Isabel Mace ~ Silent Giant
Isabel Mace, 1918 - 2006
Silent Giant of Toklat at Ashcroft . . . (BACK)
Isabel Mace’s roots were generations deep in the southern Indiana
communityof Corydon, where she was born on Sept 13, 1918, Isabel
Pfrimmer Hays.
Isabel enjoyed a well grounded childhood of opportunity. Her father
was a lawyer, a minister, and a dairy farmer, who nightly read to her
books of great literature. Her mother was a well-educated homemaker,
a music teacher, and an advocate of natural health and foods.
Isabel received the Golden Eaglet Award, the highest honor from the Girl Scouts of America, in 1937 for
her outstanding efforts in community service and personal achievement. She earned her Bachelor’s
Degree in Sociology from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa in 1941.
At Grinnell, Isabel met her husband of fifty-two years, Stuart A. Mace. They were married in 1941,
shortly after their graduation, and just weeks before Mr. Mace’s draft orders were issued. Isabel later
reflected that she simply let fate take her by the hand.
With her growing family, she came to the Aspen community from Boulder, Colorado in January 1948 at the
invitation of Aspen revivalist’s Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke. The Mace’s personified a self-reliant, post
World War II generation which renounced the contemporary American Dream for a simple life in a sleepy
place.
Along with her late husband, Isabel pioneered modern day Ashcroft, eventually bringing snow plows,
telephone service, school buses, and electricity. In a rare moment of regret, Isabel later proclaimed that
“bringing the power line up this valley was the worst thing we ever did.”
They settled in the Castle Creek Valley among the weathered remains of the silver mining, ghost town of
Ashcroft, Colorado, 9500 ft elevation, 11 miles south of Aspen. Ashcroft was a six mile dogsled trip to
the nearest pavement when the Mace’s built their home, named Toklat, there in 1948. Toklat evolved to
become ground zero for community sentiment, among the most original and most enduring businesses of ski
era Aspen.
The Mace’s operations at Toklat were continually shaped to suit the changing times and their changing
needs. In 1949, they established Toklat Husky Kennel and Toklat Wilderness Lodge, offering daylong
and overnight dog sledding trips into backcountry huts and accommodating up to sixteen guests in their small
home, also a licensed restaurant. In the mid-fifties the Toklat huskies became famous, capturing the
imagination of a generation, when they starred on the popular television show Sergeant Preston of the
Yukon.
Silent Giant of Toklat at Ashcroft . . . (BACK)
Isabel Mace’s roots were generations deep in the southern Indiana
communityof Corydon, where she was born on Sept 13, 1918, Isabel
Pfrimmer Hays.
Isabel enjoyed a well grounded childhood of opportunity. Her father
was a lawyer, a minister, and a dairy farmer, who nightly read to her
books of great literature. Her mother was a well-educated homemaker,
a music teacher, and an advocate of natural health and foods.
Isabel received the Golden Eaglet Award, the highest honor from the Girl Scouts of America, in 1937 for
her outstanding efforts in community service and personal achievement. She earned her Bachelor’s
Degree in Sociology from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa in 1941.
At Grinnell, Isabel met her husband of fifty-two years, Stuart A. Mace. They were married in 1941,
shortly after their graduation, and just weeks before Mr. Mace’s draft orders were issued. Isabel later
reflected that she simply let fate take her by the hand.
With her growing family, she came to the Aspen community from Boulder, Colorado in January 1948 at the
invitation of Aspen revivalist’s Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke. The Mace’s personified a self-reliant, post
World War II generation which renounced the contemporary American Dream for a simple life in a sleepy
place.
Along with her late husband, Isabel pioneered modern day Ashcroft, eventually bringing snow plows,
telephone service, school buses, and electricity. In a rare moment of regret, Isabel later proclaimed that
“bringing the power line up this valley was the worst thing we ever did.”
They settled in the Castle Creek Valley among the weathered remains of the silver mining, ghost town of
Ashcroft, Colorado, 9500 ft elevation, 11 miles south of Aspen. Ashcroft was a six mile dogsled trip to
the nearest pavement when the Mace’s built their home, named Toklat, there in 1948. Toklat evolved to
become ground zero for community sentiment, among the most original and most enduring businesses of ski
era Aspen.
The Mace’s operations at Toklat were continually shaped to suit the changing times and their changing
needs. In 1949, they established Toklat Husky Kennel and Toklat Wilderness Lodge, offering daylong
and overnight dog sledding trips into backcountry huts and accommodating up to sixteen guests in their small
home, also a licensed restaurant. In the mid-fifties the Toklat huskies became famous, capturing the
imagination of a generation, when they starred on the popular television show Sergeant Preston of the
Yukon.
The Mace's independent way of life demanded a union of strong interdependence. Isabel offered the stern backbone of Toklat, holding
it all together with a quiet efficiency. On a given day, it was not unusual for her to care for and feed five children, a small staff, a
household of guests, a hundred huskies, and a Hollywood film crew. A simple and resourceful woman, she ground her grains, darned on
darns and learned to orchestrate a month’s worth of meals on shoestring without duplicating a menu. Few woman of her day worked
harder than Isabel Mace.
Beginning in the early 1960s, first in Aspen and later in Ashcroft, the Mace’s opened a series of distinctive restaurants incorporating
Isabel’s wisdom of fortifying foods and Stuart’s flare for unique flavors. By definition, a Toklat meal was the antithesis of fast food.
