About snow removal in Idaho Springs
Idaho Springs is where the Colorado gold rush began. On January 7, 1859, George Jackson, camped where Chicago Creek meets Clear Creek, thawed some frozen gravel in his cup and found gold. By June there were 400 people in a tent camp that went through the names Jackson’s Diggings, Spanish Bar, Sacramento City and Idaho before settling on Idaho Springs. It is an incorporated city with its own council and public works department, and it remains the largest town in Clear Creek County.
Who clears what
Inside city limits, the City of Idaho Springs maintains the streets, and its public works department takes reports of street and sidewalk problems. I-70 runs along the north side of downtown and SH-103 heads south up Chicago Creek toward Echo Lake; both belong to CDOT. Homes just outside the city, up the side canyons, are on Clear Creek County roads or private roads. The county plows its roads in daylight only, outside of emergencies, and gives first-day service to school bus and mail routes, with residential roads sometimes waiting until the second or third day. It will not plow private drives except in a life-threatening emergency, and Colorado law makes it unlawful to push snow onto a public road.
Terrain
Downtown sits on the narrow floor of the Clear Creek valley, and the city limits climb the steep slopes on both sides. Inside the boundary the ground runs from about 7,300 feet to about 8,700 feet. On the hillside streets a short, steep drive with nowhere flat to pile snow is a common problem. The north-facing slopes on the south side of the valley get little winter sun, so ice can last there well after the valley floor has cleared.
The old Idaho Springs weather station averaged about 72 inches of snow a year between 1893 and 1974, with January lows near 15°F. That record also shows March and April as the snowiest months, so late-season storms are normal here and a snow plan should run well into spring.
The Charlie Tayler Waterwheel, which once drove one of Tayler’s stamp mills and was moved to its present site by the community in 1948, stands south of I-70 near Bridal Veil Falls and is a familiar sight from the highway.
