Basalt Turned 125. Midland Avenue Still Follows the Railroad That Built It.

By 1886, the place at the meeting of the Fryingpan and the Roaring Fork had a boarding house, a general store and seven saloons. It was called Aspen Junction. It was a railroad camp, built to house the crews laying the Colorado Midland Railroad. The Basalt Chamber of Commerce's history page says the town took the name Basalt on June 19, 1895, partly to stop its mail from getting mixed up with Grand Junction's, and was incorporated on October 8, 1901. The Aspen Trail Finder's history tour puts the name change a year earlier, in 1894.

That makes this month Basalt's 125th birthday. The Town marked it with an afternoon at Arbaney Park on Saturday, Oct. 10. The program included history tours led by the Basalt Regional Heritage Society, a Ute Tribal performance, a community pie contest and a 1 p.m. group photo. The Aspen Times reported that the party took its cue from the town's 2001 centennial. The best way to mark the anniversary after the photo, though, is a short walk. Downtown Basalt still sits on the outline of that railroad camp, and in 2026 the Town has been working to put that outline into its development rules.

The Triangle Under the Red Caboose

The Chamber's red caboose and Town Hall in Lions Park, at 101 Midland Ave., sit on the most important piece of ground in town. That triangle was the original Wye, where three tracks met so trains could turn around. A train needs a lot of room to turn. That's why the middle of downtown is an open triangle of park, with no block of buildings on it.

The streets kept the same memory. Basalt Regional Heritage Society plaque text places the Colorado Midland's route along today's Midland Avenue, and the Denver & Rio Grande's along what is now the Rio Grande Trail. So the main street and the valley's main bike path both run on old rail alignments. The design consultant hired by the Town put it this way in a November 2025 presentation: Basalt's businesses grew up "centered along the main track," which "naturally transitioned to the town business corridor."

Two Fires Drew the Building Line

The railroad set where downtown sits. Two fires decided what it looks like.

The Colorado Midland Depot went up in 1886 as the first passenger stop and mail station in the central Roaring Fork Valley. Many new arrivals spent their first night on its benches. In 1892, a fire swept the western end of town and burned the depot to the ground. It was rebuilt quickly, and the Chamber's tour now marks the spot in front of 137 Midland Ave., listed as Alpine Bank.

Five years later, in 1897, fire hit the western end of Basalt again. It took the home of Frank Snell, an engineer for the Colorado Midland. Snell rebuilt in brick. The Chamber notes that "little has changed today except for its use." The Snell Building stands at 104 Midland Ave., and the tour lists CC's Café there.

Between those two fires, in 1896, the Colorado Midland Hotel opened at 165 Midland Ave. It had 10 sleeping rooms, a dining hall and a saloon. It changed owners and uses many times during what locals call the Quiet Years. Then, in 1965, as the upper-valley ski areas brought new business down the valley, it went back to being a restaurant with apartments upstairs. Today it's Tempranillo, which marked its 18th year in the building in December 2023, the Aspen Times reported. It was taking reservations this year.

Walking the Bear Paws

The Chamber's Historic Walking Tour starts at the caboose. You can pick up a map there, then follow the bear paws on the sidewalks. The Aspen Trail Finder describes the downtown loop as 12 signs, level, under a mile and about 45 minutes. In order, the stops near Midland Avenue are:

1. The Wye, at 101 Midland Ave., where the caboose sits.
2. The Colorado Midland Railway sign, by 101 Midland, closer to Midland Spur. It explains that the line was founded in 1883 and started tunneling between towns in 1885 to link eastern and western Colorado.
3. The Colorado Midland Depot, in front of 137 Midland.
4. The Railroad Hotel, in front of 165 Midland.
5. The Swinging Bridge, reached between 211 and 227 Midland, past the parking lot toward the Fryingpan. A one-lane wooden wagon bridge first crossed here in 1880 and kept washing out. The Town replaced it in 2001 with the current bridge, which residents still use to get downtown.
6. The Working Bridges, on Riverside Drive at the Fryingpan near Midland. In 1937, the Colorado Highway Department took over the original railroad bridge just above the confluence and turned it into a highway bridge. That's how Highway 82 became the valley's main road.
7. The Splendid Spud, by 227 Midland. By 1922, the valley grew more potatoes than any other crop, and at its peak it shipped more than 3.5 million pounds a year to other markets.
8. The Snell Building, in front of 104 Midland.

