Lost ski areaColoradoFront RangeRocky Mountains
Geneva Basin
Ran 1963–1984. A ski area by Guanella Pass in Colorado's Pike National Forest that opened as Indianhead in the early 1960s and closed in 1984.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The area opened on the Clear Creek and Park county line, reached from Georgetown by Guanella Pass, under the name Indianhead. The English family of Illinois built it; they had also developed an Indianhead ski area in Michigan.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe ski patrol building still stands at the top of the old Duck Creek lift, and backcountry skiers walk in from an access gate to ski the former trails. (2026)2
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Geneva Basin, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Geneva Basin
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 0.6 mi away · ColoradoA one-lift ski hill on Guanella Pass, just north of the later Geneva Basin ski area, run for two or three winters in the 1950s.
- Opened 1938 · 10.6 mi away · ColoradoA one-tow club ski spot on Loveland Pass, near today's Arapahoe Basin, that ran from 1938 into the 1940s.
- 1937–2001 · 16.1 mi away · ColoradoA ski area on both sides of the Continental Divide at Berthoud Pass, Colorado, that ran lifts from 1937 to 2001, though not every winter.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The area opened on the Clear Creek and Park county line, reached from Georgetown by Guanella Pass, under the name Indianhead. The English family of Illinois built it; they had also developed an Indianhead ski area in Michigan. Colorado Ski History and the Denver Post date the opening to 1963, while Wikipedia says December 1961, so sources differ. It started with the Duck Creek double chair and the Sundance T-bar, and two Poma lifts came in the 1960s.1,2,3
The pass road was unimproved, money was short, and the area went into foreclosure in 1965. Roy Romer, then a state senator and later governor, and the Walter J. Burke family bought it at auction and renamed it Geneva Basin. A Kansas investment group took over in 1972 and by 1974 had replaced the Sundance T-bar with a Heron-Poma double chair.1,2
In the 1983–84 season an empty chair fell from the Duck Creek cable, and the Colorado Tramway Board shut the area. That last season drew 24,490 skiers. A new group bought it in 1985, removed Duck Creek and began a Borvig triple to be called Phoenix, but the lifts never ran again. In November 1993 Park County voters rejected a tax to reopen it, and Forest Service crews burned the lodge days later.1,2
TodayThe ski patrol building still stands at the top of the old Duck Creek lift, and backcountry skiers walk in from an access gate to ski the former trails. (2026)2
Timeline
- 1961Indianhead opens in December, according to Wikipedia2
- 1963Indianhead opens, according to Colorado Ski History and the Denver Post1,3
- 1965Foreclosure; the Burke family and Roy Romer buy it at auction1,2
- 1972Sold to an investment group from Kansas1,2
- 1974Heron-Poma double chair replaces the Sundance T-bar1,2
- 1984A chair falls from the Duck Creek lift; the Tramway Board shuts the area1,2
- 1993Reopening tax fails; Forest Service crews burn the lodge1,2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Geneva Basin Ski Area
- 2Wikipedia · Geneva Basin Ski Area
- 3The Denver Post · This is Colorado's most famous abandoned ski area
Photos
No photographs of Geneva Basin we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Geneva Basin, in their own words.
Facts
Location
39.5690° N · 105.7261° W · Colorado · Front Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1963–1984
Closed after the 1984 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 5all 5, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain