The history of downhill skiing at Geneva Basin dates back to the early 1960’s. In 1959, Jack English, a successful entrepreneur, opened up Indianhead Mountain in Michigan. After this resort became successful, English formed a group of investors, and developed a new ski area called Indianhead Mountain. The corporation installed a small lodge, along with a Heron double chairlift, Constam T-Bar, and tow lifts. Located directly south of the town of Georgetown, Colorado, Indianhead only opened on January 25th that first season, and closed the first week of March. 

English immediately announced a comprehensive, 2-year development expansion proposal, that would include the instalment of Larchmont snowmaking equipment, two more rope tows, and an expansion to the base lodge. English announced that the rope tow lifts would operate 7 days a week, with the chairlift being relegated to weekend status. With the new investment into snowmaking, Indianhead was the first to open in Colorado, opening on November 18th. 

Indianhead sat on an extremely remote section of road, south of Georgetown, North-west of Grant, Colorado. As part of English’s investment into the resort, the county regraded the section of the road from Grant to the ski hill. 

Indianhead’s biggest weakness was truly the remoteness of the resort, and the treacherous access road. With other mountains offering easier access, and boasting better terrain, Indianhead suffered financially. In 1965, the mountain went into receivership, and was bailed out by former governor Roy Romer, as well as the Burke family. The new corporation had shares, which were divided between the two parties. The name was changed from Indianhead to Geneva Basin. That summer, a new intermediate run was cut a beginner Poma platter was built. This platter opened up a dedicated beginner area, and indirectly replaced a rope tow. The county additionally was able to put more funds into maintaining the road.

In 1966, lift tickets at Geneva Basin cost $3 for a half day, or $4 for a full day, though the ski area reduced operations to weekends only in 1967. In 1968, Geneva Basin once again expanded the day lodge, and cleared additional trees on an expert run. Lift ticket prices were also increased by 50 cents, and the ski area reverted to operating Wednesday through Sunday.

Geneva Basin was able to expand their skiable terrain in 1967, with the installation of a new Poma platter. This lift travelled up into a treeless bowl, and opened up several new runs of varying difficulty.

Geneva Basin, being much newer, significantly smaller and fairly remote found it difficult to attract new skiers. To attract new skiers, Geneva Basin began offering all-inclusive ski tours, partnering with local hotels. Other ski resorts did the same, though Geneva Basin’s prices were still the lowest. 

Apparently, in 1972, the majority of Geneva Basin’s stock was bought by a Kansas-based investment group. In 1974, this group replaced the Sundance T-Bar with a state-of-the-art Heron-Poma double chair. The mountain also reverted back to 7 day operation under the new ownership.

Perhaps influenced by the ownership, Geneva Basin began holding farmers unions ski trips. The mountain hosted the North and South Dakota Farmers Union in 1975, and the Nebraska Farmers Union in 1976. 

In 1976, the Duddens, a western Nebraska family, purchased the majority of stock in the Geneva Basin ski corporation. At this time, the mountain had 21 trails, and was mostly utilised as a day-trip mountain from Denver. The Duddens announced that they would extensively promote the mountain to skiers in Nebraska. The Dudden’s also rebranded the ski area’s slogan to, “take a GeneVacation.” Additionally, the ski area offered any Hidden Valley season passholders free access to the resort anytime. 

The 1976-77 ski season was terrible. Inadequate snowfall forced the early season closure of many prominent resorts. Aspen was down 59% in skier days, Vail was down 35% in skier days, Steamboat was down 73% in skier days, and Geneva Basin was down 90% in skier days. The resort apparently almost went out of business, dropping from 40,579 skiers in 1975-76 to 2,656 skiers in 1976-77. The resort did not go out of business however, but began to add a $400,000 snowmaking expansion project in the summer of 1977. For one reason or another, the snowmaking expansion was never completed.

Geneva Basin held roughly the same footprint that it had, though it occasionally cut new trails. This was the case in 1978, when a new intermediate trail was cut.

According to coloradoskihistory . com, the resort changed ownership several times during the latter half of the 1970s. This would not surprise me if it were true, though I have no official sources to prove this.

The 1980-1981 ski season was another disaster for Geneva Basin, as a snow drought hit the resort, forcing it to not operate a single day. The 1981-82 season was a little better for the mountain, which was able to sell 33,000 lift tickets that year.

In 1984, an empty chair detached from the haul rope of the Duck Creek lift. This prompted the Colorado Tramway Board to shut the lift down, until the issue could be sorted out. 

Geneva Basin was sold in 1984 to a new investment group, who announced a re-opening of the mountain. They also announced a name change, from Geneva Basin to Alpenbach. While they tried to open for the 1984-85 ski season, they were unable to do so. The aeging Duck Creek chair was removed in the summer of 1985, and a new Borvig triple called Phoenix was partly installed. Running in a completely different alignment, it replaced both the double, and the upper Poma lift. However, in late 1985, Alpenbach ran into financial issues, and were unable to make payments to Borvig. Thus, the lift was never finished. Reportedly, they declared bankruptcy, and everything on the mountain was stripped. THe mountain’s special use permit was revoked in 1986 by the USFS. 

In 1991, a local contractor made a proposal to the USFS to operate Geneva Basin. Under this proposal, the resort would be renamed to Alpine Valley, and would finally finish the snowmaking pond and triple chair. There was no opposition to this proposal, but nothing came of it. After 2 more failed reopening proposals in 1992, the County proposed a special recreation tax which would have contributed to the ski area’s opening. This tax was voted down. 

Two days after the vote, the forest service burned down the lodge at Geneva Basin and ripped out all the lift towers, which was the final nail in the coffin for Geneva Basin.