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Search - Powder Burn: Arson, Money, and Mystery on Vail Mountain

Powder Burn Arson Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain
Author: Daniel Glick

In the pre-dawn hours of October 19, 1998, a commando-style arson destroyed or damaged $12 million worth of chair lifts and mountaintop buildings at Vail, Colorado, the largest ski resort in the United States. The timing of the fires indicated a calculated attack, since the fires were set on the same day the ski area's owners were about to begin... more » construction for a controversial expansion into an old-growth forest on federally-owned land. Within days, an e-mail arrived from a little-known radical environmental group known as the Earth Liberation Front, claiming credit for the arson "in the name of the lynx," a rare species whose habitat was disappearing in this rapidly developing part of Colorado. But the ELF's claim of credit was never substantiated, and the number of potential suspects grew in direct proportion to the number of enemies that the ski area's owners had made. Powder Burn is the story of a particular kind of trouble in paradise. At the time of the fires, Vail and its environs had become a powder keg of social and economic unrest, and much of the tension revolved around the locals' frustration with Vail Resorts, Inc., the company that owns Vail ski area and neighboring Beaver Creek. Run by a group of Wall Street financiers, the company had also purchased two other high-profile Colorado resorts, Breckenridge and Keystone, and its expanding reach prompted many locals to begin calling it "the Evil Empire." Among its adversaries--and potential arson suspects--were the ski bums sick of Vail's corporate mentality; fearful small business owners; nearby towns that had fought Vail over water rights, disgruntled former employees; and folks in the Eagle Valley who saw their quality of life diminish with every golf course and high-end subdivision that Vail aggressively attracted or built. Some even suggested that the company might have set the fires themselves as a way to garner sympathy--especially after it rebuilt the lost buildings bigger and better and collected on other insurance policies as well. "Who couldn't have done this?" a local sheriff's deputy told federal investigators. "The list of people pissed off at [Vail's owners] is pretty long." Daniel Glick takes readers on a compelling and wild ride through this bizarre town full of bombastic characters to lay bare the growing pains of a breathtakingly beautiful region. In the 40 years since Vail's founding fathers literally carved the resort out of a high-altitude lettuce patch, the resort's fortunes have mirrored the fortunes of what has become known as the "New West," as well as the "new economy" run by modem cowboys and lifestyle refugees. Vail has been in the vanguard of the tremendous social, cultural, and economic changes that have transformed the Rocky Mountain West, displacing the ranchers, miners and loggers in favor of the multinational corporations and Fortune 500 executives who visit their 12,000-square-foot trophy homes only a couple weeks out of the year. Packed with odd characters and paranoia, with beautiful mountains and despicable actions, this is a book about crime, the environment, a small town, and an unsolved mystery. Powder Burn reads as quick as a ski racer on an Olympic downhill. DANIEL GLICK is a special correspondent for Newsweek covering the Rocky Mountain West. He has worked for Newsweek since 1989, including five years as a Washington correspondent, and he has covered national environmental politics as well as many high-profile Colorado stories like the JonBenet Ramsey murder and the Columbine High School massacre. He has also written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Men's Journal, Esquire, The Washington Post Magazine and many other publications. He lives in Colorado with his two children, Kolya and Zoe.

ISBN-13: 9781586480035
ISBN-10: 1586480030
Publication Date: 1/19/2001
Pages: 288
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: PublicAffairs
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Business & Money >> Industries >> Hospitality, Travel & Tourism
History >> Americas >> United States >> 20th Century >> General
Travel >> Specialty Travel >> Ecotourism
Travel >> United States >> States >> Colorado >> General
Outdoors & Nature >> Environment >> Conservation

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