Vail –This resort community has moved on from finger- pointing that surrounded the 1998 firebombings atop Vail Mountain.
Conversation has turned to skiing, even as suspects in the 7-year-old arsons were named.
Acrimony that once engulfed Vail Resorts’ expansion has given way to widespread support for more development.
The town and Vail Resorts have partnered in a $500 million overhaul of the main village and neighboring Lionshead that marketers call “Vail’s New Dawn.”
Many residents credit – and some blame – the arsons for creating a political climate that is supportive of Vail Resorts’ ambitious business plans.
“After those buffoons burned Two Elk (Lodge) down, people jumped ship and said, ‘Wait a minute. This isn’t right,”‘ said John Kemmer, owner of The Toy Store. “Personally, I think it’s better to expand an existing ski area than to go into a new area. It has brought us together. You see nice urban renewal taking place here.”
And skiing is increasingly becoming big business.
“It’s not the good old boys from the 10th Mountain Division anymore,” Kemmer said. “You got to get with it or get off it. You have to plan for the future. The world is coming to Colorado to ski. You have to be ready for them.”
As the suspects were named after a nine-year investigation that focused on a rash of “eco- terrorist” acts across the West, theories on the blaze have been rekindled.
“I don’t think they’ve got the right people,” said Diana Donavan, a former Vail Town Council member.
“One of the reasons I say that is immediately – almost while the fire was still burning – the word was out that it was an environmental group before anyone had actually looked to see what had caused the fire.
“It was too fast. The environmentalists were blamed too quickly.”
That notion was helped along when the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the fires in an e-mail.
A number of residents in Vail, including Donavan, believe that those responsible had local assistance.
Vail Fire Chief John Gulick said a sequence of photographs show the fire was ignited from outside of Two Elk Lodge and that the arsonists probably escaped through the Two Elk drainage system over to Vail Pass.
National Guard members surveyed the area through infrared goggles from an airplane while the lodge was burning.
“Whoever the people were who caused the incident escaped quickly,” Gulick said.
“That was quite a heinous crime. It’s just a shame that $12 million worth of damage occurred, because the new lodge just took more lumber and more timber.
“People are interested (in the case), but it is kind of a faded memory.
“A lot of folks have left, and now we’re focused on ‘Vail’s New Dawn’ and renaissance. It’s a thing of the past for many of us.”
