Planet Bluegrass celebrates 50 years in Telluride, a town that almost lost its character

Planet Bluegrass is celebrating its 50 year anniversary of their Telluride Bluegrass Festival this year. For their June 16-18, 2023 program, the lineup is: String Cheese Incident, Bela Flect, Del McCoury, Charles Wesley Godwin, Natalie MacMaster, Donnell Leahy, Long Jon band, Bella White, Chris Thile. (It is sold out). The first event was on 4th of July weekend in 1973, by the Fall Creek Band. Based on its success, it came back as an official Festival the following year, and grew from 1,000 festivarians to 10,000 a day in 2023.

As far as the LYONS CONNECTION: In 1992, Boulder attorney, Craig Ferguson brought the successful Colorado Bluegrass Festival to Lyons. After some disputes and/or changes in where festivals would take place, in 1993 the first Lyons bluegrass festival opened with Doc Watson performing. Today Planet Bluegrass runs a June Telluride Bluegrass festival, and in Lyons: a July Rocky Grass, and an August Folk festival.

History of Telluride and the Bluegrass Festival

(Library of Congress; estimated to have been written in 2000)
Considered one of the country’s most progressive annual bluegrass festivals, the Telluride festival has grown to be a premier world event since the first one in 1974. In recent years, the festival has expanded to include musicians who play jazz, rock, country, folk, pop, world, celtic, newgrass, as well as bluegrass, sometimes blending different styles. The festival embraces the celebration of music in one of the country’s most spectacular settings-San Juan Valley.

The Telluride festival audience, called festivarians, are not only enthusiastic, but loyal, some making this event an annual vacation. The festival is limited to 10,000 people a day, and sells out a little earlier each year. Among musicians who have played the festival throughout the years are Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, Peter Rowan, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, John Cowan, and David Grisman. Newer regulars are Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Shawn Colvin.

The mountain town of Telluride began in the late 1800s, when prospectors followed the gold rush. Originally called Columbia, the name was changed nine years later to Telluride to avoid confusion with another town named Columbia. Telluride is an ore containing precious minerals combined with the element tellurium, then thought to be the richest of all ores. The city gained a kind of notoriety when Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch pulled off their first bank robbery in Telluride, taking the $24,000 deposit meant for the miners’ payroll.

During the Gay Nineties Telluride began attracting tourists who sought to experience the last of America’s Frontier. Festivals were popular, and Telluride put on one of the state’s best Fourth of July celebrations. In 1953 Telluride Mines shut down, and 90 percent of the male work force became unemployed. Luckily another company bought the mines, but townsfolk realized they needed to develop other industries, such as tourism, to be less dependent on mining. Because of Telluride’s historic significance, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. In 1969, a ski resort was built outside the town and many young adult skiers discovered the beauty of Telluride, and moved there. The population reached 1,000. The ski resort supported the town in winter. And in summer, the town started hosting more festive events, such as a hang gliding competition and a film festival. When the CoIdarado Mining Company closed in 1978, Telluride completely became a resort town.

The first Telluride Bluegrass Festival was started by a bluegrass band, Fall Creek, and was held during the four-day Independence Day celebration. It attracted 1,000 “festivarians.” Each following year, the festival became more professional, adding bigger acts. By 1978, many people had heard of the festival, which attracted 7,500 people, through word of mouth and its two albums. However, the festival promoters did not make money and some residents believed the festival should move to another location to handle the growing crowds. Other residents wanted to keep it as part of the city’s legacy and as a contributor to its economy. The 6th annual festival resulted in two CDs, and was filmed by the Boulder public television station. By 1983, the festival had become a nationally recognized festival and has continued the tradition.

Project documentation comprises a large report, including a history of Telluride and of the festival, newspaper clippings, the silver anniversary double CD from the festival in 1999, a 1992 festival CD, a video of the 17th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, festival brochures, and slides.

………………..Originally submitted by: Wayne Allard, Senator. (Library of Congress, The American Folklore Center)

History of the Telluride Valley Floor

Telluride’s Valley Floor is a glacially carved, three-mile expanse of river valley at the entrance to town. Historically, it was the hunting grounds of Native Americans, the site of the area’s first settlement, San Miguel City, and a pasture for grazing cattle. The land’s owner in the early 1990s was the San Miguel Valley Corporation (SMVC), headed by Neal Blue, CEO of the defense contracting company General Atomics. 

In 2007 a series of events and announcements were made that would turn the land over to developers for proposed new luxury homes, a hotel, a golf course and more. A court ruled on the value of the property at $50 million. As a result of the 20 percent solution, and a bond, by 2007, the town had amassed roughly $25 million toward the cause — but it was only half of what was needed. And if that wasn’t devastating enough, Telluride had only about 90 days to deposit the full $50 million into escrow or lose the land. The deadline was May 21. A group of people, mainly under the age of 30, (and many calling themselves ‘ski bums’) pursued. They got 850 people to donate (under $5,000 each) and a small handful of big donors giving approximately a million each.

The final step was for the court to rule in 2008 that the town could condemn the property and take it through eminent domain, which is the right of a government to acquire land for public purposes as long as it pays fair market value for it.  The unhappy landowner, who had preferred the massive luxury land development, was then paid.

The local newspaper summarized the spirit of the endeavor: The Valley Floor is what separates Telluride from other resort towns. Telluride’s spirit is epitomized in the Valley Floor. Not in the land itself, although the river valley is beautiful. It was the resolve, commitment to conservation and refusal to compromise on display in the grueling, 90-day fundraising campaign of 2007 that characterizes Telluride.

A documentary was made about it, and it was shown at last year’s Lyons International Film Festival. In a review on BroadwayWorld.com, critic Herb Paine described “Forever Wild” as “an exhilarating and inspiring account of a community’s courage and self-sacrifice in order to preserve one of those very special places on the American landscape as accessible to all.” It was shown on PBS-TV in 2022.

You can also read the details of the journey in the Telluride News newspaper.