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Sep 18, 2004
Summit Daily News - BRAD ODEKIRK
Standing on the Ski Tip Ranch property they bought in 1941, Max and
Edna Dercum still marvel at the beauty of the land and the surrounding
mountains.
Sixty-three years ago, the 80-acre parcel cost them $3,000 and was
at the heart of Colorado mining and ranching country. Today, in large
part because of their vision, it is at the base of one of North America's
top ski destinations - Keystone Resort. But that is putting the cart
before the horse.
Born in 1912 in Cleveland, Max first got on skis when he was 6 years
old, hoofing it up short hills and gliding down on long, wooden skis.
After that, he was hooked. Edna was born August 2, 1914 in Clarissa,
Minn. - a state with plenty of snow and cold weather. But she didn't
learn to ski until she attended college at Penn State. "
Max was teaching forestry there," said Edna, outside the Ski Tip Ranch
Wednesday morning. "He started a ski club and I had always wanted to
learn how to ski."
The two began spending time together outdoors and were married in
1937. "
Everywhere I went, I was trying to introduce people to skiing," said
Max, who was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1980. In
the winter of 1937-1938 near Pine Crest, Calif., Max taught many of
California's novice skiers. At Penn State he was a professor of forestry
and started the university's first ski team.
In 1941 he came to Colorado and bought the Ski Tip Ranch property,
and in 1945 came to Colorado for good. It was that year that he bought
a 5-acre mill site at present day Arapahoe Basin and four or five patent
claims on an additional 30 acres.
The following year a lift was installed, and Arapahoe Basin was an
upstart ski area on the west side of Loveland Pass.
Fifty-eight years have passed since A-Basin's opening, and the Dercums
have not only raised two ski areas out of the Colorado forests, but
also two children - Rolf and Sunni. "
Of all the accomplishments, all the things we have done," said Max,
looking back a half-dozen or more decades in his memory, "the one thing
we're most proud of is our children."
Rolf and Sunni still live close to their parents on Montezuma Road
- a family devoted to Summit County and, in Max and Edna, grandparents
of the Colorado ski industry.
