Sun Valley Blog

The Ketchum-Sun Valley Ski & Heritage Museum.

Preserving the History of the Wood River Valley

 By Alec Barfield

The Sun Valley Heritage and Ski Museum  (KSVHS) is best walked into when it’s snowing. Of course any season will do, the property is a tree-filled compound of traditional white barns with green trim that is picturesque year-round. But when it’s snowing the museum beckons like a warm fireplace, the hearth by which we can gather and hear stories of Wood River Valley’s rich and colorful history. For reasons that don’t need explaining, this collection honoring skiers and winter soldiers, architects and local celebrities simply kindles brightest when it’s white outside.

First leased by the KSVHS from the National Park Service in 1993, the museum sits quietly on Washington Avenue and 1st Street. The interior, however, was renovated in 1995 and is now contemporary, with exhibits organized spaciously between the separate Heritage and Ski Museum buldings. The first of these are the Jimmy Griffith and the Don and Gretchen Fraser collections, which are housed in the latter. Regional history at its finest. The photo and award displays tell the stories of three Sun Valley residents, each a legend in the sport that has defined this community for more than 75 years.

Ski movie posters form Warren Miller's films.

The ski protion of the museum is a tribute to these heroes and others, an extensive presentation of those who have contributed so much to shaping this resort community. Stroll through the “Ancient Skiers” exhibit and you’ll find rare photos of Andy Hennig, vintage Sun Valley ads from the 1960s and a mountain of classic images depicting life and sport in Ketchum. Equally significant is the fact that the Ancient Skiers Club, a group of individuals who have been skiing since before World War II, recently had a gathering at the museum—living additions to a museum that already features many of the club’s members.

What’s incredible about both the Heritage and Ski Museum is how personal many of the holdings are to people in this Valley. Although 75 years is monumental, the Sun Valley Story, which is also an exhibit, remains a foggy but memorable experience. Yet this won’t be the case for long and the Historical Society is committed to preserving both the recent and bygone eras of Ketchum and Sun Valley. As much as people love to walk the photo-filled hallways of the Sun Valley Lodge, it’s truly a blessing that we can expand our knowledge and appreciation by visiting a substantial museum, who’s only goal is to collect and preserve regional history.

Who knew that Freidl Pfeifer, Sun Valley’s second ski school director, helped to train 10th Mountain Division in the 1940s? Or that Stanley Underwood, the architect behind the historic Sun Valley Lodge, was famous for establishing the now standard aesthetic of National Park Service buildings? Whether you consider these mere pieces of trivia or details that reveal the center-most fabric of our community, the Heritage and Ski Museum is a cultural asset worth exploring.

The 10th Mountain Division exhibit.

For instance, there’s the visually diverse, “Warren Miller and the Art of Ski Cinematography.” Miller started his illustrious career in the River Run parking lot, where he lived in a trailer and causally filmed with friends. Relics of his path from there to Hollywood dot the walls of this exhibit. There are timeless posters of Miller’s “Beyond the Edge” and “Ski People,” there’s a projector running other famous movies and there’s even a large collage of ski cartoons sketched by the iconic director himself. However, it’s temporary, so go examine the artifacts of this great pioneer before it’s too late.

Another highlight, which has permanent status, focuses on another prominent Sun Valley character, Ernest Hemingway. Housed on the property’s third barn, is the hallway of “Hemingway in Idaho.” More than just a few classic images, the exhibit is a full and elegant presentation of Ernest Hemingway’s two decades of living, writing and hunting in the Wood River Valley. This collection of photos is just one of many reminders in the Heritage Museum that the story of this place extends beyond skiing, even if winter sports does anchor so much of its history. So if you’re a fan of Hemingway, this unassuming celebration of the author in an area he loved is a must-see!

Yet “Hemingway in Idaho” and “Art of Cinematography” are just the beginning. The Ski and Heritage Museum has eight permanent collections, with three temporary exhibits currently in circulation. They also host weekly events, like February 1st’s 2012 Sun Valley Ski Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, during which a handful of candidates will be chosen and their plaques placed in the Ski Museum, next to the likes of Bobbie Burns and William Janss. Although only one of many dates on the KSVHS calendar, the ceremony symbolizes the museum’s function; it is the community’s time capsule, that fireplace of memories, while also being the window out which we can admire the present. History is made everyday, and it’s wonderful that the museum recognizes the on-going nature of its subject matter by recognizing Sun Valley’s latest icons.

