Winter Park Adding Arapaho Language to Trail Signs

I was just living in Australia for a year, and absolutely everywhere you go in Oz there are signs mentioning and honoring the indigenous people who lived in the area before Europeans arrived.

This kind of honoring of local people appears not just on various pieces of land in Australia (for example, every local council-run area, state-run public space, and across the federal government's entire signage program), but it's on seemingly every corporate and business website.

It's quite impressive.

Now, Winter Park is doing something similar in the Eagle Wind area.

"As part of our commitment to honor the full story of the land, and as part of the Heniiniini' ("There Is Snow On The Ground”) project with @NativesOutdoors , trails signs and trail names in the Eagle Wind area are being updated to include a translation in the Arapaho language," says a recent social post.

"A few of these signs have already been installed, with more to come!"

Winter Park's commitment to understanding the values and significance of indigenous people is impressive, and it has an extensive webpage describing the natural and human history of the area—both before Europeans and since.

The resort also has a land acknowledgment statement .

"The land's original stewards—the Cheyenne, Ute, and Arapaho people—all have ancestral ties to this area, and the Arapaho people have named it 'Eagle Wind,'" notes the website.

"To recognize the heritage of the land, Northern Arapaho Tribe elders visited the resort prior to the opening of the Eagle Wind Lift in 2006 and consulted with resort planners. Each Eagle Wind terrain trail name emerged from those consultations as a way to pay tribute to the area. As part of Winter Park’s continued commitment to honor the full story of the land, and as part of the There Is Snow On The Ground installation, the trail signs will be updated with a pattern designed by Jordan Craig. The trail names will also now feature a translation in the Arapaho Language."

The addition of local language to the signs is no surprise, really.

Winter Park already has an excellent Historic Sites signage system that, frankly, makes for a fascinating read whenever you bump into one of these signs—which is often.

Adding indigenous information to signs builds on that tradition. "... [W]e saw an opportunity to renew our commitment to telling a more authentic, complete story of the region that existed beyond our founding date," notes the website.

According to the announcement from Winter Park, skiers and riders can expect to see additional language and information this coming (2024–25) season.

Bravo, Winter Park.

You can read more here .