The Region

The Aspen to Parachute Region covers 3,500 square miles, and encompasses Garfield County, Pitkin County, and the Basalt/El Jebel area of Eagle County.  This area includes nine towns and cities.

Natural gas exploration and production, the ski resort tourism and second home ownership have contributed to economic diversity and rising costs of living in the region, making it difficult for working-class families to find housing near their place of employment.

According to a 2004 Roaring Fork Transit Authority study, the regional population is projected to grow by 87% between 2000-2025, with a working population increase of 80% in this same time period.           

                                                                           

Immigration

According to Garfield County, Colorado: The First Hundred Years 1883-1983 by Andrew Gulliford (1983, Grand River Museum Alliance):

• Coal mining in the 1880s brought immigrants from Europe to Garfield County.  They came to work in mining to send money home, not to stay, but with time they sent for families, stayed here as the mining industry went bust, bought land, and began to farm and ranch (7).
•  In 1907, Japanese labor was brought in by the Antlers Orchard Development Company to enlarge the Cactus Valley Ditch dam (19).
• Between 1913 and 1948, German, Russian, and Mexican workers were brought in to western Garfield County to work in sugar beet fields and on the railroad (19).

Over the past fifteen years the region has been experiencing another great rush of immigrants. Although most are from Mexico, Central and South America, they also come from other countries, in smaller numbers. They are coming to America and our valleys for the same reasons that attracted our great grandparents over a hundred years ago - to escape poverty and realize their dream of freedom and prosperity. The job opportunities in mining are gone but these new immigrants are finding work in construction, oil and gas, and the service industry.   They have brought new diversity, and in many cases, new economic vitality to our communities as new families work, purchase products and services, and pay taxes.

The 2000 Census estimated there were 16,000 immigrants in the Aspen to Parachute region, comprising 29% of the population.  In 2003, the number grew to 25,000, or 36% of the population.  Although the community has small numbers of immigrants from many countries, the majority of the region’s immigrants are Spanish-speaking individuals from Mexico, Central and South America.  According to the Colorado Department of Health, 43.7% of births in Garfield County in 2004 were to Hispanic mothers, who were primarily new immigrants.

Attention was brought to immigration and changing regional demographics on July 3, 2001, when a mentally ill Anglo man shot and killed four Mexican immigrants and wounded several others in a Rifle trailer park.  The killings were first considered to be hate crimes against Mexicans and immigrants, because the man said he wanted to “eliminate aliens” coming to his town.  In response, more than 3,000 people marched through Rifle on July 8, 2001, to repudiate the killings and to reaffirm the commitment to community reconciliation.  In attendance were Governor Bill Owens, Auxiliary Bishop Jose Gomez, and Mexican Consul Leticia Calzada Gomez.

In July 2004, representatives from health and human services, city and county governments, foundations, communities, schools and churches from Pitkin, Garfield and Eagle counties came together to submit a grant proposal to the Colorado Trust’s Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families initiative, effectively starting the Community Integration Initiative.

Historically, immigrants and refugees have been an integral part of the culture and the economy of the Aspen to Parachute corridor. The first great rush of immigrants came from Italy, Greece, and other western European countries, Mexico and Asia.  They laid the track for the railroad, hauled freight, mined for coal, marble, gold and silver and worked our ranches and farms to feed a hungry nation.  Many came to our valleys to escape poverty and realize their dream of freedom and prosperity. Now, many of the great, great grandchildren of these first immigrants are our region’s doctors, lawyers, innkeepers, bankers and teachers.