Lost No More
06/30/2025 01:30PM ● By Dylan Anderson
Photo: An aerial view of Stagecoach Reservoir. Roughly 20 miles south of Steamboat, Stagecoach Mountain Ranch could include more than 800 acres of skiable terrain on a mountain dotted with hundreds of high-end homes. Courtesy of Dylan Anderson.
Once billed as Colorado’s next major ski resort, Stagecoach Ski Area started turning three lifts in 1972 with plans to build as many as 18 more. Ski runs had names like Turkey Trot, Smokin, Axle and Never Summer.
Advertisements boasted 170 acres with 1,700 vertical feet of skiing, $5.50 cent lift tickets and staff focused on “finding every way possible to make sure you never feel anything but good about your day on the mountain.”
“This is just the beginning,” declared the advertisement for Stagecoach’s first season, now published at ColoradoSkiHistory.com. “The opening phase of a 12,000-acre year-round recreational community that’s nestled beautifully in the famous Yampa Valley.”
The optimism would fade by 1973, when developers lost their main funder for the project. Lifts would stop turning by the following spring and never turn in Stagecoach again, with some being relocated to other mountains.
Now, a half-century after the short-lived Stagecoach Ski Area was shuttered, the Routt County Planning Department is currently working through plans that would reawaken the slopes in the center of a private skiing community called Stagecoach Mountain Ranch. The first public hearings on the project are expected to come in the second half of 2025.
The project comes as the Yampa Valley has seen significant growth in wealth since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the area median income for a single person in Routt County jumping 36% since 2020, according to state data. Demand for vacation homes like those that would be built at Stagecoach Mountain Ranch has soared in recent years, a dynamic that has helped push the average cost of a single-family home in Steamboat Springs above $1.3 million in 2024.
Plans were officially submitted in December 2024, including eight different development applications that will need to be considered by Routt County officials. The project touts numerous community benefits, from new housing for locals to a boon in tax revenue for local governments, including more than $12 million annually for South Routt schools at full build-out.
Still, Stagecoach Mountain Ranch has seen significant pushback from current residents in the area, arguing that the gated community does not align with the vision for their community. In a community meeting last summer, residents overflowed the local firehouse looking for answers about the project and occasionally shouting their disapproval at developers.
“I see one community for the very rich,” Stagecoach resident Anthony Monaco told developers at that meeting. “I really see you separating yourself into the haves and then those that have not.”
If the project is ultimately approved, it will become the latest private residential community from Arizona-based developer Discovery Land Company, which is also a partner in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana.
Plans for Stagecoach Mountain Ranch include six lifts on nearly 800 acres of private skiable terrain, a newly constructed base area and more than 600 units of luxury housing dotted all over the mountain.
“I think it’s a thoughtful use of the land. It’s careful, it’s not overdone,” said Ed Divita, a founding partner of Discovery Land Company who has been leading messaging in the community since plans surfaced in 2024. “It’s going to bring good jobs, it’s going to bring more housing, it’s going to bring improvements to the roads... Things that are needed for the area.”
The project as proposed includes a variety of on-mountain lodges, a community farm, and a variety of indoor and outdoor recreational facilities from pickleball to soccer to swimming. A second area of the project, known as the Stetson Ranch, would feature an equestrian facility and extensive fly fishing access along 2.1 miles of the Yampa River.
Developers estimate Stagecoach Mountain Ranch will need the equivalent of roughly 481 employees to operate at full build-out, many of whom they hope to hire locally. The project includes more workforce housing than Routt County regulations require, in addition to 95 units of essential housing that would be available to the public.
Financial estimates show Stagecoach Mountain Ranch could produce as much as $29 million in property taxes annually. Estimates show more than $12 million of that would go toward the South Routt School District, which has funding concerns as the local coal mine curbs production.
Implementing this plan is expected to be a major contributor to the fiscal health of South Routt County, replacing lost property tax base and jobs as the area transitions from the coal-based economy that has been the primary economic driver for the past 100 years,” development documents say.
