Back in the mid-1950s, Salida entrepreneur Elmo Bevington, and former Gunnison Sheriff George Cope, leased land on the top of Monarch Pass from the United States Forest Service (USFS) to construct a gift shop and restaurant. It was completed in 1954. Bevington then decided to develop an old trail near the building site which went up to the Continental Divide. He put in a road where the trail was and offered rides to tourists by bus and jeep to the top. Business soon picked up, and Bevington and his brother Mac decided to put in an aerial tram from the ...
