Brief by Central Staff
Marketing – September 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Chaffee County hired a marketing consultant and became the Headwaters of Adventure, and now Gunnison County is going through the same process, according to a press release from Denver-based Ideas of the Mind, a full-service integrated marketing and communications agency servicing the specialized needs of the travel and tourist industry, which has been engaged to develop a new brand and logo.
We can’t help with either brand or logo, but we do have a suggestion for a slogan.
But first, some background. Fraser, Colo., used to be known as The Icebox of the Nation. Fraser, located at the west foot of Berthoud Pass, is about as gelid as any place in the United States: winter nights routinely drop below -40º. Allen Best, a frequent contributor to these pages, lived there 20 years ago.
In February of 1985, he came to Salida to go on a cross-country ski excursion over Old Monarch Pass with Ed. Columbine, then in fourth grade, complained because Ed and Allen could go have fun in the woods, while she had to go to school. So her father said she could play hooky and go skiing with them.
From what they could determine later, a low storm had backed in against the west side of Old Monarch. From the treeline down, there was about two feet of fresh powder, which slowed their skiing so that they didn’t get down until midnight or so (where they were greeted by neighbor Rob Wikoff, whom Martha had called when the ski party got seriously overdue).
The long trek through the deep Gunnison Country snow on a cold night produced frostbite on the toes of Columbine, and Allen who, you recall, lived in Fraser at the time.
Thus our proposed slogan: The Gunnison Country: Where people from Fraser go to get frostbite.
