Eastern Idaho's First Ski Resort

Look around you. You are standing amid a faded dream - a dream to create a premiere ski resort out of wilderness. Much of eastern Idaho during 1938 was considered a frontier when Forest Ranger Rufus Hall searched for a location to build Idaho's second ski resort. Idaho's first resort - built in 1936 was in Sun Valley.
A dream was shared by Alf Engen a world-class skier from Norway who eventually went on to coach the 1948 U.S. Olympic Ski Team. Looking upon a wooded hillside in the spring of 1939, Alf sketched on paper three ski runs that later became known as Bear Gulch Ski Basin.
Passenger trains traveling to Yellowstone just a few hundred yards from where you are standing brought skiers to Bear Gulch when the resort opened during the winter of 1940. Powered by a simple gasoline engine with cables wrapped around large drums, anxious skiers paid 10 cents to ride a toboggan to the top of the hill. Skiers coined the phrase "If you could ski at Bear, you could ski anywhere."
For the next 20 years Bear Gulch was regarded as Eastern Idaho's premier resort. When new ski resorts with longer runs began to open, appeal in Bear Gulch faded. Bear Gulch Ski Basin disappeared into the shadows after several attempts failed to revive the resort during the mid-seventies.

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Show me all markers in:  Ashton, ID  |  Fremont County  |  83420  |  Idaho  |  United States of America

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