ST. MARY'S UPPER EAGLE VALLEY COMMUNITY (1985)

Avon, a tiny railroad and ranching town established in the 1880s, was transformed a century later by development of the Beaver Creek Resort and Ski Area.

Not only the homes and condos of the wealthy but also trailer-camp housing for construction and service workers mushroomed, inspiring Edward J. Poehlmann, pastor of St. Patrick's in Minturn, to open an Avon mission.

"In many ways," Father Poehlmann reported in 1988,

ski town people are like migrant laborers for whom we completed a magnificent chapel on November 6, 1988. Former President Gerald Ford spearheaded the campaign to raise $950,000 for this new Beaver Creek interdenominational chapel designed by Zehren & Associates of Vail and Scottsdale. This will be a tremendous improvement over our cramped services in the old Avon Town Hall, where I started saying Mass in 1984.