive, which weighs 86,000 pounds and measures 15 feet across.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Director of Lift Maintenance Kurt Castor, a 30-year employee of the Steamboat Resort, stands near two spools that held the tow rope for the second leg of the Wild Blue Gondola on Sept. 28, 2023.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Travis Iveson, job site supervisor for Doppelmayr USA, stands inside the new terminal building for the second leg of the Wild Blue Gondola, which will take riders from the base area to the top of the Sunshine Peak, and is scheduled to be completed some time during the 2023-24 winter season.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Skiers and riders line up in anticipation for the full launch of Wild Blue Gondola at Steamboat Resort on Friday morning, Dec. 15, 2023. Wild Blue is the fastest and longest 10-person gondola in North America, taking passengers from the base to the top of Sunshine Peak in 13 minutes.
Tom Skulski/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Dave Hunter, interim resort lead at Steamboat Resort, speaks in celebration of the first full launch of Wild Blue Gondola at Steamboat Resort on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023.
Tom Skulski/Steamboat Pilot & Today archives
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Rob Perlman, Executive Vice President Regional Operations for Alterra Mountain Company, celebrates the official launch of Wild Blue Gondola by popping champagne during Friday morning’s celebration on Dec. 15, 2023.
Tom Skulski/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Skiers load into Wild Blue Gondola and prepare to be among the first to take the 13-minute ride to the Sunshine Peak area at Steamboat Resort on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023.
Tom Skulski/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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The top of Wild Blue Gondola in the Sunshine Peak area.
Suzie Romig/Steamboat Pilot & Today
4. Steamboat hires new police chief after speedy exit
In 2023, Steamboat Springs named a new police chief for the second time in two years.
Mark Beckett took the police chief position in August after Sherry Burlingame resigned in January following an internal investigation that found she violated the city’s ethics code and police policy. She served as chief for just over a year.
A 22-year law enforcement veteran with most of his career spent serving on a gang unit in Mesa, Arizona, Beckett became a commander for the department in Steamboat after relocating to the Western Slope with his family in 2022.
Beckett said engagement with the local Hispanic population, which he said is “grossly underrepresented” in the community, is a focus for his first year leading the department, along with cracking down on traffic violations.
“Education isn’t working, which is why we went to punitive measures. Now tickets aren’t working, so we need to get the community on board,” Beckett said.
5. State releases 10 wolves in Colorado
Working under a voter-mandated deadline, Colorado Parks and Wildlife reintroduced 10 wolves in Colorado west of the Continental Divide just before the new year.
The release was a result of Proposition 114, a measure approved by voters in 2020 that passed by a narrow margin and marked the first time in U.S. history that state voters have passed legislation mandating the reintroduction of an endangered species.
Mostly favored on the Front Range, the effort was not well received in many of the counties where the wolves might live. A small pack of wolves that moved into Jackson County from Wyoming hasn’t established what wildlife officials would consider an established population, but the pack has been responsible for attacks on livestock and dogs in Jackson County.
With the predations in Jackson County stoking concern across the Western Slope, local producers, elected leaders and state and federal lawmakers all lobbied for the implementation of a federal 10(j) rule, which would designate the wolves as a nonessential experimental population and allow for increased management flexibility, including the “allowable, legal, purposeful and incidental take of the gray wolf.”
In October, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced the state would secure 10 wolves from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The first five wolves were released at an undisclosed location in Grand County on Dec. 18. Five more wolves were released in the following days in Grand and Summit counties.
Since releasing the wolves, CPW has been tight lipped about their locations, saying “the remaining release events were not widely shared to help protect the safety and security of the wolves, CPW staff and the locations of endangered species.”
6. Traffic congestion threatens Steamboat tradition
Traffic continued to be a hot topic in Steamboat Springs in 2023 as city officials grappled with closing U.S. Highway 40 to make room for longstanding community events and dealing with the congestion that results from those closures.
The issue came to the surface after commuters in Steamboat Springs experienced long delays in the downtown area before, during and after the annual Fourth of July Parade. There was a similar issue a few months later when the annual Steamboat Halloween Stroll created some scary traffic congestion as U.S. 40 was closed Oct. 31. Once again, drivers coming downtown for the stroll and commuters headed home at the end of the day experienced long delays.
The traffic issues were evaluated following the events in both cases, and in December, Steamboat Springs City Council gave city staff direction to hold the 2024 Fourth of July parade on Lincoln Avenue despite staff’s recommendation that the festivities be on Yampa Street.
“Since I’ve been here the last eight years, there is a level of chaos in closing Highway 40 that is pretty consistent and fairly predictable,” Steamboat Springs City Manager Gary Suiter told the Steamboat Pilot & Today in November.
