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Fraser, Colorado

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Fraser, CO
Fraser, Colorado

Photos, history, and memories of Fraser, Colorado.

Two local boys who love their hometown and want to document its colorful past and evolving present through photos, stories, and more.

09/12/2026

69 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH...September, 1957: dedication of the new Fraser post office back when your local post office was a big deal (still is, we just take it for granted these days). The mayor (seated behind the speaker in this photo) and some others gave a speech, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the mayor a personal letter stating he was sorry he couldn't make it but the pressing matters of running the country made it impossible. Were any of you there for this? Any firsthand memories to share? The building is still there for now but we hear of plans for bigger things on this block.

09/09/2026

THERE ARE LOTS OF PHOTOS OF CORONA and Rollins Pass that make one feel just how lonesome and isolated that mountain railroad could be. Here's one of them, date unknown, showing a passenger train chugging up Sunnyside towards the train station/hotel/snowsheds at the top of the Continental Divide. For those of you who might not know where this is, that's the Great Divide right there, looking south, with Fraser Valley on the right far down the mountain...hike south on that ridge and you'd climb James Peak.

08/26/2026

STEAM POWER! We've got lots of old photos of Fraser taken over the last hundred + years (send us yours' to share!), but there are almost no photographs of steam locomotives. Reason being that trains have been such a constant part of the fabric of the town and the valley that locals only took pictures when something unique happened, like a train wreck, the circus train passing through, or the first Amtrak or the last Zephyr. There are a few though, including this one taken right at the main crossing in town right next to that other Admin's house at the Fraser Mercantile. Lord knows he has heard some trains go by in his time, probably more than he wishes to remember. We love this one for the ghostly effect.

08/19/2026

YOU CAN'T STOP PROGRESS. Or something like that. Here's a great photo, date unknown but assuming 1960s, shared by one of your humble admins' fellow Fraser Elementary School classmates (the OLD school!) showing the lighting of the first gas lit lamp in Grand County. Caption as follows:

"Natural gas service officially arrived last Friday when Public Service Company, Western Slope Gas Company, and Middle Park officials participated in a lighting ceremony in Winter Park. Shown commemorating the event are, from left: Robert T Person, President of PSCO and WSGCo; Edgar Harris, Mayor of Granby; Jim Murphy, Chairman of the Grand County Commissioners; Herman Mahnke, PSCp's Middle Park District Manager; Eldo Gallagher, Mayor of Kremmling: and Bob Florquist, Mayor of Fraser

08/12/2026

SUMMER PICNIC, 1949 or so.
Nothing like a drive up into the once quiet woods for some cans of Coors (don't forget your church keys!) and some grub! This gem (color added for effect) was shared with us by the late, great Jean O'Neil not long before her passing in 2015. That's Jean standing on the right in the white blouse, with (from left to right) her husband Junior O'Neil in the ball cap, then Clint and Ted (last names unknown), "Grandma" (O'Neil or Smith, Jean's maiden name, we aren't sure) and Shirley (last name unknown) sitting and making some food. Jean was a true blue born in Fraser local, while Junior was a fast driving Tabernash man. They lived for decades on a small ranch on the 4 Bar 4 road along Spring Creek. We'd love to hear more stories about these folks as I know for sure some of their descendants follow this page.

07/27/2026

SEPTEMBER, 1959...SWIM SUIT, ANTIFREEZE, AND LITTLE BOBBY EMAL. Most of you know there is a street in Fraser named Zerex, but you may not know that the name was given to the street in the late 1950s as part of a Zerex antifreeze ad campaign wherein the company choppered in enough antifreeze for Fraser's 300 or so residents to fill up their radiators for the upcoming frigid winter in the "Icebox of the Nation". This was one of a handful of similar promotions that Fraser mayor Chuck Clayton sought out or at least encouraged during this time period. Here we see "Miss Airlift" (Diane was her name) smiling at an almost 3 year old Bobby Emal. Helicopter landed in the meadow where the Wendy's is now, and I'm sure the whole town was there. Check out the workingmen in the background puzzling out how the machine works. On this same day, Mayor Chuck Clayton and his daughter Connie got to ride in the helicopter, and Chuck took some amazing aerial photos of the TINY, TINY town of Fraser surrounded by an empty vastness of meadows and forest, many of which we've shared on here before.

07/22/2026

Borrowing this one from the Town of Winter Park, found it at town hall with quite a few of the pix we’ve shared over the years while this admin was waiting in the hallway. Perhaps someone on staff knows the photographer and date it was taken so we can credit them appropriately.
Different views of the Winterhof and the Coachman and Dick Mulligans home. I’m sure some of our senior fans remember what all the businesses are in this dreamy black and white.

07/16/2026

TABERNASH!
Our second favorite town in the valley, shown here in its heyday back in 1929. Mt. Neva/Devil's Thumb Pass in background for reference. These days, when we think of "downtown" Tabernash, we think of the stretch on the highway, but back in the day, the main part of town faced the rails rather than the road as that's where all the action was. Indeed, when this photo was taken, right before the Moffat tunnel opened, Tabernash was the most swinging town in the valley as it was home to the railroad roundhouse and all the helper engines and crews needed to get trains over Rollins Pass/Corona. Things faded fast when the tunnel opened and all that support and infrastructure was no longer needed. By the time your admins were kids visiting friends in Tabernash in the 1970s, it was a mostly empty town with TONS of cool abandoned houses and cabins, most of which are now gone. These days, Tabernash has reinvented itself as a hub for the trades necessary to build all the trophy homes and condos, but some of the old vibes still persist, and westbound trains will still sit on the spur line waiting for eastbound trains to exit Fraser Canyon.

07/13/2026

1986! The 80's ski scene in the valley was pretty much every bit as wild and wooly as the mythical 70's. This image of a bad ass Jeff Bierig high up in the air is borrowed from the page Skiers Over 60, who called this a "Wall Party". As a young teenager in 1986, I marveled at the site of this big jump tucked away in the forest right at the foot of the pass (see switchback at bottom of Berthoud in image for perspective) and wondered who actually hit this thing, a hike up affair with not much room for error on that steep landing with cars on icy highway just beyond. I know that other admin probably has some memories of this place, as do some of you all...let's hear them!

07/10/2026

FOLKS AT THE BAR, 1948.
Happy Friday all. We've posted this one before, but our Photoshop skills are much improved since then, so here's a cleaned up version of this GEM of a photo showing some folks at Clayton's Bar (now Fishers Bar) in Fraser back in 1948...Fraser at the time a slowly fading logging/sawmill town beginning the slow then faster and faster evolution into full blown tourist destination. That's bartender/proprietor Chuck Clayton behind the bar in the center, with his wife Elsie kind of hidden away on the right side of the photo in white shirt behind the bar. Far left is Margery Waugh, and the woman in red is Junior Johnson's (white t-shirt) first wife Irene Wilhite, and the fellow in glasses is Melvin Fessler, with Big Art Johnson next to him in th hat and wader looking boots, and Nels Forslund on the far right. The number of folks still alive who could identify anyone else in this photo gets smaller by the year. Any help identifying anyone else is much appreciated!

NOTE: for anyone familiar with the current iteration of this oldest of east Grand County bars (older than Adolph's!), this view pretty much matches the current LEFT side of the bar (bartender's right) as the big room that the bar is in now was cut in half, with the cafe through the door visible in the right of the photo...behind the photographer are the big windows overlooking the highway and (back then, before the big new building), the Continental Divide.

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Zerex Street
Fraser, CO
80442

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