The Toklat restaurants were easily among the first to intentionally promote and offer naturally healthy food.
Isabel was a passionate teacher of her kitchen craft. A second generation advocate, she endlessly practiced and preached her support
and belief in natural and healthy foods. Serving food with a conscience, Isaebel searched far and wide to obtain suitable ingredients, and
in the process she loosely organized an early natural food cooperative involving family, friends, and source suppliers. sabel published a
cookbook, Recipe Requests from the Mace Kitchens, in 1994.
A family business, Toklat, succeeded through ingenuity and effort. Over several decades, Isabel coordinated a cherished mail order
business offering, among other things, sourdough starter, exotic tea blends, and jams and jellies homemade from berries hand gathered in
the area by the family and staff. The Mace’s also collected and sold fine curios of a handmade or an indigenous origin. Toklat’s
endlessly creative offerings evolved in the late 1970s into Toklat Gallery, a Mace business which continues today in Basalt, Colorado.
Between the late 1970s through the mid 1990s, Isabel contributed to the various efforts of the Malachite Small Farm School in
Gardner, Colorado, an organization founded by the Mace family to promote sustainable agricultural methods.
Isabel stood for all efforts to preserve and protect the special place in which she lived, as well as all wild places beyond. Additionally,
she supported the movement toward establishing the Ashcroft Ghost Town as a National Historic Site.
She will be remembered as a woman who worked tirelessly for her family, her home, her community, and a better world with much
Isabel Mace left her mark. She was a selfless and humble woman of strong conviction, who never put herself forward for vanity or for
praise. For much of her life, she worked quietly in the shadows of her legendary husband; however, she will be remembered as the giant
upon whose shoulders he stood. Together they raised five fiercely independent children in rustic simplicity, and together they made an
immeasurable impression on the community of Aspen and on the thousands of individuals who joined them at their hanging table.
Isabel resided at her home, Toklat, in Ashcroft, for 57 years until recently relocating to Basalt, Colorado.
Isabel passed on January 30, 2006 from a life lived long and well. She continued to floss though she knew her time was limited, she
cleared her plate until the very end, and she never forgot the purpose of food – to nourish the body, mind, and soul. . . . (BACK)
it all together with a quiet efficiency. On a given day, it was not unusual for her to care for and feed five children, a small staff, a
household of guests, a hundred huskies, and a Hollywood film crew. A simple and resourceful woman, she ground her grains, darned on
darns and learned to orchestrate a month’s worth of meals on shoestring without duplicating a menu. Few woman of her day worked
harder than Isabel Mace.
Beginning in the early 1960s, first in Aspen and later in Ashcroft, the Mace’s opened a series of distinctive restaurants incorporating
Isabel’s wisdom of fortifying foods and Stuart’s flare for unique flavors. By definition, a Toklat meal was the antithesis of fast food.
The Toklat restaurants were easily among the first to intentionally promote and offer naturally healthy food.
Isabel was a passionate teacher of her kitchen craft. A second generation advocate, she endlessly practiced and preached her support
and belief in natural and healthy foods. Serving food with a conscience, Isaebel searched far and wide to obtain suitable ingredients, and
in the process she loosely organized an early natural food cooperative involving family, friends, and source suppliers. sabel published a
cookbook, Recipe Requests from the Mace Kitchens, in 1994.
A family business, Toklat, succeeded through ingenuity and effort. Over several decades, Isabel coordinated a cherished mail order
business offering, among other things, sourdough starter, exotic tea blends, and jams and jellies homemade from berries hand gathered in
the area by the family and staff. The Mace’s also collected and sold fine curios of a handmade or an indigenous origin. Toklat’s
endlessly creative offerings evolved in the late 1970s into Toklat Gallery, a Mace business which continues today in Basalt, Colorado.
Between the late 1970s through the mid 1990s, Isabel contributed to the various efforts of the Malachite Small Farm School in
Gardner, Colorado, an organization founded by the Mace family to promote sustainable agricultural methods.
Isabel stood for all efforts to preserve and protect the special place in which she lived, as well as all wild places beyond. Additionally,
she supported the movement toward establishing the Ashcroft Ghost Town as a National Historic Site.
She will be remembered as a woman who worked tirelessly for her family, her home, her community, and a better world with much
Isabel Mace left her mark. She was a selfless and humble woman of strong conviction, who never put herself forward for vanity or for
praise. For much of her life, she worked quietly in the shadows of her legendary husband; however, she will be remembered as the giant
upon whose shoulders he stood. Together they raised five fiercely independent children in rustic simplicity, and together they made an
immeasurable impression on the community of Aspen and on the thousands of individuals who joined them at their hanging table.
Isabel resided at her home, Toklat, in Ashcroft, for 57 years until recently relocating to Basalt, Colorado.
Isabel passed on January 30, 2006 from a life lived long and well. She continued to floss though she knew her time was limited, she
cleared her plate until the very end, and she never forgot the purpose of food – to nourish the body, mind, and soul. . . . (BACK)
| In lieu of flowers please make donations toward the preservation of Isabel’s stories to: The Isabel Mace Oral History Project Aspen Historical Society, 620 West Bleeker, Aspen, CO 81611 |
| Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 ~ Cold Mountain Press |
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