This week in history Feb. 26, 1921: Dillon and Breck attract pros to ski jumping competitions

This week in history as reported by The Summit County Journal the week of Feb. 26, 1921:
Breckenridge Winter Sports Carnival to be held on Shock Hill
The Breckenridge Ski Association will hold its first annual Winter Sports Carnival on March 2 and 3. This event has been planned for some time, and the new ski course on Shock Hill has been put into first-class shape for the tournament.
Professionals from all parts of the country, as well as from foreign counties, will arrive in Breckenridge the first of the week to take part in the tournament. Lars Haugen — who has appeared in all the events at various places this winter, and who yesterday won title honors at Steamboat Springs with a jump of 203 feet, showing that he is in fine form — will be present, as will his brother Anders Haugen, who broke the world’s record at Dillon during the past two years and who this year will aim to break the record recently establish by Henry Hall at Revelstoke.
Dillon Ski Tournament will be ‘real’ jumping contest
Denver entertained the big professional and amateur riders last Sunday, and those of the jumpers who had more nerve than good judgment in risking their necks, entertained the Denver enthusiasts to the number of about 40,000 or thereabouts. Most of the riders scored falls with their jumps because the course on Genesee Mountain was not fit to hold a tournament of such magnitude upon.
But the “real” tournament will take place in Dillon on March 6 on a “real” course, at which time Anders Haugen, who did not attempt the hill at Denver, will make an effort to regain his title to the record, which last week was taken from him by Henry Hall at Revelstoke, British Columbia. Hall will not be at Dillon this year; however, there will be a number of other prominent professionals at the Dillon tourney to go after Hall’s laurels. Besides Anders Hauger, the former title holder, and his brother Lars, well-known hereabouts for his ability to cover distance, Carl Howelsen, Oscar Gunderson and Sverre Hendrickson will appear at Dillon and go after Hall’s new record.
Commercial club protests rail rates that are too high
At a hearing on express rates before the Public Utilities Commission last week, the Steamboat Springs Commercial Club presented the proposition that all rates are too high — that they have gone beyond the point where it is profitable to travel or to produce. This applied to all the rail lines of the country, but more particularly to the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad, which received a 35% increase in freight and passenger fares while other lines received a 25% increase.
Railroad men everywhere are now beginning to realize that the great rail lines of the country have killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
During the past two years, the railroads broke all records in the amount of passenger and freight traffic they handled but continually complained that they needed higher fares and higher freight rates. They needed more cars and more locomotives and they wanted earnings, they said.
Browse The Summit County Journal archives at ColoradoHistoricNewspapers.org.

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism
As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.
Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.
Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.