Date of Award
August 2020
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Geography
Advisor(s)
Robert Wilson
Keywords
Colorado, Environmental History, Infrastructure, Interstate 70, Landscape Studies, Vail Pass
Subject Categories
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Constructed between 1972 and 1978, Vail Pass is a 16-mile section of Interstate-70 that crosses the continental divide in the Central Mountains of Colorado. It connects the ski resort communities of Copper Mountain and Vail and has played a significant role in the development of tourism in the Colorado High Country. The design and planning of Vail Pass occurred at a time of increased public concern over environmental issues, and was built following a series of significant pieces of federal environmental legislation. Within this context, highway designers and engineers sought to harmoniously integrate the highway into its natural setting.
This thesis tells the story of Vail Pass through the perspectives of environmental legislation and politics, roadway design, and human-nature relations in Colorado. A personal bicycle journey over Vail Pass serves to introduce the central questions of this project. Chapter one discusses scholarly work within environmental history and landscape studies in order to contextualize this project within broader academic debates. Chapter two addresses the environmental politics and legislation that arose around the Vail Pass project and considers the impact of federal legislation on a single landscape. In Chapters three and four, Vail Pass is placed within broader histories of road and landscape design, providing a deeper understanding of the meaning and significance of the Vail Pass landscape. In the concluding chapter, Vail Pass is used to discuss broader questions of infrastructure, tourism, and the environment in Colorado as climate change alters the landscape.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Lindberg, James T., "The Road that Made Mountains: Highway Design and the Production of Landscape in Vail, Colorado" (2020). Theses - ALL. 444.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/444
