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Document Type
Article
Description
The late 1930s were exciting times for Pacific Northwest skiers. The opening of the country’s first destination ski resort in Sun Valley, Idaho in 1936, by the Union Pacific Railroad, where the chair lift was invented and first installed, changed the ski industry forever and the area attracted skiers from all over the world. Seattle newspapers regularly reported on local skiers traveling by train to Sun Valley to enjoy the attractions if this international resort.
Western Washington skiing was organized around private ski clubs, and ski racing competitions were held most weekends in many areas accessible by car, including Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Cayuse Pass, and Snoqualmie Pass. The drives to these ski areas on two-lane icy roads was difficult and required a real commitment to the sport. Ski jumping was one of regular competitive events, reflecting the sport’s Scandinavian influence. The University of Washington had one of the dominant ski teams in the West, and high schools had organized ski clubs. The high degree of interest in skiing can be seen by the extensive coverage of the sport in local newspapers.
Publication Date
Summer 6-18-2018
Publisher
John Lundin
Keywords
ski, mountaineers, patrol races, Snoqualmie Pass, Stampede Pass
Disciplines
United States History
Recommended Citation
Lundin, John W., "EARLY SKIING ON SNOQUALMIE PASS: THE OPENING OF THE MILWAUKEE SKI BOWL IN THE WINTER OF 1938 CHANGED LOCAL SKIING" (2018). Works by Local Authors. 8.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/local_authors/8
Spatial Coverage (for ex: Ellensburg, WA)
Snoqualmie Pass
Comments
John is a lawyer and historian who has done extensive research and writing about skiing history. His mother, Margaret Odell, was part of Seattle’s early ski scene in the late 1930s,and as advisor to the Queen Anne Ski Club from 1938 - 1940, she took her students by train every weekend to the Milwaukee Ski Bowl for ski lessons. John is a long time skier who learned to ski on Snoqualmie Pass using wooden skis, cable bindings, leather boots and rope tows, was a member of Sahalie Ski Club, and has homes in Seattle and Sun Valley, Idaho. He is a founder of the Washington State Ski & Snowboard Museum and serves on its board. John’s book, Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass, won a Skade award from the International Ski History Association as outstanding regional history book of 2017. A short version of this paper appears on HistoryLink.org, the on-line encyclopedia of Washington history.