North Pole Basin

In 2013, 1% for Open Space pledged $78,000 to the Crested Butte Land Trust to permanently preserve 158 acres of North Pole Basin past Schofield Park. 

The North Pole Basin is an important piece of the High Elk Corridor, a tract of land situated between the Maroon Bells-Snowmass and Raggeds Wilderness areas and surrounded by the White River National Forest. It is home to trails such as Yule Creek and West Maroon Pass,and it’s guarded by the peaks of Baldy, Crystal, Treasure and Treasury. Preservation of the High Elk Corridor has been one of Colorado’s longest running conservation efforts.

Preservation of the North Pole Basin was orchestrated by the Crested Butte Land Trust, who will hold the conservation easement, and the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, who will own the land. The property, once a Commonwealth Placer mining claim, has been purchased from the North Village Reserve, a subsidiary of the Crested Butte Mountain Resort. 

North Pole Basin shares borders with Schofield Park, much of which is also permanently preserved, and the Mexican Cut, another critical piece of land preserved with the help of the Nature Conservancy in the 1990’s. The Mexican Cut is used by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory for sensitive research.  With the addition of the North Pole acreage, their field of research just got a lot larger.

The North Pole Basin isn’t 1% for Open Space’s first rodeo in the High Elk Corridor.  Since 1999 the organization has pledged $221,923 to preserve 232 acres in this area alone. These projects have included Schofield Park, Paradise Divide, Paradise Basin, Yule Creek, Maxfield (Gothic) Meadows, and Crystal Peak. North Pole Basin was the culminating project.