From Killdozer and East Troublesome anniversaries to the sesquicentennial and wolves, Grand County returned to its roots and remembered its history in 2024.

Community celebrates 150 years of Grand County

In 2024, Sky-Hi News published a special edition of Still Standing, celebrating the county’s sesquicentennial.

Grand County has a rich history of true, inspiring stories and characters that seem like they come from the screens of Hollywood films. The county’s history is filled with storied figures including intrepid homesteaders like the Harbison sisters of Grand Lake, innovator Steve Bradley, who created the Bradley-Packer Grader and ushered in a modern era of slope grooming for the ski industry and the visionary promoter and newspaper man William Byers, who founded Grand County’s oldest town, Hot Sulphur Springs.

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David Moffatt built his Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway, also known as the Moffat Road, in a project that began in 1904 and ended in the late 1920s. The Moffat Tunnel was bored through the Continental Divide and allowed for smooth, year-round train passage. It was an engineering feat that helped Grand County grow. Eventually the California Zephyr would use Moffat’s railroad, bringing tourists looking for a luxurious travel through the Rockies.

Prospectors, miners, explorers, railroad workers, ranchers and merchants survived and eventually thrived in what one Grand County historian, the late Robert Black, called an “island in the Rockies.”

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— Penny Hamilton

Granby remembers attack that changed the face of town

Twenty years ago, a Komatsu bulldozer fortified with steel, concrete, bulletproof glass and guns burst out of a shed in downtown Granby. June 4, 2004, was a watershed moment for the community, and the town’s violent destruction created a martyr whose actions traumatized residents and galvanized anti-government movements and keyboard warriors.

The bulldozer attack caused a building count instead of a body count, with the attacker’s suicide being the only death. As much as the perpetrator tried to destroy the town by mowing down the community’s spirit like the buildings he razed, he only achieved at making Granby stronger. Out of the destruction a town was reborn, fortified by the resiliency of its people.

Thirteen buildings were destroyed that day. The town was painstakingly rebuilt brick by brick. Everything from community fundraisers to state emergency funds to good old-fashioned elbow grease paved the way to the town’s revitalization after the attack. 

Two decades later, the attack has taken on a life of its own, and the perpetrator is celebrated by many anti-government groups, contrasting the widespread terror the community felt that day. 

— Tara Alatorre

East Troublesome Fire victims publish books

October marked four years since the East Troublesome Fire ripped across Grand County. The fire burned nearly 200,000 acres and 366 homes — killing two people — on its way to becoming the second-largest fire in recorded state history.

Years later, the vast burn scar remains prominent on the landscape and a number of books were published on the topic.

In February, Glenn Hileman published “A Yellow House in Mountains” in memory of his parents, Lyle and Marylin Hileman, who were killed in the fire.

In the book, Hileman chronicles how his parents created a life for their family in their brightly colored home in Grand Lake. Originally from the Front Range, the couple fell in love with Grand Lake during a vacation shortly after getting married. His father poured the foundation for the home in 1979 and finished the house in 1992. The couple was excited to retire in their dream home, and welcomed grandchildren and great-grandchildren over the years at the house that became a centerpiece for family gatherings.

In August, C Lazy Ranch Equestrian Director Ami Cullen published “Running Free,” a fictionalized version of her experience evacuating more than 200 horses from the ranch during the blaze.

Cullen describes watching the flames get closer and closer to the ranch and making the decision to evacuate all the animals to a nearby property before evacuating again to the Front Range. Cullen’s book recounts the generosity of the community and the bravery of the staff, ensuring that all animals made it to safety and returning the herd home after the wildfire passed.

— Meg Soyars Van Hauen

Wolf restoration ‘painful’ for Grand County ranchers

Dec. 18 marked one year since five wolves were released in Grand County, following a voter-approved mandate to reestablish the predator in the state after being eradicated over 80 years ago. 

While environmental advocates and Colorado Parks and Wildlife laud the reintroduction efforts as successful and remarkable from a biological perspective, the first year has been heavily scrutinized. As wolves roamed, there have been questions about wolf management decisions and the state’s preparedness, increased stress on Parks and Wildlife employees, requests to pause reintroduction, spats on social media, livestock conflicts and more. 

Among the achievements is the state’s first pack from reintroduced wolves. The Copper Creek Pack’s adult wolves denned in April with the first wolf pups confirmed in June. However, the pack was connected to multiple livestock deaths in Grand County, prompting intervention from Parks and Wildlife.

Sen. Dylan Roberts, who represents most of the Western Slope counties impacted by wolves, described the year as “really difficult.” 

“Generally, it has been a really difficult process that has had numerous unforced errors committed that have really harmed relationships and communities across the Western Slope and across the state,” Roberts said. “It’s been painful, really difficult and very time consuming, especially for the folks on the ground who are living with it daily.”

— Ali Longwell