In Summit County we have an excellent free bus system called The Summit Stage. When we first moved here, I noticed that all the busses had names on them and I wondered what they meant. The names refer to Summit County history, and it wasn't until I read a book about the mining history here that I knew what they meant. Mary Ellen Gilliland is our local historianauthor and has written several books. I used her books to research the bus names. A couple of them are pretty obvious, like "Max and Edna". Their photographs are also on the side of the bus, and they are well known as the founders of both Arapahoe Basin Ski area and Keystone Resort.
Note the bike rack on this bus to the right. All the busses have bike racks in the summer and ski racks in the winter.
Another bus is named Jack, and there is a photo of a burro on the bus. The miners commonly used burros as work animals, and a nickname for a donkey is "Jack". "Chauncey" is named for Chauncey Warren who was the mayor of Dillon (we have a Warren avenue in Silverthorne). He owned Warren's Station at the foot of Loveland Pass.
"Webster" is named after Webster Pass, near the historic town of Montezuma. The Victoria mine would have been the inspiration for "Victoria, and "Emma" was named for Emma Saywer, a teacher in the town of Kokomo, near today's Copper Mountain ski area. She was known for skiing to the school in the winter. There is also a bus named "Kokomo". This bus to the left is named Tomcat, and although I could not find what it was named for, I assume it was a train or something related to trains, as that is what the historic photo is on the side of the bus.
Minnie Donnella Fletcher was born on May 3, 1882 on Boreas Pass, which is above the town of Breckenridge. She was known as the "highest born lady in Colorado", and she also has a bus with her name on it. "Oliver" is named for Oliver Milner, who built the first cabin in Sts John in 1865 and 1866. Sts John what near what is now Keystone. He later became the first mailman carrying mail to Breckenridge for $15 round trip.
For the bus named "Pioneer", other than the obvious fact that all Summit County residents of that day were pioneers, I think it may have been named after the Pioneer Theatre, which was held in a tent in the old town of Parkville. The Smuggler mine was the namesake of one last bus named "Smuggler". (see below) The photos of the miners are on the side.
Unfortunately, the Summit Stage hasn't seen fit to continue the tradition of names on the busses. They still have the historic photos, but now the new busses have numbers instead of names and photos of today's leisure activies like biking and skiing. It is sad to see the tradition go away.
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