by Don Berger

    In the late 1800's, new boom towns with names like Redcliff, Astor City, Gold Park and Holy Cross City sprang up in the Upper Eagle River Valley as word spread nationwide about gold and silver
strikes. Thousands of hopeful prospectors came for a chance at a fortune.

      One of these enterprising individuals was named Williams Edwards, who in the mid-1880s bought a 156 acre site at the confluence of the Eagle River and Brush Creek. He declared the parcel to be a town and named it Castle. After a few name changes, Castle would become Eagle and would serve for more than a century as the commercial hub for the surrounding ranching and agricultural communities. 

     However, the town's early years were sometimes rocky. In fact, several times it was sold for back taxes. In the early 1890's, the Town of Castle was returned to the county treasurer for back taxes totaling $74.53. It was then sold to A.A. McDonald of Leadville in 1893, who renamed the town after himself. But, his fortunes soon faded and he was forced to sell the Town of McDonald in 1896 for taxes of $210.42.

     The town's carousel of changing names include: Brush, Eagle River Crossing (to freight and stage drivers), and Rio Aquilla, Spanish for "Eagle River."

     In 1887, the first business opened in the new town. Owned and operated by C. F. Nogal, the general merchandise business was housed in a tent. The enterprising Mr. Nogal also is credited with building the first hotel, which he opened in 1891.  With more and more people moving into the surrounding countryside to farm and ranch, the growing community decided a schoolhouse was needed. Thus, a school district was established and the school house was completed in 1890.

     By the mid 1890s, with the moniker Eagle firmly and finally in place, the town had begun to take on the trappings of a full-fledged community. It had its own newspaper, the Eagle County Examiner, and was becoming home to a rapidly growing number of business. In 1899, for example, the Eagle County Examiner contained advertisements for the following: Eagle Market, a blacksmith, the Eagle Hotel, McGuire-Gleason Stage Lines, the Eagle sawmill, a doctor, and the Eagle Sample Rooms, a saloon. In 1900, with a town population of 124, the Methodist Church was built. 

     Throughout the first several decades of the town's existence there  was an ongoing drive to have Eagle replace Redcliff as the county seat. In 1921 the voters approved the measure and Eagle officially became the county seat.

      There is a side story here, that of a fierce if friendly rivalry between Eagle and Gypsum, which had also considered a bid for the county seat. Rumor has it that a deal was eventually worked out between the neighboring towns. Eagle would get the county seat but Gypsum would get the county high school (Eagle already had its own high school). Rivalry between the the towns continues to this day.

     The first electric lights appeared on July 5, 1927; however, even before World War I, Broadway had taken on an appearance very similar to what it is today.     The popular Lewis general store (now home to Norwest Bank) sold virtually everything imaginable, from dry goods to hunting supplies.

     Throughout its evolution, Eagle always maintained a cohesive community spirit, one that often shone brightest at the opera house.  Opened 31 years after Eagle's founding the opera house was a social center of sorts. Located where the present day Brush Creek Saloon stands, Eagle's opera house was not unique in the region. Many of the mining camps had their own often makeshift "opera houses." 

      The opera house wasn't the only source of socialization. Dances brought Eagle kids to the elementary school farther up Brush Creek. They came first in horse-drawn wagons or carts and later in the newfangled horseless carriages. The town's two churches, one Methodist and one Catholic, were the scene of lively social gatherings.

       Men's social life tended to be less organized than the women's groups. Pool halls, saloons and barber shops, often with gambling in a back room, were popular gathering places for men. Here they could enjoy the company of other men or, in the case of a saloon, watch an occasional bare-fisted boxing match. Organized baseball was the era's most popular sport, one which men and boys took as seriously as they do baseball and football today. 

      In fact, baseball also served as an instrument to encourage valley-wide camaraderie. Apparently, the Red Cliff Fellows, formed in 1901, was the first team of the newly formed Eagle Baseball Association, headquartered in Eagle. Other teams soon followed.  Game results would be faithfully published in The Eagle County Times, and people would take the trains to attend games.  Fourth of July celebrations also bonded the communities, as did the annual Eagle County Fair and, later, Eagle Flight Days. 

     In the 1930's, the Depression had an impact on Eagle as elsewhere in the country, but perhaps not quite as severe.  The community was self sufficient as far as food was concerned (owing to the surrounding ranches and farms); some of the town's Depression-era men rode the rails to California and other parts of the country to search for work. Families had large gardens and much of their yield was canned. 

     By the late 1930's Eagle was regaining a modicum of prosperity as evidenced by a pivotal event in 1939: a small landing strip was opened near the town. Today, the Eagle County Regional Airport is one of the country's fastest growing airports and is contributing significantly to the economic vitality of Eagle and neighboring communities.  Although most of its young men went off to fight when World War II broke out, there were still plenty around after the army opened a training base called Camp Hale. These men would be trained for what would become the famed 10th Mountain Division ski troops.

     As if an omen, many of the troops who trained at Camp Hale would form the nucleus of what would become the modern ski industry following the war. People like Pete Seibert, founder of Vail, were instrumental in creating the mountain resorts that now surround Eagle. 

     Today, despite its close proximity to nearby resorts, the town of Eagle remains refreshingly traditional and tranquil. Although its population is now over 3,000, it is still a small town where everybody knows everybody, where tree lined neighborhoods serve as welcome refuge from the stress of urban life. 

     Yet Eagle also soars with a community spirit that enables well-planned growth that preserves the town's character and charm. That spirit is infectious, too. Whether at a town meeting, the Eagle County Rodeo, Eagle Flight Days or a parade down Broadway, the people of Eagle exude a collective pride that embraces locals and visitors alike.