“Even with traffic-control plans and contracted companies, it is becoming more and more controversial with every event. We think we are approaching the point where special events that close Lincoln Avenue may no longer be practical. It is not if, but when either the federal government or the state government will say you can’t do this anymore, so we need to start thinking of alternatives.”
7. Antisemitism and the creation of STAND
After a series of antisemitic incidents that occurred at Steamboat Springs High School in fall 2022, Rabbi Kolby Morris-Dahary saw the necessity to combat hate and led the effort to create the organization Steamboat Team to Combat Antisemitism and Discrimination, or STAND.
STAND brought together various community leaders in an effort to combat hate in the community and make Steamboat a more positive, aware and inclusive community. Yet, the creation of STAND did not prevent further acts of antisemitic incidents in the community.
In late August, a swastika was burned into a picnic table in Memorial Park next to Steamboat Springs High School. Soon after the park incident, police responded to the nearby pedestrian tunnel underneath Fish Creek Falls Road where graffiti depicted a swastika, a racial epitaph and the phone number of a high school teacher. This prompted Steamboat Springs Police Chief Mark Beckett to express his worries that an increasing number of youths were identifying with white supremacist ideology.
The incidents led to several community members urging the Steamboat Springs School District to do more to combat antisemitic behavior in the schools at a Sept. 26 meeting of the board of education, and Superintendent Celine Wicks responded that a school-wide assembly would be held at the high school for students “to learn how to combat antisemitism, harassment and bullying.”
8. Standoff in downtown Steamboat
An hourslong standoff between police and a man barricaded inside a house on the 200 block of Eighth Street ended after officers deployed rounds of gas munitions and a percussion grenade before using a battering ram to enter the residence.
The incident began on the morning of Oct. 11 when Routt County Sherriff’s deputies were confronted by a man with a handgun while attempting to serve eviction paperwork at the home.
Police issued a shelter-in-place order and surrounded the residence with guns drawn as cars continued to pass through the adjacent intersections and dozens of bystanders looked on.
A negotiator used a public address system to try to communicate with the man for hours before a series of loud bangs were heard as officers deployed a percussion grenade and began firing gas munition rounds into the home.
Officers in tactical gear then entered the residence to find the man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
8. Living with wildlife: Rescues and tragic outcomes
Steamboat Springs saw its share of heartwarming rescues and tragic outcomes this year as several encounters between humans and wildlife made news.
On April 10, community members watched as Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers attempted to reach, rescue and free an exhausted osprey that had become entangled with a lanyard attached to a ski glove on the banks of the Yampa River. In this case, the rescuers were able to reach the bird, safely remove the lanyard and ski glove and see a happy ending.
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An osprey attempts to escape the waters of the Yampa River after it became tangled with a lanyard that was attached to a glove.
Juan Mendoza/Courtesy photo
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In April 2023, the strap of a lost glove became wrapped around this osprey’s talon on the banks of the Yampa River Monday, April 10, 2023. Rescuers were able to capture the bird, remove the glove and 20 minutes later the osprey was back in the trees overlooking the Yampa River.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Community members noticed an osprey being carried downstream in the Yampa River on Monday April 10, 2023, before calling Colorado Parks and Wildlife to help.
Juan Mendoza/Courtesy photo
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An osprey spreads in wings along the banks of the Yampa River Monday, April 10. 2023, but was unable to take flight because the a lanyard wrapped around ti’s talon on onside, and was attacked to a heavy, water soaked glove on the other. The bird was noticed by community members enjoying the Yampa River Core Trail who called Colorado Parks and Wildlife who sent officers out to rescue the bird.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer Jared Lamb holds onto an osprey as fellow CPW employee Christy Bubenheim, and a member of the public, provided support. The group was called to the osprey after community members noticed that the osprey having difficulties flying, and was being pulled down the river Monday, April 10, 2023. The raptor’s talons were tangled in the lanyard of ski glove and could not get free. The good news is the rescue proved to be a success, and about 20 minutes after being pulled from the waters and being freed from the glove the bird was able to take flight.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
On June 7, Colorado Parks and Wildlife rescued a moose calf that fell into the Yampa River and was quickly swept downriver from the First Street bridge. The calf exited the river near the Bud Werner Library, but was unable to get back to its mother and a second calf. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials eventually captured the calf and reunited the family.
Unfortunately, the mother moose was ill and was found dead June 15 in the Brooklyn neighborhood on the east side of Steamboat Springs. The calves were captured, taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center in the Steamboat Springs area and transferred to the CPW Foothills Wildlife Health and Research facility where they will live out their lives.
