The Night Vail Mountain Burned
Near Vail, Colorado
In the pre dawn dark of the nineteenth of October, nineteen ninety eight, high on Vail Mountain, several buildings and lifts suddenly went up in flames. When the smoke cleared, eight structures had been damaged or destroyed, including four ski lift towers, the ski patrol headquarters, and the mountaintop restaurant known as Two Elk Lodge. The damage came to around twelve million dollars, making it at the time the most destructive act of eco sabotage in United States history.
No one was physically hurt, but the message was violent and deliberate. A radical group tied to the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility, saying the fires were set, in their words, on behalf of the lynx. Their target was Vail's planned expansion onto new terrain, a project the resort called Category Three that would later open as Blue Sky Basin.
They argued it threatened rare wildlife habitat. Federal investigators spent years chasing the group, part of a wider crackdown called Operation Backfire. Several members were eventually caught and sent to prison.
One suspect has never been captured and remains on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list for domestic terrorism. The expansion they tried to stop was built anyway.
