Vail, Colorado is named for Charles Davis Vail, the state's chief highway engineer from 1930 until his death in 1945. His name went on Vail Pass first. When Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton's ski area opened just west of that pass in December 1962, it took the pass's name, and the town that grew around it, incorporated in 1966, kept it.
Who Charles Vail was
Charles Davis Vail was born in 1869 on an Illinois farm, the sixth of seven children, according to a Daily Sentinel profile drawn from Palisade Tribune archives, the Palisade Historical Society and Thomas J. Noel's biography of him. He worked on railroads and water projects, opened an engineering firm in Denver and later worked for the city of Denver. In 1930 Governor Billy Adams appointed him State Highway Engineer.
The Sentinel credits him with paving hundreds of miles of state highway and connecting routes into complete cross-state roads; it puts the paved mileage at roughly 500 when he took the job and 4,400 when he died. He was also a political target. A 1939 lawsuit and civil service complaint sought his removal, and the Civil Service Commission dismissed the charges that year. Vail died in Denver in January 1945, aged 76, still in the job, nearly 18 years before a ski lift turned in the valley that now carries his name.
From a highway to Vail Pass
The Town of Vail's own history page says the valley stayed a peaceful home for sheep ranchers until 1939, when construction began on Highway 6 through the Gore Valley. It adds that Charlie Vail, the project's engineer, lent his name to the road, Vail Pass, and eventually to the town.
The Sentinel gives the sequence for the pass: in December 1939 the Eagle County commissioners asked the state highway board to name the place where U.S. 6 crossed the mountains east of Gore Creek for Vail, and the board approved it in 1941. That is the pass Interstate 70 crosses today. A Vail Daily report on his papers quotes the state transportation director saying the EagleVail section of Highway 6 and the original Vail Pass were both completed in 1940, and that Vail is the namesake of EagleVail as well.
How the ski area and town took the name
The Vail Daily's history of the opening says the resort was named after the pass. Some people suggested the Ute name for the area, the Shining Mountains, but Seibert objected that "shining" reminded him of icy slopes, and he also wanted a short name.
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 to 1941 | Highway 6 built through the Gore Valley; Vail Pass named for Charles Vail | Town of Vail; Daily Sentinel |
| January 1945 | Charles Vail dies in Denver, aged 76 | Daily Sentinel |
| March 19, 1957 | Earl Eaton leads Pete Seibert up the future Vail Mountain | Vail Daily; Discover Vail |
| September 9, 1959 | U.S. Forest Service grants the permit, after an initial denial and appeal | Vail Daily |
| December 15, 1962 | Vail Mountain opens; lift tickets were $5 that season | Vail Daily; Vail Resorts |
| August 23, 1966 | Town of Vail incorporated | Town of Vail |
Vail Resorts' company timeline says the mountain opened with two chairlifts and one gondola; the Vail Daily counts three lifts operating that first day. Its account adds that the lifts ran free on opening day. The name on the trail map, in other words, came from a road that was built before anyone skied the mountain.
Claims about the name to treat with caution
- That Seibert and Eaton personally chose Charles Vail as an honoree. The sources above say the resort took the name of the pass. The Vail Daily records Seibert's reasons for preferring a short name over "Shining Mountain"; none of the sources describe a vote to honor the engineer himself.
- That fewer than 100 skiers came on opening day. Discover Vail says few tickets were sold because of a lack of snow, and the Vail Daily says snow was scarce that first season.
- That Charles Vail "never skied" or never visited. None of the sources say either way. What they do show is that he died nearly 18 years before the resort opened.
Where to read more
The Vail Daily reports that scrapbooks kept by Vail's daughter, Vera Vail Winslow, were cataloged by the Denver Public Library and are open to researchers, and that Noel and Carr wrote the biography using them. For the rest of Vail's story, our posts on when Vail Ski Resort opened and how old the resort is cover the opening, how high Vail Pass is covers the pass itself, and where the town sits and which mountains surround it cover the geography. The corporate side, including when Vail Resorts was founded, has its own guide.
