Town of Breckenridge is honoring a longtime local who groomed a path to success, one tire at a time.
Gene Dayton, the founder of Breckenridge Nordic Center on Peak 8, didn’t have a snowcat when the center first opened in the ‘70s. He didn’t even have a rake, or so they say. Instead, he would strap a rubber tire to his waist and flatten the fresh snow by dragging it behind him as he skied.
Breck councilwoman Marika Page shared this and other stories in council chambers on Tuesday, eliciting chuckles from the packed house and a knowing smile from Gene, now 83 years old. He joined Page and mayor Kelly Owens to receive a rare honor.
“On behalf of the Breckenridge town council we are honored to nominate Gene Dayton for the Community Leadership Award,” Page continued, “in recognition of his visionary, decades-long leadership that has expanded access to the outdoors, built enduring institutions, and profoundly enriched the community of Breckenridge.”
Gene was a decorated swimmer in Illinois before moving to Breck in 1965. It was his love for swimming, and his early experience with water-based therapy, that inspired decades of skiing and tireless innovation in Breck.
“Long before adaptive recreation was part of the mainstream conversation,” Page said, “Gene imagined and then built organizations where people of all ages and abilities could experience the freedom, confidence and camaraderie that nature provides.”
Gene and his wife, Therese Dayton, founded Breck Nordic Center on Peak 8, where they raised their family to be expert skiers, including son Matt Dayton, a member of the 2002 U.S. Olympic Nordic team.
Today Breck Nordic is one of the oldest Nordic centers in the nation, but even big things have small beginnings, like those tired-groomed trails. Gene and a small team cut many of the trails by hand as the sport was taking hold in the U.S. He even built a small terrain park years before the first halfpipes debuted at Breckenridge Resort.
By 1976, Gene co-founded the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center, known as BOEC. This was 14 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. Today it welcomes nearly 1,200 campers every year for adaptive skiing, biking, hiking and more. There is even a wheelchair accessible ropes course suspended high above the property, which was donated by the town in the ‘70s after much campaigning by Gene.
“His visionary work did not simply introduce adaptive recreation,” Page said. “It redefined who belongs in our mountains and how our town shows up for one another.”
There was a round of applause when Page had condensed six decades into five minutes, and then Gene briefly took the mic. He humbly accepted the honor, saying he is thankful for the family and friends who stood by him, before inviting a friend to sing a rendition of “The Impossible Dream (The Quest),” from the musical, Man of La Mancha.
“Breckenridge has been such a wonderful place to raise a family and our grandchildren,” Gene said, “and I am very grateful to have had the privilege of being here for nearly 60 years.”
Preview image via Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center.