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Last week I spent Spring Break in Colorado — which fulfilled my obligation to snow ski at least once a decade.

My friends and I stayed in a condo in the city of Frisco, tucked between the resorts found at Copper Mountain and Breckenridge.

While the night life was no bueno in any of the aforementioned cities (drink prices were relatively high compared to college towns) and ski bunnies were on the endangered list, one thing was perhaps even more troubling: the resentment many locals had towards Spring Breakers and Texans in general.

In an ironic twist, many of the enlightened natives had a chip on their shoulder for just about anyone not from their cliquish circles of comfort. And they were fairly vocal about their disdain, coming up to members of my entourage and scoffing at our seemingly unrefined touristic ways.

To some, we were a burden, as our commericialistically bourgeois presence caused traffic jams and noise pollution. To others, we were posers who simply invaded and pillaged their Nirvana-like haven without becoming one with Gaia.

But the jokes on them, in more than one way.

If you are familiar with the geographical history of Texas, then you may recall that Texas used to be part of a little country called Mexico.

After an itty bitty Revolución involving some tiny battles, the residents of Texas broke away and gerrymandered their own little piece of terra firma. And believe it or not, the familiar panhandle-shaped state used to look a lot more unsightly (see also Territorial evolution).

To give you an idea of what was chalked off, see the red line found in Exhibit A.

That is a map from 1841 and as you can tell, most of New Mexico and Colorado were part of ol’ Tejano.

So how did Texas shave off these mountainous realms of earth?

Well, after a couple more years of tension-filled independence some of the residents decided that they were bored of playing bingo and 42 all day. So in 1845 they petitioned the U. S. of A. for annexation.

And during part of this club joining process, they made the following deal: in exchange for some bling and debt relief, Texas would cede the following territory to Old Glory:

The western boundary lines ran to the Rio Grande all the way to Santa Fe and up the Rio Grande to the headwaters in southern Colorado – near Pole Creek Mountain (13,740 Ft). From there the western boundary then ran due north to the 42nd parallel in Wyoming near present day Rawlings, Wyoming. The Arkansas River was the northern and eastern boundary. The eastern edge of Texas in present day Colorado ran from near the Arkansas Headwaters straight up from just southwest of preset day Leadville, Colorado north to near Hanna, Wyoming.

This includes such prime real-estate as Aspen, Vail, Beaver Creek, Angel Fire, and Taos; as well as fine cities such as Albuquerque and Santa Fe. And more pressing, the areas my posse rolled around in.

Ignoring this territorial footnote, the economic impact of tourism is also worth investigating.

Without brash and boastful Texans, the ski resorts would certainly fall on hard times. In fact, back in 2005, the resort areas were affected by higher gas prices — tourists from places like Texas were unwilling to fork over more dough to visit Shangri La-on-the-Rockies. And fortunately for the residents, this trend seems to be moving in the reverse.

And speaking of residents, here are some interesting numbers:
- The city of Frisco boasts a gigantic 2,600 full-time and 4,200 part-time population base.
- Breckenridge notes that they have about 3,500 residents year-round, and approximately 35,000 at its peak.
- According to the Summit County Chamber of Commerce (pdf), which Breck, Frisco, and Copper Mountain all reside in, has nearly 28,000 residents year-round and about 142,000 during the peak season.

As you can see, these locals see an annual infiltration rate that swells to nearly 5 times the native population.

To put this into perspective, the city of Colorado Springs (southeast of Denver) absorbs 6.2 million visitors throughout the year — whom provide about $1 billion in revenue.

Ah, but surely the transcendental residents of Summit County are independently wealthy; high rollers without the need for outside trade. Hardly.

Scroll to page 17. As of 2002, two-thirds of the top 5 jobs in the county are comprised of retail trade, accommodations, and food services. And guess who primarily funds those operations? The unwashed masses, hoi polloi from places like Nebraska, Iowa, and of course, Texas.

And if you look at the wages the restless natives are raking in dough hand over fist, at about $20,000 per person per annum. I’m surprised they have not already retired [Note: entry-level jobs at Copper Mountain start at $8/hour].

Schmeconomics

My point in all of this is not to bash the economic condition of Summit Countians, but rather, point out that locals could not be locals without the ducats of foreign visitors. And that biting the hand that feeds them is a terrible policy to promote or practice.

In other words, if snow fell on the Davis mountains (West Texas), would we bother traveling to the Big CO? Would entrepreneurs and firms be willing to invest the resources necessary to sustain miniature cities?

Without cosmopolitan yuppies, the cities would not exist. The economies would not exist. The slopes would not exist. And this double-standard can be best summed up as: we are more than happy to take your money, but we really don’t want to see or smell you.

And perhaps the biggest indicator of the local economic tomfoolery was the grass roots opposition to forbid the construction of a Home Depot within the city of Frisco.

One bumper sticker located outside the window of a local shop I walked by noted that “We, Frisco, could do better” — because obviously consumers should not ultimately be left with the decision where to shop. And in the fall of 2005, the granola-crunching movement defeated the proposition for constructing an HD.

[Note: yes, to the chagrin of snowboarders everywhere, I did ski down the slopes in a speedo one day. Moms and coeds especially enjoyed it].