Snowmass Village began as a ranching valley, then a ski resort

Snowmass Village is younger than Aspen and grew up a different way. Before the ski lifts, the Brush Creek valley was ranch country, worked by families who raised livestock in the high pastures west of Aspen.

In the 1960s, developers bought up those ranches and built a ski area on the slopes above the valley, planning a resort village at its base. The ski area opened in the late 1960s, and a community grew around it: lodges, condos, shops, and homes clustered near the lifts.

In time the residents chose to govern themselves. The community incorporated as the Town of Snowmass Village, a home rule municipality in Pitkin County, separate from the City of Aspen down the road.

That history matters for anyone navigating the area. Snowmass Village is its own town with its own town hall, council, and local rules. It is not part of Aspen, and it is not unincorporated county land. If a property is in Snowmass Village, the town, not the city or the county, sets many of the local rules that apply.

To understand the town’s history and how it governs itself, start with the Town of Snowmass Village’s official site, and see DOLA for how Colorado’s home rule municipalities work.