Breckenridge

In Breckenridge, spelling matters. Thomas Breckenridge – with an E in the middle – came through in the 1840s with the Fremont expedition. They put his name on the map near the place he lost a mule. An embarrassment, for Mr. Breckenridge, but not for long. By 1859, the gold rush was on, especially in the boomtown near that spot of wilderness. John C. Breckinridge – with an I in the middle – was vice president then, and just the sort of politician to flatter if you were angling for a federal post office. The folks in Breckenridge changed the spelling to Breck-in-ridge and got the post office. But then the Civil War broke out. Breck-in-ridge joined the Confederacy, and Breck-en-ridge quietly went back to its original spelling. 100 years later, ski trails were cut through the woods where a man once lost a mule. And today, Breck, as some locals call it, is one of the hottest zip codes in the High Country.

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