The namesake bachelors of Gulch - John Anderson, Gunder Berg, Ed Howard, John Mertz and Ferdinand "Crippled" Smith - settled in the valley around 1900. They survived by cutting timber, farming and ranching and were generally considered a bit odd by their neighbors in Avon and Beaver Creek.

To provide the necessary water for their fields in Bachelor Gulch, they spent four years blasting and digging with a horse-drawn scoop to build an irrigation ditch which still meanders through the valley today. No one knows why, but one by one the bachelors drifted away and by the early - 1920's new families had taken up residence in Bachelor Gulch. A local railroad agent suggested to the settlers that they try growing lettuce, a crop which was being grown successfully in other parts of Colorado.

The climate, topography, and soil were perfect for the crop and produced lettuce at a time when most of the lettuce from other parts of the county had disappeared from the store shelves. The boom was short-lived, however, and when the Depression came along, the families of Bachelor Gulch packed up and moved on.

Look carefully today in what is now known as Bachelor Gulch Village and you'll find evidence of its rich history almost anywhere you look.