On top of Fremont Pass, Climax became a major center of Colorado history because of molybdenum, a metal used to harden steel. More molybdenite ore came from Climax Mine than from any other place in the world, totaling 470 million tons, and over the seventy-six years required to mine that ore, more than 60,000 workers were employed there. The company town across the road, once home to 3,000 people, had a state championship basketball team, the first television reception in central Colorado, and the highest post office in the nation. The site also stood at the base of one of the state's first ski areas, near a top-secret World War II observatory, and in the 1950s it included a gas station, beauty shop, grocery store, luncheonette, and a saloon called the Slop Chute. Climax Mine also became the focus of the County Line War because its property straddled the Continental Divide, where the Arkansas and Eagle Rivers and Ten Mile Creek begin. Although the divide is a real geographic feature, the boundary between Summit and Lake counties, established in 1881, was vague, and the orebody beneath Bartlett Mountain was generally accepted to lie in Summit County. In the early 1900s, however, a company seeking control of the newly discovered molybdenum deposits filed mining claims in Lake County, arguing that Summit County claims were invalid because the boundary had been drawn incorrectly. The resulting lawsuit ended with a verdict placing Climax Mine in Lake County, sending millions of dollars in property taxes to Leadville rather than Breckenridge.
