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Tom Ross

Tom Ross' column appears Tuesdays and Sundays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 970-871-4205 or tross@SteamboatToday.com.

Say whatever you want to about Steamboat developer Jim Cook, but the guy had a brilliant idea when he commissioned a statue of Carl Howelsen.

Howelsen was the great Norwegian ski jumper who was universally recognized as the father of skiing in Steamboat Springs - Ski Town USA.

Cook has been something of a lightning rod for his role in spearheading developments that are resulting in the abandonment of workforce housing in the Westland Mobile Home Park and the demolition of the Harbor Hotel. Westland will make way for the Riverwalk development, and the Harbor is about to disappear to allow construction of Howelsen Place.

I have no desire to rehash the arguments about the loss of housing in Westland and the historical significance of the old Harbor building. Instead, let's look at Cook's vision for the future of the downtown commercial district. Because ready or not, here it comes.

Howelsen Place and Riverwalk, along with Alpenglow at Sixth Street and Lincoln Avenue, will dramatically change downtown Steamboat with buildings devoted to a mixture of commercial spaces at ground level and residential loft condominiums above. We're going to be looking at those buildings for the next 80 years, and judging from the elevation drawings, they're handsome and carefully thought out.

Cook, who displays a passion for traditional downtown commercial districts, plans to place a statue of Howelsen in mid ski jump in the rotunda of Howelsen Place at the corner of Seventh Street and Lincoln Avenue.

"People who are meeting someone at the bottom of the gondola say, 'I'll meet you at Billy (Kidd's statue),'" Cook told a noonday audience at the Tread of Pioneers Museum this week. "My hope is that people meeting downtown will say, Meet you at Carl.'"

I can't tell you I know what Carl Howelsen would say about tearing down the Harbor (it was built long after he left Steamboat for Oslo, never to return). Nor do I know how he would feel about lending his name to a multi-million dollar redevelopment project. He was a stonemason who worked on a number of Steamboat's landmark buildings. Heck, if he were around today, he might bid the job.

Cook, more than any other person, has a cogent vision for the future of Steamboat Springs. And he's doing a lot more than just talking about it - he's acting on it. The three projects currently in development are just the beginning of what he has in mind for Steamboat's downtown. Before he's done, he'll have wielded a tremendous amount of influence over the character of downtown buildings that will prevail through the 21st century.

Cook has a strong personality along with a bright intellect, and I'm going to take a wild guess that he isn't shy about exerting his will on his associates. However, at least for public consumption, he's welcoming broad participation in reshaping the image of downtown.

"We're still at the embryonic stage," he said this week. "Each of us can make a difference if we choose to be involved."

Cook is convinced that the key to making downtown Steamboat more vibrant is expanding existing entertainment venues and enhancing the arts community. Creating more entertainment venues, Cook says, will increase the number of people who frequent downtown shops and restaurants. But shops and restaurants alone can't do the trick.

To back up his assertion, he's establishing a perpetual transfer fee of one-quarter of a percent on sales at the three projects to fund the arts in Old Town. The fund will bear the name of his late wife, Sheila. Cook also will create small public performance venues in Riverwalk, where a portion of Spring Creek that currently runs underground in a culvert will sparkle in the sun again.

Cook envisions a refurbished theater that could house dance, drama and music performances. He's also a proponent of the effort to realize the late Helen Rehder's dream of an art museum in the Rehder building at Eighth and Lincoln.

Cook cites Howelsen Hill with its indoor ice rink and skiing facilities as a primary example of entertainment venues that already exist downtown. And that brings me back to the ski jumping Norwegian and the history of skiing in Steamboat.

Two years ago, the members of Main Street Steamboat Springs endured significant brain damage trying to decide on a new "brand" for the downtown commercial district. I told everyone who would listen about my conviction that we don't have to invent a new brand for Steamboat - it has always been Ski Town USA.

Keep in mind that it's the Winter Sports Club that has trademarked and owns that slogan.

My idea did not meet with great enthusiasm - probably because the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. already has leveraged that position in its marketing and advertising. And Main Street Steamboat was intent on finding a brand that would differentiate it from the ski base.

However, I would argue that if there is one quality about downtown Steamboat that no one can take away, it's our remarkable collective history as a community that nurtures future Winter Olympians.

Yet, how you can still walk down Lincoln Avenue without confronting a single reminder that the remarkable ski history collection of the Tread of Pioneers Museum is a block away at the corner of Eight and Oak streets?

How many times have you passed a small knot of visitors at Ninth and Lincoln asking out loud, "What's that funny looking hill over there? Is that the ski jump?"

Every time I see tourists scratching their heads, wondering where the ski jumps are, I wish I had a brochure to hand them.

Cook's plan to place a statue of Howelsen at a key downtown intersection, in sight of the ski jumping hill that bears his name, is a good start. But we have more than 50 Olympians to honor and a similar number of stories to tell.

There should be bronze busts, statues and historical plaques throughout Old Town Steamboat pointing out the special relationship that Steamboat's ranching history and culture of skiing share.