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Show DECEMBER CANYON Hatch and 1995 REPORT Hansen to ‘trade’ it to millionaire Feds Saved Snow Basin Over 50-year Period HOLIDAY DESSERTS Assorted Organic 3 Fruit Pumpkin Danish Rings Ginger Bread Chocolate Pecan DAYS ADVANCED Pie Pie NOTICE 801-649-5686 Open 268 Everyday Main St., By Alexis Kelner Pies at 7 Park A.M. City DESIGN oe known as Wheeler Basin, Snow Basin east of Ogden has a unique history and one that might interest taxpayers before Forest Service lands there are “traded” to the ski resort by the same name, millionaire R. Earl Holding owned by When first discovered by pioneers, the area was described as “nature’s paradise,” a “verdant mountain basin of lush grass, a clear flowing stream, wildlife, and towering fir trees.” But livestock grazing and timber harvesting commenced in the area during the late 1850s. At the time the U.S. ADVERTISING PONS SESS Canam MRC TL direct mail print advertisements © posters « books © catalogs signage design © product imaging & packaging For a free consultation MLAS te Forest system Wheeler Basin Arthur J. Carroll Forest Supervisor CALL: 801.262.6565 SALT LAKE CITY the Main Street Bae Park City’s Fastest Finest, Quality Photofinishing 523 Main Street * One-hour Photo * Two-hour Slide Processing (E-6) * KODAK Create-A-Print™ * Black & White Processing * Custom Enlarging, Negatives or Slides * Portrait & Commercial Studio * Passport Photos * Unique Photo Frames & Accessories 649-6465 “The sunbeams stream forward, dawn boys, with shimmering shoes of yellow.” Mescalaro Apache Song A Message from RUTH DRAPKIN 801-649-9200/ 1-800-999-7355 es i Wardley Better Homes & Gardens being organized, the surrounding “we feel it would not be prudent on our part, nor within the scope of our authority, to support the exchange of National Forest lands for commercial real estate development...” comfortable, cool characters 825 EAST 4800 SOUTH - SUITE 133 was and lands were in private ownership. Due to continued misuse through the latter part of the 1800s, the terrain degenerated to the point that it posed flood and pollution hazards to the populated valleys downstream. By 1936, “nature’s paradise” had become what one Forest Service official described as “almost a dust bowl with hundreds of cattle fighting flies and a number of dead carcasses on the banks and in the stream.” Ridges were barren of vegetation and deep erosion gullies serrated the hillsides. Ogden’s civic leaders visited the basin, determined that it desperately needed rehabilitation, and ordained the U.S. Forest Service to do the work. But before reclamation could commence, however, the lands had to be placed into federal ownership. Through purchases and condemnation suits, the City of Ogden obtained some 2,000 acres of basin land and deeded it to the Forest Service. Local civic service.clubs deeded over several hundred additional acres, By autumn, 1940, Ogden’s commissioner in charge of parks and waterworks congratulated the Forest Service for its “splendid work” in restoring the basin to its “natural beauty.” The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Administration Progress (WPA) cooperated on other projects to reclaim the area and to make it accessible for public recreation. In 1944 structed a the public Forest Service shelter at the conbasin fully with base facilities located on only 45 acres. “Snowbasin has access to 7,000 acres of private lands owned by its parent company, Litthke America, immediately and in 1946 the City of Ogden erected the the first chair lift for skiing. Ogden sold the Snowbasin ski operation in 1957. A number of owners added improvements. Early in the 1980s, Earl Holding’s Sun Valley Corp., which then owned Snowbasin, proposed to enlarge the area. Following an Environmental Impact Statement in 1983, Snowbasin’s Master Plan for runs,” expansion was approved by the Forest Service. It permitted orderly expansion of facilities to increase to four times. skiers by three The ink was hardly dry on the plan when Holding, who also owns Sun Valley ski resort, Little America and interest in Sinclair Oil, expressed a desire to obtain 2,000 acres of prime National Forest land adjacent to some 7,000 acres of land owned by the ski resort. Transfer of the forest land into private could ownership, it was suggested, be facilitated by a land exchange, for land Holding owned — or would acquire — adjacent to National Forest lands in other areas of northern Utah. In May 1986, Forest Arthur J. Carroll explained Supervisor in a letter to Holding that the 1983 Forest Plan had been accomplished through “intensive public involvement” and believed “exchange of lands at Snowbasin would be controversial.” “AS managers of these National Forest lands,” Carroll wrote, “we feel it would not be prudent on our part, nor within the scope of our authority, to support the exchange of National Forest lands for commercial real estate development other than that needed to provide for downhill skiing.” arroll suggested that Forest lands Cau for the ski operation could be narrowed to 200 acres. But on Sept. 21, 1987, the Forest Service received a “statement of intent” from Holding’s ski company to exchange real property of equal value for 1,320 acres of National Forest land located area. at the base of Snowbasin ski On Feb. 6, 1990, Dale N. Carroll’s successor at the Bosworth, Forest Service, authorized a transfer of 220 acres to Sun Valley Corp. for lands adjacent base to existing of the Bosworth runs proposed wrote. “I and at lifts and can not in good conscience dispose of public land for that purpose.” But Holding would have none of it. He appealed to Bosworth’s superior, Regional Forester Stan Tixier, and enlisted Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch to “I can not in good conscience dispose of public land for that purpose.” Dale N. Bosworth Forest Supervisor lobby the Forest Service for an increase in acreage. On March 13, 1990, standing before an assembly of the Ogden area’s business, civic, and government offi- cials, Hatch condemned the decision as being “bone-headed.” Hatch then fixed his gaze on Regional Forester Stan Tixier. “Are you going to help us with this?” Hatch asked Tixier. “I’ve never asked Stan to help us yet that he hasn’t done it,” Hatch told his audience. “I hope that puts you on the spot, Stan.” Within six months, Stan vacated Bosworth’s 220 acre decision and instated a new decision approving a trade of 695 acres. It has taken 50 years’ worth of public funds and public efforts to transform a virtual dust bow] back to a semblance of “nature’s paradise.” But the first appraisals obtained by Sun Valley Corp. assumed that the Snow Basin lands should be valued as grazing lands at $1,000 per acre. But that isn’t the end of the story. Sen. Hatch and Rep. Jim Hansen are pushing identical bills in Congress to allow Holding to swap for the entire 1,320 acres he demanded in 1985. That legislation would keep the Forest Service out of the decision-making process. As such, Holding might be able to acquire magnificent forest lands for a modest sum and make millions in commercial development of real estate, yielding an area that looks like Deer date. Valley instead of National Forest. The foregoing is an excerpt from the forthcoming ‘Volume 3 of Wasatch Bosworth noted that Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon operates success- Tours’ by Alexis Kelner and David Hanscom to be published in 1996. @ to PAGE: 12 be specified at a later |