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Known as the “Heart of the Valley” for its geographic location as well
as its strong sense of community and family-friendly atmosphere, the Town of Avon
is a great place for both residents and visitors. Whether skiing,
hiking, paddling the Eagle River or enjoying a leisurely day in town, launching mountain adventures from Avon is easy
and convenient.
Avon offers a small mountain town atmosphere
with many amenities. The town serves as a gateway to the world-class
Beaver Creek Resort and is eight miles west of world-famous Vail. Avon
also offers a multitude of recreational opportunities, special events, parks, open space and trails, and a mix of local and national shops and restaurants.
Early English immigrants named the town Avon because the area reminded them of their homeland’s Avon River Valley…or so the story goes. The earliest Anglo-Americans visiting the area were probably hearty Mountain Men trapping beaver to supply fur for city folks' fashionable top hats. In 1845 a dashing adventurer, John Charles Fremont, led his California-bound expedition down the Eagle River through present day Avon and caught what they called a “buffalo fish,” probably a mountain white fish or a very old cutthroat trout, at a riverside camp called “William's Fishery”. The famous Hayden Survey party came to the Eagle Valley in 1873 noting impressive geology near present day Minturn and Squaw Creek, near present day Cordillera. Settlers arrived in the early 1880’s. Early pioneers grew hay and raised cattle to feed hungry miners in nearby Red Cliff.
In the 1920’s head lettuce was the crop of choice in Avon and neighboring Beaver Creek and Bachelor Gulch. Boxcars stood at the Avon Depot, loaded with ice from the Minturn ice house (the ice had been cut the preceding winter at Pando up near Tennessee Pass). These refrigerated railcars shipped Avon crops as far as the east coast providing fresh lettuce weeks after the nation's standard lettuce harvest was gone. Through the years Avon land produced cattle, hay, potatoes, peas, oats and, starting in the 1940's, sheep. By this time most of Avon's homesteading families were long gone but descendents of William Nottingham had stayed on and owned and operated nearly all of the land called Avon. By 1972 Vail had become one of the top destination ski resorts in the country and pressure mounted “down valley” in Avon for ranch land to be developed. One branch of the Nottingham family sold its controlling interest in the land to Benchmark Companies and the Town of Avon was incorporated on February 24, 1978. The new town was comprised of the land in present-day central and western Avon including the area that soon became Nottingham Park. After ten years, in 1988, Avon had a permanent population of 1,500 people. Another branch of the Nottinghams sold its land to companies owned by developer Magnus Lindholm, the area encompassing present day eastern Avon and the northern hillside. Residents continued to move to Avon and, in 1998, Avon was home to over 3,000 residents. Avon currently boasts 6,500 year-round residents, plus another
3,500 part-time residents. |
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