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A scared moose calf floats down the Yampa River Tuesday June 6, 2023 after jumping back into the Yampa in an effort to escape rescuers. The calf was captured on the banks, blindfolded, and wrapped in a blanket before being taken to a location close to where it had been separated from its mother and releases. A few minutes later the mother and calf were reunited.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Kyle Bond with Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Manager, blocks the path of a moose calf as it attempts to escape the West Lincoln Park area Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Bond, and other rescuers, were able to capture the animal and reunited it with its mother. The calf had been swept downriver, and separated from its mother, by the swift currents of the Yampa River.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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A moose calf walks along the Yampa River Core Trail on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 after getting caught in the swift-moving waters of the Yampa River and separated from its mother and a sibling. Wildlife officers and volunteer animal control officers from the City of Steamboat Springs were able to round up the two-week old calf, capture it and return it to its mother.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Kyle Bond with Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Manager, carries a rescued moose calf to the area where it will be released Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Hopes were that it as going to be reunited with its mother and sibling.
John
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A mother moose grazes along the banks of the Yampa River with one of her two calves June 6 in downtown Steamboat Springs. Earlier in the day, the moose’s other calf had been swept downstream by the fast-moving waters of the river.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
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Momma moose with two little ones in Strawberry Park.
Ron Imbriale/Courtesy photo
Then on June 21, Colorado Parks and Wildlife was called to a report of a moose that was trapped on the top floor of a parking garage located between the Sheraton Steamboat Resort Villas and the Steamboat Grand on Mount Werner Circle by a large group of onlookers. When wildlife officials arrived, the moose had died jumping off the structure in an attempt to escape, and the onlookers had left.
10. Passenger rail enters conversation
Transportation across Routt County largely relies on U.S. Highway 40, but efforts are underway that could lead to one of the biggest regional transportation developments in decades.
The planned mountain line would modify the already-existing passenger line from Denver to Winter Park and extend it to Steamboat Springs, Hayden and finally Craig. Efforts to establish rail service between Denver and Craig began to pick up steam in September when state Rep. Meghan Lukens and state Sen. Dylan Roberts sent a letter to the Colorado Department of Transportation outlining the potential for a regional passenger rail system.
Citing the urgency of the housing crisis in Northwest Colorado, Lukens and Roberts wrote “Environmental prioritization, affordable housing solutions and economic growth would be direct beneficial impacts of this passenger rail,” adding that connecting the “more affordable communities” of Hayden and Craig to Steamboat Springs would create a “realistic workforce connection” and help alleviate traffic and safety concerns on U.S. 40.
The concept of connecting Denver to Craig via rail were bolstered in October when CDOT announced a $5 million appropriation to study the feasibility of establishing passenger service on Union Pacific tracks that have seen steadily diminished use due to decreased freight traffic.
In December, the federal government announced it had selected Colorado’s Front Range passenger rail line for grant funding, and Gov. Jared Polis spoke about his hopes for how that project would link up with another planned passenger rail line in the mountains. Polis enthusiastically embraced the possibility of re-establishing passenger rail service to Northwest Colorado, stating that the trip from Denver to Craig would be “the envy of the world.”
Below is a list of the 25 most-read stories at SteamboatPilot.com in 2023.
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- Skier and snowboarder code expands to include two important rules
- Marijuana use impacting Routt County workforce performance
- CPW reels after young bull moose jumps from parking structure at ski area
- A perfect storm of snow delays draws huge crowds at Steamboat Resort
- Man dies after incident at Steamboat Resort
- Kratom is legal in Colorado, but its use is hotly debated
- Former coach accused of distributing kratom to athletes at 2 Routt County high schools
- Former Steamboat police chief would have been fired if she had not resigned, documents show
- Hiking into history: Locals become the first people known to complete the Steamboat Springs Ultra 6er
- Cows across Routt County are dying in droves: What’s killing them?
- Steamboat police chief resigns after one year on the job
- Details, fears emerge during Northwest Colorado forum concerning proposed reservoir in southern Wyoming
- Steamboat Resort on pace to have first 400-inch season since 2010
- The northern pike: How to catch them and why they have become so controversial
- Letter to the editor: We’re grateful to call Steamboat home but we can’t hang on much longer
- Jeep flies 65 feet into Yampa River near Stagecoach Reservoir
- 14-year-old who almost died in four-wheeler accident is recovering at home in South Carolina
- Hayden student dies in crash on U.S. 40
- Wreck closes U.S. 40 in both directions west of Steamboat Springs
- Trio arrested with more than 900 pills of suspected fentanyl at Craig hotel, police say
- Steamboat couple adopts dog that was Humane Society’s longest resident
- Inspired by his experience with legends like Miles Davis and Luther Vandross, bassist Marcus Miller is ready to rock Steamboat
- Steamboat hikers find abandoned burning campfire: ‘I just don’t understand how anybody could do that’
- Routt County Search and Rescue saves 7 snowmobilers in 19-hour mission
- 1,000 dispersed camping sites documented in Routt National Forest
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