Steamboat Pilot & Today

Auction buyers have a chance Tuesday to acquire a notable mountain home with a 26-foot floor to ceiling wood-burning fireplace, a massive kitchen and a documented place in the history of skiing in Routt County.

The 10,000-square-foot home of Craig and Dawn Lodge goes up for auction on Tuesday and with it, views of the overgrown ski trails on Lester Mountain. The Lodge home originally was built not as a private residence, but as the ski lodge for the old Steamboat Lake Ski Area. The auction is being conducted by the National Auction Group of Gadsden, Ala., which has been active in Colorado in recent years. The company achieved a certain amount of fame in 2004 when it sold a ranch near Meeker to PGA golfer Greg Norman for $16 million.

The Lodge home is on about 37 acres and 23.5 miles from Steamboat along Routt County Road 209, which leads to Pearl Lake State Park. The right turn onto C.R. 209 off Elk River Road is before Steamboat Lake. The address is 27550 Kelsie Court.

The home is constructed of large timbers with log accents, and it's built to the specifications required of public buildings.

"It's a commercial building, but it's also very comfortable" Craig Lodge said. "It's still going to be here in 300 years. We put on a new roof that's insulated to (a rating of) R-50. It's engineered to hold 8 to 10 feet of snow."

The Steamboat Lake Ski Area was managed by the great four-way Olympic skier of the 1940s, Gordy Wren. But not for long.

The ski area operated only between January and April 1973. Financial difficulties then caught up with the development group's plans to build a large resort community in North Routt. There was to have been a golf course -- there are still two tee boxes on the Lodge property, but that's as far as it got. The ski area offered 600 vertical feet and two chairlifts. One of the chairlifts now serves Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs.

The Lodges acquired the home in April 1996 and immediately undertook remodeling. Craig is a former Aurora firefighter with a remodeling business, and Dawn is an operating room nurse.

Lodge said that with two adult children in college, and after spending many weekends cleaning the large home themselves, he and his wife are interested in downsizing and moving closer to town.

Craig Lodge says they splurged on all of the best materials they could find, in----cluding four slabs of hard-to-obtain Crazy Horse granite and cherry cabinets in the kitchen. The entry foyer features etched double-glass doors, an antler chandelier, a waterfall and a log-built closet.

The home has four bedrooms, four full baths and three half-baths with ample space for customizing the floor plan.

There is space for a home theater, a heated three-car garage with a shop and a five-stall horse barn with oversized doors at both ends.

The property includes a productive pasture and borders about 4,000 feet of Beaver Creek.

The Lodge home is available for viewing daily, by appointment, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. to schedule an appointment, call 256-547-3434, or call the residence at 970-871-1859. Bidders will be required to bring $50,000 in certified funds to participate. Closing will be within 30 days.