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Show Second in a Series Skiing in Utah: A History 4f " Aw- From Hopkins Griffiths This is the second in a series of excerpts from the book "Skiing in Utah: A History," the work of Salt Lake City author Alexis Kelner. This book explores the advent of alpine skiing and ski jumping along the Wasatch Front, focusing both on the sport's early advocates ad-vocates and on the development develop-ment of ski areas such as Alta, Brighton, Park City, Solitude and Snowbird. The following excerpt is taken from the chapter entitled en-titled "The Skiers' Mecca." "Skiing in Utah," a paperback, paper-back, is available at a variety of locations around Park City. World War II had a very positive influence on Park City's faltering economy. As the need for metals became critical during the five year conflict mines reopened and unemployment in the area began to decline. Throughout the war's duration there was little time for recreation and the drive to make Park City world renown via skiing fell by the wayside. But as the war ended life began returning once again to normal, and slowly, every-so-slowly, Park City started edging towards the melancholia melan-cholia of another major depression. Mel Fletcher, a third generation Parkite, was among the first to realize that skiing should play an important role in Park City's future. During autumn, 1946 he began organizing a ski club among the winter sports enthusiasts still to be found in the city. His effort proved successful. By the end of September, 1946 the "Snow Park Ski Club" began collecting col-lecting $2.00 annual dues from Park City's most active winterites, commenced holding hold-ing weekly meetings to plan the community's future, and started construction of a large jumping hill in the w v. . www v (0 IrisMwmcI .feS Ltd Serving the finest Mexican dishes, great salads and char-broiled char-broiled burgers with homemade fries. Open nightly, 434 Main St., Park City, 649-6645. Have you ever had Mexican food in an Irish pub? Sounds different, tastes great! Dinner served from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday Open Nightly 5 -10 p.m. Giant T.V. Screen. Park City Trip Jan. vicinity of Thayne's Canyon. The post-war period also witnessed a decline in activism acti-vism among members of outing organizations. The Snow Park Ski Club was no exception. Within months, Fletcher would express disappointment dis-appointment that only the smallest percentage of club members were active in their efforts to promote Park City. "This is not 'kid stuff,'" he chided his fellow skiers in the Record. "Skiing is business busi-ness as well as a sport and the slick board artists and snow bunnies thronging into the area means good American Ameri-can dinero." Two others who attempted to reintroduce skiing in Park City were Otto Carpenter and Robert Burns. Throughout Through-out autumn, 1946 both had been tinkering with motors, gears, cables, and towers in an attempt to construct a "T-bar" surface tow in Deer Valley. On Sunday, December Decem-ber 8 they were ready to test their apparatus. Free rides were offered all day long to persons who volunteered to ride the newly completed contrivance. Even with the "lift" enthusiasm enthu-siasm for wintersports among the residents and leaders of the city continued to wane. Mel Fletcher attempted at-tempted to rekindle the competitive spirit so evident during the recent depression, depres-sion, but it was all in vain. "Park City is fortunate in having the finest snow conditions condi-tions in the country," he submitted his last communication communi-cation to the Record, "but the city is also unfortunate in the fact that it can not or will not recognize or make use of nature's gift." Robert J. Wright, the son of Emmett Wright, Park City's Utah Independent Telephone Company lineman line-man who patrolled the lines during winters of the early 1!22. "The Daly-Judge Mill." Wasatch Mountain 1900s, was next to take up the ski cause in Park City. Bob Wright was born in Park City during the early days of the depression. For a time he left the city, returning return-ing in 1946 to re-establish residence. At that time he was introduced to skiing at the newly created Snow Park area. In 1953 he joined its "ski patrol" and started thinking seriously about developing another ski area in the community. Wright enrolled at the University of Utah and entered the civil engineering program in the College of Engineering. For a thesis topic he chose to study the feasibility of developing a new ski area within commuter distance of -i Salt Lake City, one that would permit competition with the major winter recreation re-creation