If you have time on snowy (or even a snowless) afternoon, make a stop by the Heritage and Ski Museum. Wander the exhibits, attend one of the many lecture or just let the legacy of the Wood River Valley warm your soul before returning to the harsh storms of the present.

The hallowed halls of the Ski & Heritage Museum.

Current Exhibitions

Ski Museum:

The Ancient Skiers

Gretchen Fraser, Don Fraser and Jim Griffith

Sun Valley Ski Hall of Fame

10th Mountain Division of the United States Army

Warren Miller and the Art of Ski Cinematography (temporary)

The Sun Valley Story: An American Original (temporary)

Heritage Museum:

Mining in the Wood River Valley

Discovery of Elkhorn Springs: Pre Historic Native Americans in the Wood River Valley

Hemingway in Idaho

The Architecture of Gilbert Stanley Underwood and The Sun Valley Lodge

Women’s Work: Women and the Settling of the American West (temporary)

A Sun Valley Tradition

By Alec Barfield

Dollar and Baldy Mountain celebrate the season with Fireworks and a Torchlight Parade

The Christmas Eve Torchlight Parade on Dollar Mountain is one of Sun Valley’s most venerable traditions, dating back further than the memory of any living resident. More than merry exercise, the parade truly holds symbolic significance in the community—especially on this Anniversary year. Seventy-five years ago this Christmas season, the Sun Valley Lodge opened its doors to the world and our celebrated resort was born. By now we all know the “creation story” of how Averell Harriman and Count Felix Schaffgotsch, after combing the West, hand-picked Ketchum to be America’s premier ski resort, the next St. Moritz. With such a compelling narrative and host of characters — the railroad, the Count, the celebrities from Hollywood’s golden age — it is no wonder this town loves its heritage.

Tomorrow night that history will come to life in the form of lights and fireworks. The parade itself speaks to Sun Valley’s Swiss and Austrian predecessors, who pioneered the mesmerizing trails of fire that snake down the mountain. The location, however, alludes to the resort’s own uniqueness, as Dollar was home to one of the first two chairlifts in the entire world (the other being on nearby Proctor Mountain). While the East was using rope tows and Europe was still relying on funiculars and tramways, Sun Valley began moving skiers like hanging bananas on the novel Dollar Mountain “chairlift.” The idea was a momentous innovation that would shape the skiing world forever, and Sun Valley was at the heart of it.

Yet the torchlight parade is a unique and festive Sun Valley time capsule, not only for its connection to this area’s earliest beginnings, but because its participants have been doing it for years. Historically conducted by the Sun Valley Snowsports School, the parade is a nostalgic event, providing an opportunity for friends and family to remember those torch bearers who are no longer with us as they watch the snaking line of past instructors, sweeping right and left, and sharing in the tradition once again. According to ski school director, Allan Patzer, the torchlight has become a truly spiritual event and an honor for present instructors. Not simply a performance, it is an opportunity for remembrance, in more ways than one, of everyone and everything that has contributed to the foundation of this incredible community.

Tomorrow night, after the Nutcracker On Ice Show, look towards Dollar. Rising nearly 630 vertical feet from the valley floor and bereft of trees, the mountain is the ideal host for the event, which will be followed, as always, by a show of fireworks. If you’ve never watched the parade before, this is your opportunity to take part in an elegantly poignant Sun Valley tradition. If you are a regular spectator, one familiar with that glowing stream of Christmas lights, then you understand, and have probably already set your clocks for six p.m.

>> Event Details: 

“Nutcracker on Ice” Holiday ice show begins at 5:00 PM at the Outdoor Rink, Sun Valley Lodge Terrace.

Torchlight Parade & Fireworks immediately following the ice show(usually around 6:00 PM)

Dress: Bundle up and look for hot chocolate and goodies on the Lodge Terrace (and maybe even a surprise visit from Santa after the “Nutcracker on Ice” Holiday ice show.

