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Gunnison History Tracker
129 Gothic Avenue
Elk Mountain Lodge

   First known as the "Company Hotel", the Elk Mountain Lodge served as a boarding house for 52 years for the C.F.&I. miners, housing up to 65 people at a time, feeding them all family style, on three big tables in the dining room.
   This building was built from cinder blocks made from the cinders out of the mine slag piles.
   When the Big Mine closed in 1952, rancher Austin Yarnell purchased the lodge and started a company hotel.
    in 1955, Austin Yarnell traded the Elk Mountain Lodge and the Company Store on Elk Avenue, with Knowlton "Doc" and Merree Janes, for the Janes' Ranch back in Kansas.  They then opened it as a restaurant.
   "Doc" was elected Crested Butte Mayor in 1962, when seven term Mayor Frank Starika stepped down, then was re-elected in 1964, until he died of a heart attack in July of 1964.
   Then sold to Carroll and Francis Morgenson, until 1971, when it was sold again to Jim Adams.
   The Elk Mountain Lodge in 1978, before the streets were paved.

   Photo Dan Jones