Re.: “Remember the Arby's at Copper Mountain?” by Alex Miller, SDN Opinion Nov. 20

The Arby's franchise restaurant at Copper Mountain that you mentioned was actually the culmination of a long-standing connection between Arby's and Copper and it was not the first place where Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches were sold there. When Copper was founded, Chuck Lewis's search for investment capital went fruitlessly around the world, ultimately ending almost in our back yard. The Fulenwider family — a Denver real estate power — bought into the company to provide the capital needed to develop the lifts, runs and other facilities. One of the Fulenwider's related companies, which I believe was named The York Company, was a restaurant company that brought the Arby's franchises to Colorado and owned quite a few of them. It also owned nicer restaurants in the Denver area, including the Cork & Cleaver, a mainstay in Glendale for many years.

For the first several years of Copper's existence, The York Company ran a restaurant called the Copper Junction in the building of the same name and ran the Copper Mountain restaurants in The Day Center and Solitude Station. Although not an Arby's franchise, those sandwiches at the mountain were identical to the ones sold in the Front Range Arby's and were shaved from the same “roasts” as the franchises used. Calling them “roast beef” is being charitable. Having seen them being unwrapped and prepped for cooking cured me of that form of fast food forever.