Notorious Colorado developer cuts off ski route outside Telluride

Tom Chapman, a controversial southern Colorado real estate broker known for leveraging remote parcels for high returns from governmental agencies fearing development in the state's most pristine high country, is at it again. This time, Chapman's Gold Hill Development Co. is blocking ski passage through the middle of Telluride's treasured Bear Creek drainage, where the local ski-hill operator recently began offering guided backcountry ski trips. In a press release issued this week, Chapman said roughly 103 acres of mining claims he just acquired for $246,000 is now closed to skiing and hiking. Citing a history of avalanche-related deaths and injuries in the expert-only backcountry terrain, the release said Gold Hill Development Co. "has full cause to exclude all parties from its private lands for reasons of liability for injury and/or accidental death." "GHDC intends to enforce its right to exlude people from its private property by using Colorado trespass law if necessary," read the release. Chapman, 59, has a 26-year history in Colorado of finding obscure, seemingly undevelopable mining claims located in the middle of highly valuable land. Threatening to build homes and roads on private islands inside federal wilderness or national parks has netted him millions. In several cases, the federal government has either paid his price or swapped him other parcels of public land in exchange for inholdings he said he planned to develop...more