Many of the mountain towns of Colorado have undergone a shift from a mining and resource-based economies to those of winter sports and tourism. With declined populations in many counties and many towns fearful of large ski resorts, this thesis aims to determine the impact of ski resorts at both the local level and county level for mountain towns. Due to the many different types of resorts, a second goal is to differentiate the impact of one additional visitor in one county versus another. Using a panel study regression, this thesis shows the marginal value of each visitor controlling for factors such as resort quality and local airports. It also shows that the average visitor in certain counties could be worth twice as much as the average in a different county.