Notice the jump in that list. Almost all of it is railroad and river crossings, and then comes a potato. The Chamber's tour credits ranchers and farmers with carrying the valley's economy from the early 1900s until the ski days.

Past the Last Bear Paw

The rest of the tour leaves Midland Avenue and goes further back in time.

Off Elk Run Drive stand the seven charcoal kilns the Aspen Silver Co. built in 1884. Aspen's smelters needed charcoal because it burns hotter than wood, and the nearby pine and piñon made this a good place to make it. The kilns are built of unfired brick and native stone. They're older than Aspen Junction. Fryingpan, the first settlement on the south side of the river, went up in 1882 to house the men who worked them.

A path runs from the kilns down to Riverside Drive. Across from 145 Riverside sits the Luchsinger Halfway House, a stage-line stop from the early 1880s that the Chamber calls the first home built in what is now Basalt. It's private property, so the tour asks visitors to look from the road.

In Arbaney Park, where the 125th party was held, the tour points to the Arbaney Barn. Its sign covers the ranching families who arrived in 1880; by 1881, 20 families had taken up land. For a longer outing, the Emma Schoolhouse sits down-valley. It was built in 1910–12 and held its last classes in spring 1948. It now belongs to Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, along with the historic Emma Store buildings and the Mather House.

The Rulebook Catches Up to the Railroad

For most of its 125 years, downtown's character survived through habit and rebuilding. The Town is now putting it in writing. Basalt hired GMSHAY architecture + urban design to draft Midland Avenue Design Guidelines for the C-2 Downtown Business District and the properties facing Midland. The firm held a community open house on Nov. 19, 2025.

That presentation made the first list of which downtown buildings count as historic. Here it is, with each building's use as the presentation listed it:

The presentation also named the building styles the guidelines treat as defining downtown: Nineteenth-Century Commercial Italianate, False Front Commercial, Queen Anne Revival and Pioneer Vernacular. A Town staff memo lists what the guidelines cover. That includes historic context, existing and new buildings, roofs, windows, materials, parking, landscaping, awnings, arcades, signage and lighting.

According to the Town's project page, Planning & Zoning voted on Feb. 17, 2026, to recommend the final draft to Town Council. The guidelines would start out as a zoning overlay on the Midland Avenue C-2 district, aimed at protecting historic character and making redevelopment more predictable. The same page set public hearings for May 2026. Anyone planning work on a Midland Avenue property should check the current status with the Town's planning department.

Where the Rest of the Story Is Kept

The anniversary was about people more than buildings. In the Town of Basalt's announcement, Mayor David Knight put it this way:

"Basalt's history is really a story about the people who built this community and helped shape the town we know today."

You'll find those people in the archive. The heritage society, which dates to 2005, works with the Basalt Regional Library at 14 Midland Ave. The library holds the society's recorded interviews and photographs, and its listed hours are Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. ColoradoInfo's write-up of the walking tour says signed copies of Bennett Bramson's "Basalt – Images of America," published by Arcadia Publishing, are sold at the Basalt Chamber Caboose in Lions Park and at local shops. The caboose is also where the walking tour starts, on the triangle where trains once turned around.

If you own a home or building near Midland Avenue and want to know how its history and the Town's new design guidelines figure into what it's worth today, Corey Crocker is glad to walk through it with you, without pressure and in confidence. Get a Confidential Home Valuation whenever you're ready.