HISTORY OF THE AREA

Without going too far back into the distant past and keeping to the last 20,000 years or so the area has still undergone many changes, the most recent has seen housing and roads come to the surface of the land.

The last ice age came to an end roughly 20 to 15 thousand years ago and with that the glacier that covered the valley to a depth of over 500ft in places melted leaving in effect what we see today apart from a little alluvial erosion of the valley floor. The last glacier in this valley ended out on the golf course leaving a terminal moraine that you can still see today if you know what you are looking for. A more easily identifiable terminal moraine was that of the slate river valley glacier. This is located at what we know as the Crested Butte cemetery. You can clearly see the crescent of the moraine and the flat land of the lake that dammed up behind the moraine before the river burst through and let the water flow south.

Back to Washington Gulch. The other major feature of this last glacier is what most of us know as Long Lake. In fact long lake is the real "Meridian Lake" and the dam in the valley floor known as Meridian lake is the reservoir built by Bill Lacy senior and his family. Long lake was formed during the glacial migration down the valley. The glacier before the last (there have been many glaciations of the valley in the last 80 thousand years) gouged out a huge "U" shape and left a lateral moraine which forms part of the southern edge of long lake (Smith Hill ridge). When that glacier receded the valley was incongruously a little wider than it is now at the point of the reservoir. The last glacier then grew steadily down the valley starting from the corrie on the eastern slopes of Mt Baldy. The gouging action of the huge weight and mass of the ice eroded the sides of the valley and pushed stone and mud down valley. At the point just south of the start of long lake, near the path that rises steeply from the Allen land above what is now the winter trail head, the glacier lost some of its power compared to the early glacier. This caused a lateral moraine to develop and the subsequent ridge produced another valley between Washington Gulch and the Slate river valley. The lateral moraine then met the southern edge of the last lateral moraine and closed off the valley. Spring water eventually filled this closed valley and produced Long Lake (Meridian Lake).

At that time the animal population would have been similar to that which inhabits the valley today except for humans. Humans first populated the valley around the time that the migrations from Asia started to travel south and explore the land.

As a little aside, the Hopi Indians that populate northern Arizona believe that that migration was only the last of many previous migrations after the ebb and flow of the ice bridge covering the Bering straits between Alaska and Asia. They believe they were here before the last ice bridge and were the original inhabitants of what we know as the Americas (named after Amerigo Vespucci an Italian explorer). Even being related to the Maya and Aztec tribes of Central America.

(Vespucci was an Italian merchant, born in 1454 in Florence and employed by the Medicis. They sent him to look after their ship-outfitting business, which operated out of Seville, about the time Columbus made his first voyage. In fact, the business had a part in outfitting Columbus's third voyage.
Vespucci finally outfitted his own voyage in quest of the passage to the Indian subcontinent that had eluded Columbus. He sailed in 1499 -- seven years after Columbus first landed in the West Indies. Vespucci made two voyages between 1499 and 1502 and possibly a third one in 1503.
During his first voyage he explored the northern coast of South America to well beyond the mouth of the Amazon. He gave names like "Gulf of the Ganges," and other Asian place-names he knew about, to the things he saw. He also made significant improvements in navigational techniques. During this trip he predicted the earth's circumference to within 50 miles.
But the big breakthrough came on Vespucci's second trip. And that was the realization that what he was looking at was not India at all, but an entirely new continent. He verified the fact by following the coast of South America down to within 400 miles of Tierra del Fuego. Columbus found the new world, but Amerigo Vespucci was the man who recognized that it was a new world).

When the Europeans began to explore the region in search of gold and other minerals the native population were Ute Indians (by and large they prefer the term "Indian" to native American as anyone born in the US is a native American). A group of prospectors were killed by a Ute hunting party during the early 1800's along Washington Gulch. The exact location is not known but could have been anywhere between the lake and half way up Mt. Baldy where there is still evidence of prospector's digs.

During the 1800's mining did indeed come to the area and this valley in particular. There were gold and silver mines right up to the southern ridge of Treasury mountain. The one most visible to this day was Painter Boy, recognizable by the old car still sitting at the head of our valley overlooking all that we do today. If only it could speak to us, what a story it could tell!

The silver mines closed in the early 1890's due to the decision by the US government to stop using silver as the base of the dollar currency and overnight whole townships vanished throughout the region. Many of the buildings from these towns still exist today but are now located in Crested Butte. Coal mining saved Crested Butte from the ignominy of becoming a ghost town but when the mines closed in the early 1950's the only industry sustaining the population of the entire drainage down to Gunnison was ranching, some continued to mine but had to travel to and from Paonia over Kebler pass. The north end of Washington gulch was sold to the Allen brothers for a reputed $6 an acre!! Even at this price there were some that thought the Allens crazy. The Allens however were not thinking of turning a profit, they were looking for prime grazing land for their cattle and to this day Curtis and his family tend their cattle on the Washington Gulch land that his father and uncle bought for a song. We know that in the fall many of us are plagued by cattle straying over our fence lines and raiding our yards but remember that this is a small inconvenience when you consider that this valley would not be so pristine if not for our local ranchers including the Allens that are custodians of the land to the north and south of our development and the Kapushions further down valley.

The 180 acres of land that is now Meridian Lake Park, Meadows and Pristine point was bought by Bill Lacy snr. for $100,000 from the Smith Family. Bill snr. developed the Land and also built the dam. The two reasons for the dam were of course water augmentation for the valley and access to the land on the other side. After Bill snr. went through bankruptcy, two of his sons, Tom and Mark bought the land with Eddie Richardson. They continued to develop the land and also sold filing 3 (now the Meadows) to Billy Joe Lacy jnr. and Daniel Dow. Subsequently they sold to Henry Gallin who improved the filing by putting in the roads and utilities. Filing 4 (now Pristine Point) was sold to Alan Wolff. Pristine Point is the only part of the subdivision that actually contacts the true Meridian Lake. Alan is also the only developer to have a residence here and has the house on the river along Stream View Lane.