1956 Cooper Hill Ski Area Lift Ticket #CLT-1222
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Brief Description
This 1956 lift ticket comes from the Cooper Hill Ski Area, known today as Ski Cooper. This ski area sits on top of Tennessee Pass, on the Continental Divide to the north of Leadville, CO.
Info
- Date: 1956
- Size: 4 3/16" x 2 1/8"
- ID: CLT-1222
- Acquisition Date: February 2025
- Repository: Coloradotopia Archives
Photographed in lightbox.
Image use restricted.
Historical Dating Comments
This ticket has a date written on the back in pencil. The date is believed to be genuine, and you can see more discussion about this lower on this page.
More Dating Info and More 1956 & 1957 Tickets
There were 3 more tickets in the group that this was purchased from. The tickets pictured below are not held in the archives, but the photos are very useful for dating and authenticity purposes. The white/beige ticket in the middle below is from 1956, and the blue and pink ones are from 1957.
The handwriting on the back of the blue 1957 ticket, covered in tape, indicates that the dates are likely to be genuine. That tape has some obvious aging, and a portion of the handwriting is covered by that tape.
More Comments & Discussion
This ticket may have been made by Weldon, Williams & Lick in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. See another ticket that they manufactured here that has a very similar shape. That company also made lift tickets for Winter Park sometime around this time period.
This ticket is similar in style to others from this era in Colorado. The year 1956 was before the metal wicket tickets became popular.
Here is some context for this ski area in 1956, which explains some of the language on this ticket:
This ski hill was used during the 1940s for training troops of the 10th Mountain Division from nearby Camp Hale. It was known at that time simply as ‘Cooper Hill’.
After the war was over, The US Forest Service gave the ski area to Lake County. The Cooper Hill Ski Area was run by the county until 1973, when operations were taken over by a non-profit. The Cooper Hill Ski Area 501(c)4 still runs the ski area today.1
The first mentions of the name Ski Cooper in Colorado’s newspapers are found in 1971.²
Condition, Aging & Authenticity: The ink can be clearly seen breaking up on the backside, but the ink on the front shows very little fading or degradation. The extra photos of other tickets from this group help to indicate that the handwriting on the back is likely authentic to the period. This is due to the handwriting being partially obscured by visibly aged tape.
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About the Coloradotopia Archives Collection. The Coloradotopia archives hold a large collection of historical images and items that document Colorado’s automobile history in the mountains. You can read more about the collection here.
