Chris Haver

Like most of us, I was not born here but moved here as soon as I realized what I was missing out on. I fell in love with this town while traveling cross-country in 1998. This led to a couple family vacations and eventually a mass migration of Havers (my parents and 3, of my 4, siblings) moving here between 2001-2003. 

I grew up in North Carolina where, at age 14, I had my first job as a newspaper boy. I would wake up every morning before school at 5am to deliver papers to 81 houses in my neighborhood. I had to walk because my dad would not let me just throw the papers in the yards. He insisted that I put the papers between the front door and the storm door so that my neighbors did not have to go outside to get their papers. After I quit, it was not uncommon for my neighbors to stop me when I was out playing to thank me for the wonderful job I had done. You see, the next paperboy who got my job after me just threw the papers into the yards. I tell this story because it taught me that although it is very important to be efficient, if you are going to do a job you need to do it right. 

I went on from being a paperboy to volunteer at a local homeless shelter/ soup kitchen and work as a waiter in high school. I continued to wait tables through college during the school year but during my summers I worked for Charleston County Parks and Recreations. I started as a wilderness instructor for kids camps, then became involved in management of a beach park, and finally I got to help open and became the head manager of Isle of Palms County Park. After college, I trained with NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) wilderness instructor program and started working for a company that ran year-round wilderness programs for schools and specialized in working with children with learning differences. After a couple years of living in the mountains of North Carolina, I moved to Charlotte, NC to become a high school teacher for 4 years and ran my church's teenage youth program. I later became involved in a real estate development group in their financial and property management departments. I was then asked to join in operations management of an ecotourism company that had recently expanded and wanted help reorganizing. In 2003, after becoming completely jealous of all my siblings' new found lives as Crested Buttians, I had to make the move.  

I moved to Crested Butte the summer of 2003 and purchased the Purple Mountain Lodge. It was originally built as the Big Mine's mining office in 1927 but had been repurposed as a small lodge in 1976.  When I bought it in 2003, it was a struggling business that required a lot of hard work to turn it around. It took 4 years before I was finally able to get my head above water and hire my first employee to help me out. Now, 14 years later, I am happy to say I have been able to build a successful business in a town that I love. Just like every small business owner in this community, I still have to work hard every day but I wouldn't trade it for the world. And like most of us, I am sure I could make more money working elsewhere but that is not what life here is all about. By living here we happily sacrifice financially for that mountain town lifestyle where we get to live in a strong,  caring, incredible community surrounded by a wilderness sized playground.