Deer Valley Resort is celebrating its 40th season in operation this ski season. This is the fourth article in a series covering Deer Valley from Park City’s mining era through the resort’s early days.
When real estate developer, hotelier, and broadcaster Edgar Stern first brought his wife Polly to Park City he advised her they should walk down the middle of Main Street “so the buildings wouldn’t fall down on us.”
Park City wasn’t dressed to impress in 1971 when Stern arrived looking to buy Treasure Mountains Resort from United Park City Mines, which would fulfill a lifelong dream to own his own ski resort. The mine company was losing money in mining and had hoped to make money on the surface by building a resort. When it lost money above ground too, it looked to dump the resort like so much mine waste rock.
Stern was born to a wealthy family that owned 25% of Sears Roebuck, along with enterprises in New Orleans, his hometown. He fell in love with skiing while attending private school in Switzerland. When he returned home after WWII service he went into business with his father, putting one of the first television stations, WDSU-TV on the air. They also built, with other investors, two first class hotels in town, the Royal Orleans and Royal Sonesta, and later, the Stanford Court in San Francisco.
By 1956, Edgar and Polly were splitting time between New Orleans and Aspen, where Stern developed Starwood, a forward-thinking residential development which preserved open space and attracted buyers like Stein Eriksen and later John Denver.
In Utah, Stern threw himself into developing Park City Ski Resort. He built the town’s first condominiums around the golf course, but by 1975 the resort was overleveraged when a national recession hit, and Stern was trying to stave off creditors. That year he sold the existing resort to Nick Badami who, with son Craig, would go on to make the resort a success.
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, Edgar Stern Collection
Stern retained a lease he had from the mine company for the land which formed an east-west spur off the Park City ridgeline. There, he planned to come back when the economy improved and build a new resort from scratch, with a vision unique in the ski industry.
“I wanted to build a ski area that ran like a fine hotel,” the owner of five-star hotels often said. The lay of the Deer Valley land allowed runs to be cut on north facing fall lines, which retain snow better, and allow skiers to feel sun on their faces as they rode the lifts. The food would be hotel quality, not the chili dog and hamburger fare offered elsewhere. A friendly valet would greet skiers and help unload skis. The day lodges resembled the grand lodges of the national parks.
Stein Eriksen, easily the most famous skier in the world at the time, followed Stern from Aspen to be the face of first Park City, and then Deer Valley. He had urged his friend to buy the Park City property and said, “Take me with you!”
When Deer Valley opened in 1981, it lived up to Edgar’s saying, “If you don’t go first class, don’t make the trip!” It became the talk of the ski industry, an industry not used to such detail regarding mountain grooming, food, customer relations, and quality top to bottom.
Edgar Stern died in 2008. Stein Eriksen followed in 2015. In 2017 the Stern family sold the resort to Alterra Corporation, which, in Deer Valley’s 40th year, has retained most of the guiding principles laid down by Edgar and Polly Stern.
Stay tuned next week for one more article in this series on Deer Valley.