Carving turns down memory lane

By Mike McKenna

On the unseasonably warm and fateful day of December 21, 1936, Sun Valley officially opened to skiing. To mark the 75^th birthday of America’s original destination ski resort, we’ll take a run down memory lane—not to be confused with Pete Lane’s Mountain Sports—and highlight some of the unique and interesting happenings from each of the last eight decades on (and off) the slopes of Sun Valley.*

1930s: Legend has it that just as the last workmen were putting the finishing touches on the Sun Valley Lodge and sneaking out the back door, celebrities like Clark Gable were walking in the front. Every detail of the grand opening was said to be perfect (except for the snow, which showed up a few days late) and after throwing a star-studded opening night dinner at the Lodge, a new star was born on the world’s ski scene—Sun Valley, Idaho! (The Gilbert Stanley Underwood exhibit at the Ketchum Sun Valley Historical Society-Heritage & Ski Museum is “must see” for any history or architecture fans.)

Leif Odmark, the original "Hot Dog Skier."

 1940s: Skiing, ice skating and enjoying life in the dreamy environs of Central Idaho grabs the nation’s attention with the release of the iconic film, “Sun Valley Serenade,” which still shows daily at the Sun Valley Opera House. Even more positive attention shines upon Sun Valley when local skier Gretchen Fraser becomes the first American to win an Olympic gold medal for skiing.

1950s: Ernest Hemingway, who first started visiting Sun Valley in 1939, buys a home overlooking the Big Wood River, forever linking the literary giant to the Valley where he worked on some of his classics like “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” which he wrote in Suite 206 of the Sun Valley Lodge.

1960s: Hot Dog skiing (now referred to as Freestyle) is born in Sun Valley. Led by the high-flying likes of local skiers Leif Odmark, Bobbie Burns and Penelope Street the sport takes off and by 1973 Sun Valley plays host to the first U.S Freestyle Championships.

Bobbie Burns graces the cover of Powder.

 1970s: Powder Magazine launches its first publication from an old cabin in Ketchum. Aimed at chronicling “the other ski experience,” Powder finds its niche with a unique voice, stunning photography and by bringing “Powder to the People!” Powder celebrates its 40^th birthday in December 2011 by throwing a legendary “Powder Prom” at Sun Valley’s Limelight Room.

1980s: After purchasing the resort in 1977, Earl and Carol Holding spend the next decade plus refurbishing America’s oldest ski resort. State-of-the-art snowmaking and ski lifts are installed. These two additions are still considered hallmarks and highlights of the Sun Valley ski experience—consistently offering some of the best snowmaking in the world, as well as the shortest lift lines at any major ski resort in the country.

1990s: Sun Valley’s day lodges at the base of River Run and Warm Springs are rebuilt and the Seattle Ridge Lodge is opened, redefining the standard of elegance and excellence that made Sun Valley “America’s Shangri-La.” The award-winning day lodges are considered, as Earl Holding put it, the “crowning jewels” of the resort.

2000s: Sun Valley adds a 1,800 passenger per hour gondola. Running from River Run Lodge to the newly re-opened Roundhouse Restaurant and Averell’s Bar, the Sun Valley gondola (the largest Doppelmayr project in North America at the time) covers 2,000-feet in a mere eight minutes. A truly magical experience offering arguably the best views the Valley has to offer, dinner trips up to the Roundhouse have become popular year-round.

2010s: After a stunning remodel to Carol’s Dollar Mountain Lodge in 2004, Dollar kicks off the next decade and chapter in Sun Valley’s remarkable history by opening one the of best snow terrain parks in the nation (designed by the experts at Snow Park Technologies). This season, a half pipe will be built on Dollar as well.

*[All these stories—and much more, including hundreds of classic Sun Valley photographs—are part of Van Gordon Sauter’s new book in honor of the Resorts’ 75^th anniversary, “The Sun Valley Story.” Pick up a copy at any Sun Valley Resort shop.  If you’d like to look before you buy, visit www.sunvalleyhistory.com to take a peek inside the book.]