A Brief History of the Aspen Glen Club

The History of Aspen Glen

Walking across Aspen Glen in the early morning, as the high-altitude sun streams away the night’s light frost, it’s easy to let your mind wander back to the historical role this property has played in the Roaring Fork Valley. Over by the 11^th Tee is where the Colorado-Midland Railroad turn-around was built over a century ago, complete with its huge gazebo when big community parties were thrown from time to time. Out by the 8^th green is where a rope bridge crossed the Roaring Fork River, allowing ranching families to send their kids across the stream to a one-room school up in Cattle Creek. That schoolhouse still stands, having been moved across from the Strang Ranch in nearby Missouri Heights.
Human habitation at the Aspen Glen property actually dates back to the Ute Indians, many of whom relocated to southwestern Colorado and Utah when European settlers started moving into the valley in the mid-to-late 1800s. An early pioneer was Richard Sopris, who led an expedition into the valley to explore its mineral wealth; Mt. Sopris was named for him in 1889.

When gold and silver were discovered in the valley in 1879, prospectors and homesteaders poured into the valley. Families like the Sievers, Cranes and the Peebles also made their homes in the fertile valley, attracted by the fertile soil, and eventually earning national reputations for their crops, especially potatoes, and the cattle raised here.

Along with the homesteaders came workers for the new railroads and mines that were producing marble and coal up the Crystal River around Redstone. Boosted by a new railroad station, the town of Carbondale was incorporated in 1888 and named in honor of Carbondale, Pennsylvania.

The big news of 1887 was the arrival of the Colorado-Midland, operator of the aforementioned turn-around. But the Sievers family was already at work, operating a ranch on about 640 acres of what is now Aspen Glen. Four brothers formed the ranch in 1885, but in 1894 the partnership dissolved and George Sievers retained the original ranch property, which operated until it was sold to Aspen Glen in 1992.

Tim Sievers, one of the original four brothers, bought the ranch just across the Roaring Fork that is now the Burry property. The southern portion of the Aspen Glen property, about 300 acres, was owned by the Crane and Peebles families’ from 1895 until 1920, when they sold it to peter Chuc, an Italian immigrant.
The Chuc family moved to the valley after working for a while in the Leadville areas, traveling over Independence Pass and through Aspen to reach their new home that apparently reminded them of a previous home. "My father was immediately attracted to the valley because it reminded him our home in Aosta, Italy," recalled Leonis Chuc, Peter’s son.

In 1928, the Chuc sons bought the ranch from their father and ran cattle on the land. By the time they sold the property to the Seeburg family in 1958, their 230-head herd of ‘Hereford cattle were famous throughout the state.'
Leonis Chuc stayed on as foreman for J.P. Seeburg II for 20 years before founding the Bank of Glenwood in 1978. Seeburg, inventor of the jukebox, was an avid hunter and fisherman who traveled the globe to indulge those passions. The sturdy Seeburg Lodge was used as the temporary clubhouse and sales reception center for Aspen Glen from 1993 to 1999. The family built the Seeburg Lodge in 1966 and often showcased the bounty from those hunting and fishing expeditions.
The Seeburgs named the ranch "Diamond S", and it was later re-named the "Diamond A Ranch" by Phillip Anschutz. Anschutz bought the property in 1982 to use as a corporate retreat and to allow him to move coal across the river from another ranch above Carbondale. Phillip Anschutz sold the ranch to Aspen Glen in 1992.

The Aspen Glen project was conceptualized by John Elkins and John Brown who originally hired Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf to design a golf course that incorporated a housing development. Elkins and Brown sold the property due to financial challenges to the Melrose Company and Club Corporation of America in 1994. At this time Jack Nicklaus and son Jack Nicklaus II were hired to design the Aspen Glen Golf Course. 

While operating out of a temporary clubhouse, the back nine opened July 1997. In September 1997 Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II played the inaugural round consisting of all 18 holes at the Aspen Glen Club. In May 1998 Golf Operations and Eagle’s Nest Grill moved in Phase I of the clubhouse development.

Author Unknown