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Steve Jones was born in Iowa, but he found the life he loved in the Vail Valley.

Jones, 85, died Oct. 18 at Castle Peak Senior Life and Rehabilitation in Eagle. His wife, Linda, was by his side, of course, as she’d been since their marriage in 1972.

Steve moved to the valley in 1969 to work at Vail Mountain. In the summers, he started a concrete business and found plenty of work in those early days.

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He and Linda met the old-fashioned way, at a house party hosted by Linda’s then-roommate, Carol, who went on to marry Corky Fitzsimmons of Eagle.

The next day, Steve rode up to Linda’s place on his motorcycle — Steve had a longtime love of motorcycles — and asked his new friend to dinner. The two began dating and were married in 1972.

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The summer wedding was a perfect early Vail affair.

There was no Summer Vail at the time, so Jones’ friends cranked up the Lionshead gondola, and the wedding party took a few cars up to Eagles Nest for a ceremony in a pouring rain storm and a reception at the Red Lion.

Mutual support

Linda recalled that she and Steve always supported each other in their work in those early days. At the time she was teaching at the school in Maloit Park that’s now the Vail ߣÏÈÉú and Snowboard Academy. Steve, meanwhile, was running his concrete business, as well as wood cutting, apartment cleaning and other ventures.

But Steve always had an abiding interest in the outdoors, and for a couple of years helped work as a guide and outfitter on a large ranch near Capitan, New Mexico. The couple returned to Eagle County in 1976, where Steve worked as a cowboy for the Adam’s Rib Ranch.

As the fledgling Beaver Creek resort was starting, Steve soon had deals with the U.S. Forest Service and the first lodges — the Kiva, the Charter and the Poste Montane — for carriage rides.

By 1985, Steve had the needed permits to start Beaver Creek Stables, which had its first home near former President Gerald Ford’s home near Strawberry Park.

Steve’s son, Scott, was a wrangler in that operation from an early age, hitching the teams for carriage rides and making sure the saddle horses would carry people who’d never ridden before on the trail from Beaver Creek Village to Beano’s Cabin.

“I was the one who made sure the horses did what they were supposed to do,” Scott said. “I became the guinea pig at a young age.” But, he added. “It helped me become the person I am today.”

Steve ran Beaver Creek Stables for 20 years, moving three times, and met a host of celebrities along the way.

“We met Clint Eastwood, John Denver, Liza Minelli, and all kinds of people…” Linda recalled.

Eagle resident Joe Macy first worked with Steve on Vail Mountain.

“He was a great guy,” Macy recalled. “He was really imbued with the Western lifestyle … He was one of the guys.”

But there was a lot more to Steve Jones than just hobnobbing.

George McNeill and Steve were friends for more than 30 years, and the two shared a deep love of flying. Steve helped McNeill buy his first aerobatic plane.

But, McNeill added, his longtime friend was also a “rascal, who did some rascally things.”

McNeill recalled that Steve once spotted then-Sheriff Joe Hoy riding his bicycle along Brush Creek Road, and made sure Hoy — gently — ended up in the weeds alongside that road.

McNeill, a psychologist, recalled that Steve’s generosity most often extended to fellow members of Alcoholics Anonymous, of which he was a longtime member.

“He was very caring with that community,” McNeill recalled. “It sustained him.”

Scott recalled the first time he and his brother, Sean, attended a meeting with their father.

“He said, ‘I’m here with both my sons, and I think that’s just fine,'” Scott recalled. Scott noted that the sober life was the life his father lived, and helping others live that life was a big part of that life.

‘He helped a lot of people’

“He helped a lot of people get sober,” Scott said, adding that his father spent a lot of time at the county jail, helping counsel people doing time there.

Steve often took people flying, both to encourage them and, more than once, to celebrate his own victories over cancer.

“He flew beautifully,” McNeill recalled.

But, as you’d expect from someone who spent a lot of time in a saddle, Steve could be plain-spoken.

“He told it how it was,” Scott said.

And, like so many cowboys, Steve made many of his own decisions.

Linda works as a volunteer at the Eagle Public Library. She was working there on Tuesday of the week Steve died when she received a call that her husband of 52 years had stopped breathing. She rushed over to Castle Peak, of course. When she arrived, he was breathing.

“I was there with the boys,” Linda said. “His eyes were open and we went over stories. He could hear everything.”

The head nurse on duty told Linda when patients quit breathing, they usually don’t start again. As soon as Steve heard Linda was coming, he started breathing again.

“He stayed with us for four more days,” Linda said.

That’s a cowboy.

There’s no date yet, but the Jones family will hold a celebration of life for Steve Jones in the spring of 2025, probably at Vail’s Donovan Pavilion. Horses will probably be involved.