areas in the State of Utah. Because it was one of the highest summits (9,018 ft.) along the eastern slope of the Wasatch, because of its proximity to a paved highway high-way and to Park City Iron Mountain seemed to Wright the perfect candidate. Wright commenced gathering traffic data, researching re-searching weather patterns and snow accumulations, and comparing them to those of Little and Big Cottonwood canyons and to the ski area in Deer Valley. Visits to the Cottonwood resorts confirmed con-firmed one suspicion, that the present level of development develop-ment of winter recreation facilities in the Salt Lake area was not sufficient. Alta and Brighton, he predicted, would soon be incapable of accommodating the growing numbers of recreational skiers. "It is the strong trend in volume increase (at Alta and Brighton) that prompts this study," he wrote in his dissertation, "and it is with the accommodation of this I : r I A"- Milt, vn 4 J J V trend in mind that the Iron Mountain development is investigated." Wright's thesis, "Winter Recreation Feasibility of Iron Mountain," explored several novel concepts. Noting Not-ing that the Europeans have long been familiar with the comfort, convenience, and novelty of rapid transit by cable car and tramway he suggested that a tramway to the summit of Iron Mountain would provide the "epitome of service" to the skiing public. Such a tramway, he Club Collection. Hook IV further predicted, could have considerable utility during summer months as a tourist attraction. Wright also considered the possibility possibili-ty of converting one of several aerial ore tramways into a gondola-like system for carrying passengers. Shortly after Robert J. Wright completed work on his Iron Mountain dissertation disserta-tion directors of the United Park City Mines Company, owners of considerable mountain acreage in the vicinity of Park City, began considering new means of INTRODUCING THE 1981 SAAB SEDAN. IN TERMS OF EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS, IT'S ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GARS IN THE WORLD. :iW';Cj, ' " !jSS 111 'WW" 1 1 ' I f-' -f f I Performance, comfort, safety, quality and economy. Those are the things that make the new 1981 Saab Sedan, simply, an incredibly beautiful automobile. Its fuel-injected engine, for example, gives you the thrust of 6 or 8 cylinders but does it with only 4. And while the Saab certainly looks and feels like a compact, inside you enjoy the room of a mid-sized car. The Saab's front-wheel drive makes it an exceptionally responsive automobile, too. However, in the end it won't be the litany of impressive facts that will make you look beyond Saab's unconventional styling and take it to your heart. That will happen when vm i Hrivp nnp y State at augmenting their mining income, steadily declining since the end of World War I' and the Korean conflict. One solution considered by its Board of Directors involved conversion of some ot the company's properties to recreational re-creational use During early 1958 the Salt Lake office of National Planning and Research Company was commissioned to determine the "physical and locational" qualities of a good year-round recreational recreation-al area and to determine if the Park City region possessed pos-sessed enough of these qualities to become a successful suc-cessful and profitable enterprise. enter-prise. "How does Park City measure up with other resort areas in general?" "Could the mining company and-or its partners expect a financial finan-cial return?" "How much?" These were among the many iUislunti posed by the research agency's two Utah principals, princi-pals, M. Walker Wallace and Dr. Milton P. Matthews. In November, 1958 Wallace and Matthews completed their analysis and transmitted trans-mitted a hundred page report to their client. Yes. Park City did possess many features that made it competitive compe-titive with such recreational areas as Aspen, Colorado, Virginia City, Nevada, and Jackson, Wyoming. Surprisingly, Park City had several advantages over Aspen. Aspen possessed no large population in its immediate im-mediate proximity. Park City did. With the Salt Lake metropolitan area from which to draw day guests "momentum" for a new development would be established estab-lished much quicker and at lower promotional cost. The two analysts concluded that if the Aspen development was successful (as it had been) then there was no reason w hy Park City should not be equally successful. "If anything," they emphasized, "success at Park City would come easier and quicker." TILE MOST INTELLIGENT CAR EVER BUILT. 600 South SIC, ! 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