Howelsen Hill is a locally significant historic cultural landscape. The approximately 40 acre district is eligible for listing in the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties under Criterion A in the areas of Social History, Entertainment/Recreation, and Community Planning and Development. The district is also eligible under Criterion D in the area of Geography/Community Identity. The primary period of historic significance spans the years from the 1914 inception of recreational and competition ski jumping on the site through the 1935 purchase of the hill by the city and the community’s subsequent efforts to expand and enhance the downhill skiing experience, continuing to the 1963 opening of the modern day 2,939 acre commercial ski resort at Storm Mountain, located several miles to the southeast. The visual importance and historic uses of the Howelsen Hill site are deeply imbedded within the cultural fabric of the Steamboat Springs community.

In 1913, the population of Steamboat Springs was 1,500, and by 1947 it had grown to only 1,700 residents. By 1960, the population was a modest 2,000; by 1997 it was estimated at 8,513. However, the greatest amount of real estate expansion has occurred to the south of the original town site, near Storm Mountain. The character of the town itself and the area surrounding Howelsen Hill has remained at virtually the same level of development since the 1940s. The city’s recent purchase of undeveloped land immediately south of Howelsen Hill should help to insure the future preservation of the hill’s setting and overall feeling and association.

Howelsen Hill is important for its continuous, central role in the social, recreational, and community planning and development history of Steamboat Springs. Beginning in 1914, the historic significance of Howelsen Hill to the local community’s identity encompasses the inception of recreational skiing in Steamboat Springs; the development of social and community ski activities, including the annual Winter Carnival; ski education programs; and ski tourism.