Routt County Planning Department members are currently working to review development application materials for Stagecoach Mountain Ranch, a process that is expected to take at least six months. The first public hearings on the project could be scheduled in the second half of 2025.
Once billed as Colorado’s next major ski resort, Stagecoach Ski Area started turning three lifts in 1972 with plans to build as many as 18 more. Ski runs had names like Turkey Trot, Smokin, Axle and Never Summer.
Advertisements boasted 170 acres with 1,700 vertical feet of skiing, $5.50 cent lift tickets and staff focused on “finding every way possible to make sure you never feel anything but good about your day on the mountain.”
“This is just the beginning,” declared the advertisement for Stagecoach’s first season, now published at ColoradoSkiHistory.com. “The opening phase of a 12,000-acre year-round recreational community that’s nestled beautifully in the famous Yampa Valley.”
The optimism would fade by 1973, when developers lost their main funder for the project. Lifts would stop turning by the following spring and never turn in Stagecoach again, with some being relocated to other mountains.
Now, a half-century after the short-lived Stagecoach Ski Area was shuttered, the Routt County Planning Department is currently working through plans that would reawaken the slopes in the center of a private skiing community called Stagecoach Mountain Ranch. The first public hearings on the project are expected to come in the second half of 2025.
The project comes as the Yampa Valley has seen significant growth in wealth since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the area median income for a single person in Routt County jumping 36% since 2020, according to state data. Demand for vacation homes like those that would be built at Stagecoach Mountain Ranch has soared in recent years, a dynamic that has helped push the average cost of a single-family home in Steamboat Springs above $1.3 million in 2024.
Plans were officially submitted in December 2024, including eight different development applications that will need to be considered by Routt County officials. The project touts numerous community benefits, from new housing for locals to a boon in tax revenue for local governments, including more than $12 million annually for South Routt schools at full build-out.
Still, Stagecoach Mountain Ranch has seen significant pushback from current residents in the area, arguing that the gated community does not align with the vision for their community. In a community meeting last summer, residents overflowed the local firehouse looking for answers about the project and occasionally shouting their disapproval at developers.
“I see one community for the very rich,” Stagecoach resident Anthony Monaco told developers at that meeting. “I really see you separating yourself into the haves and then those that have not.”
If the project is ultimately approved, it will become the latest private residential community from Arizona-based developer Discovery Land Company, which is also a partner in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana.
Plans for Stagecoach Mountain Ranch include six lifts on nearly 800 acres of private skiable terrain, a newly constructed base area and more than 600 units of luxury housing dotted all over the mountain.
“I think it’s a thoughtful use of the land. It’s careful, it’s not overdone,” said Ed Divita, a founding partner of Discovery Land Company who has been leading messaging in the community since plans surfaced in 2024. “It’s going to bring good jobs, it’s going to bring more housing, it’s going to bring improvements to the roads... Things that are needed for the area.”
The project as proposed includes a variety of on-mountain lodges, a community farm, and a variety of indoor and outdoor recreational facilities from pickleball to soccer to swimming. A second area of the project, known as the Stetson Ranch, would feature an equestrian facility and extensive fly fishing access along 2.1 miles of the Yampa River.
Developers estimate Stagecoach Mountain Ranch will need the equivalent of roughly 481 employees to operate at full build-out, many of whom they hope to hire locally. The project includes more workforce housing than Routt County regulations require, in addition to 95 units of essential housing that would be available to the public.
Financial estimates show Stagecoach Mountain Ranch could produce as much as $29 million in property taxes annually. Estimates show more than $12 million of that would go toward the South Routt School District, which has funding concerns as the local coal mine curbs production.
Implementing this plan is expected to be a major contributor to the fiscal health of South Routt County, replacing lost property tax base and jobs as the area transitions from the coal-based economy that has been the primary economic driver for the past 100 years,” development documents say.
Routt County Planning Department members are currently working to review development application materials for Stagecoach Mountain Ranch, a process that is expected to take at least six months. The first public hearings on the project could be scheduled in the second half of 2025.