Colorado business hall of fame: milestone event is cause for recalling stories of laureates who helped shape the state.

• Author: Martin, Maria
• Position: 25th ANNIVERSARY

LOOK THROUGH THE list of names that make up the Colorado Business Hall of Fame laureates, and it's hard to miss the big picture.

No history book could better illustrate the history of the Centennial State. The stories of the 136 honored over the past 25 years give readers a glimpse of the grit, creativity and generosity of the men and women who help shape Colorado's business community.

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain Inc., cosponsors of the event, award only those who have truly changed our state for the better, says Robin Wise, CEO of Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain.

"When you look across the landscape of Colorado, there isn't much that you can lay your eyes on that hasn't been in some way impacted by this group of laureates," Wise says.

"Look at agriculture, and the laureates who have something to do with getting water to the plains, and look at the ski industry and what has come out of that."

William Philpott isn't surprised that names like Felipe Baca, Walter Cheesman and John Iliff dominated the early years of Hall of Fame awards.

"Most people don't realize that the Gold Rush, which brought people to Denver in 1858, was something of a bust," says Philpott, associate professor of history at the University of Denver. "Half of the people who came to Denver left, but when gold was round in places like Central City, Denver became a supply center for the area."

And while mining drew people here, agriculture--a way to feed those people--became a thriving business, as did the necessity and desire to scatter those people through the city, and provide them with everything from banking to shopping.

Baca, a rancher who helped found Trinidad; Cheesman, whose enthusiasm for business helped him move the railroad through Denver and improve the city's water system; and Riff, a cattle rancher and namesake of a theology school, helped turn Denver into a blossoming city.

Look at names like laureate Peter Seibert, founder of Vail Ski Resort, to see the tipping point, when tourism began to boom in the state. Engineering feats--such as the Eisenhower Tunnel, completed in 1979--transformed travel in the High Country. "By 1980, you can drive through the mountains," said Philpott, author of "Vacationland: Tourism and Environment in the Colorado High Country."

"This shift--this growing sense that tourism could become the major industry for some parts of the state--started after World War II,"

Tourism did more than...