to
Update
is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat of Summit County, Colorado, United States. As of the U.S. Census 2000, the town had a population of 2,408. Breckenridge is also a popular ski resort during the winter months, servicing multi-difficulty ski slopes on the Rocky Mountains. Summer in Breckenridge attracts outdoor enthusiasts with hiking trails, wildflowers, fly-fishing in the Blue River, mountain biking, nearby Lake Dillon for boating, white water rafting, and several shops up and down Main Street. Every year, Breckenridge hosts the Breckenridge Festival of Film, established in 1981.
Prospectors entered what is now Summit County (then part of Utah Territory) during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859, soon after the placer gold discoveries farther east at Idaho Springs. Breckenridge was founded to serve the miners working rich placer gold deposits discovered along Georgia Gulch. Placer gold mining was soon joined by hard rock mining, as prospectors followed the gold to its source veins in the hills. Gold in some upper gravel benches north of the Blue River was recovered by hydraulic mining. Gold production decreased in the late 1800s, but revived in 1908 by gold dredging operations along the Blue River and Swan River. The Breckenridge mining district is credited with production of about one million troy ounces (about 31,000 kilograms) of gold.
The gold mines around Breckenridge are all shut down, although some are open to tourist visits. The characteristic gravel ridges left by the gold dredges can still be seen along the Blue River and Snake River, and the remains of a dredge are still afloat in a pond off the Swan River. Notable among the early prospectors was Edwin Carter - Log Cabin Naturalist who decided to switch from mining to collecting wildlife specimens. His log cabin built in 1875 exist today and has been recently renovated by the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance with interactive exhibits and a small viewing room with a short creative film on his life and the early days around Breckenridge.
It is also noted that Breckenridge was the film location of the 1989 comedy National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation & Some Scenes in Dumb & Dumber (Shots of Aspen in the Movie are actually Breckenridge)