University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2015 Alpine Experiments: The National Parks and the Development of Skiing in the American West Jeffrey T. Meyer University of Montana - Missoula Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Part of the Human Geography Commons, and the United States History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Meyer, Jeffrey T., "Alpine Experiments: The National Parks and the Development of Skiing in the American West" (2015). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 4474. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4474 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Alpine Experiments: The National Parks and the Development of Skiing in the American West By Jeffrey Thomas Meyer M. ED. Curriculum and Instruction, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 2004 B.S. Radio, Television, and Film, University of Texas, Austin, TX, 1994 Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History The University of Montana Missoula, MT May 2015 Approved by: Sandy Ross, Dean of The Graduate School Graduate School Jeff Wiltse, Chair History Richard Drake History Bill Borrie Forestry & Conservation Meyer, Jeffrey, M.A., Spring 2015 History Alpine Experiments: The National Parks and the Development of Skiing in the American West Jeff Wiltse, Chair In 1886, the U.S. Army mounted cavalry soldiers on skis to patrol the winter landscape of Yellowstone National Park. Prior to Yellowstone's skiing soldiers, the U.S. government had no formal relationship with skiing. In Yellowstone, the Army initiated the U.S. government's intimate and enduring relationship with skiing in the American West. When the National Park Service (NPS) took over the management of Yellowstone, the government's involvement with western skiing transferred over to the NPS. Upon its creation in 1916, the NPS inherited a national park system primarily carved from the high western mountains and embraced the promotion of recreational skiing in the deep and lingering snow of the parks. Working with regional boosters and park concessionaires, the NPS endeavored to transform snowbound parks into four season destinations. By the 1930s, national parks hosted high stakes ski competitions and became some of the earliest centers of lift-served skiing in the West. Ultimately, ski lifts operated in ten western parks during the 20th century. However, critics questioned the appropriateness of the national parks as venues for Alpine skiing. Struggling with its dual mandate of preservation and recreation, the NPS began to recalibrate its permissive approach to Alpine skiing by limiting the type of development and competitions allowed in the parks. The NPS exited World War II with a more conservative approach towards Alpine skiing. However, in the 1950s, the agency embraced a park by park approach to winter use that stifled the development of lift-served skiing in some parks while enabling its growth in others. This approach led to decades of contestation between the NPS, local populations, environmentalists, and concessionaires, which ultimately led to the removal of ski lifts in all of the parks except Yosemite and Olympic. In 2015, the United States Forest Service is the government agency most often equated with western skiing. In my thesis, I will suggest that it was the national parks that first created the inextricable link between the U.S. government and skiing in the West, and once this connection took hold, it proved to be an extremely difficult bond to break. ii Acknowledgements Thanks to the University of Montana Department of History. Thanks to Dan Flores and Chris Pastore for helping me shape this project and to Jeff Wiltse for taking on the mantle of advisor to guide this thesis through to its fruition. Thanks to Richard Drake and Bill Borrie for signing on to my thesis committee. Thanks to Diane Rapp for all the assistance, guidance, and kindness she has provided during my time in Missoula. Thanks to all the archives, museums, and libraries listed in the bibliography. Thanks to the stacks of the Mansfield Library and the stellar crew of Interlibrary Loan. Thanks to The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula and the Aspen Historical Society for showing me the joys and importance of public history. Thanks to Yellowstone for teaching me how to ski and instilling a deep love of snow and winter. Thanks to Dunraven Pass and Sylvan Pass for tutoring me on the immeasurable joy of spring and summer skiing. Thanks to Lolo Pass, Snow Bowl, Pattee Canyon, and the snow covered University of Montana golf course for providing me with frequent ski escapes and valuable opportunities for field research as I worked on this project. Thanks to everyone I have skied with in North America, Hokkaido, and Chile. Yes, that includes all of my snowboarding friends! Thanks to Mom and Dad for all the love and support you have showered on me over the years. Thanks to my sister Chris for introducing the Meyer clan to the bizarre and sublime pleasures of working in the national parks. Thanks to Pat, Ted, and Jessica for decades of sibling revelry across the vast expanse of the American landscape. Thanks to all the friends and family that have taught me the value of community and its ability to withstand long periods of temporal and geographic separation. And lastly thanks to Emily for her infinite love and patience. Our field research proved invaluable, and I eagerly await our future tours and turns across the snowscapes of the American West. iii Table of Contents Introduction – Skiing and America's National Parks................................................................................1 Chapter 1 – Yellowstone and The Origins of Winter Use........................................................................16 Chapter 2 – Creeping Mechanization and Winter Development.............................................................49 Chapter 3 – Ski Lifts, War, and Winter Policy in the Western Parks......................................................89 Chapter 4 – Mechanized Starts and Stops: The Uneasy Truces of National Park Ski Areas................129 Epilogue – Artifact Landscape.............................................................................................................169 Bibliography.........................................................................................................................................173 iv Introduction: Skiing and America's National Parks Beyond doubt, the park offers the greatest natural ski grounds in America. When the snow is gone from all other fields elsewhere about the United States, Yellowstone park skiing is at its best. –-1940, H.F. Tavlin, Secretary of the Gardiner Commercial Club.1 Each spring, National Park Service plow crews embark on the Herculean task of opening the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park to the summer crowds after a winter spent slumbering under the deep Northern Rockies snow. Depending on the winter snowpack, road opening dates have fluctuated between early June and early July. The Going-to-the-Sun Road, completed in 1933, cuts across the Continental Divide at 6,647' at Logan Pass. The slowly melting snow at the pass flows east to the Saskatchewan River and Hudson Bay and west to the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean. The Big Drift on the east side of the pass, fed by the prevailing winds howling through the pass from the west, can pile up to depths of 80'. The average annual snowfall for Logan Pass measures 500 inches. This immense and lingering snowpack has made the opening of the high country road an eagerly anticipated event among regional skiers dating back to the 1930s. To celebrate the road opening on June 19, 1938, the Glacier National Park Ski Club sponsored “an informal ski meet on Logan Pass,” and despite inclement weather “about fifty skiers and five hundred people showed up for the event.” On June 2, 1940, the ski club celebrated the road opening with the “Spring International Ski Meet of Glacier National Park Ski Club.” The event attracted “660 automobiles and 3000 people including 239 skiers.” Spectators and skiers “came from Idaho, Montana, Washington, California, Utah, and...nine ski clubs represented the province of Alberta, Canada.” Regional skiers still converge on Logan Pass each summer to celebrate the road's opening, but the gatherings unfold in a less organized manner.2 1 Dr. H.F. Tavlin, “Montana Day in Yellowstone National Park Is Step Toward Making Great Summer Playground an All Year Attraction,” Belgrade Journal, February 1940, News Clippings, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) Travel and Public Use News: 1940-1954, Yellowstone Research Library (YRL), Gardiner Heritage and Research Center (GHRC). 2 Rose Houk, Going-To-The-Sun: The Story of the Highway Across Glacier National Park (Del Mar, CA: Woodlands Press, 1984), 34-35; Jerry DeSanto, Logan Pass: Alpine Splendor in Glacier National Park (Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing Co. Inc., 1995), no pagination; E.T. Scoyen, Memo to Director, June 22, 1938; Jay Staley, Spring International Ski Meet