This is the third Way We Were article covering the 60th Anniversary of Park City Mountain Resort.
Treasure Mountains officially opened to the public at 9 a.m. on December 21, 1963 with much fanfare. Mayor William P. Sullivan cut the ribbon, declaring the resort open and ushering in “a new economic era for historic Park City.”
Utah Governor George D. Clyde, and Utah state and national congressmen sent letters of congratulations that were read to the opening ceremony’s guests. United Park City Mines president John M. Wallace and vice president Seth “Red” K. Droubay gave a few words, with Droubay paying “glowing tribute” to the people who worked to get the resort open.
The Utah National Guard and the Park City High School band played to the audience filled with local commissioners and politicians from Park City, Summit County, Salt Lake County, and Wasatch County, among other locals ready to see change in Park City.
Excited guests to the new resort had a dozen runs available to them via several lifts. The Treasure Mountains gondola gave full access to the resort, while the Prospector fouble chairlift served the upper half of the terrain and two J-bars served the base area – the Silver King for intermediate skiers, and the Tenderfoot for beginners. Upon their opening Treasure Mountains boasted both the longest gondola and the longest double chairlift in North America with those first two lifts.
Regarding the gondola, Reah Hurley of the Park Record noted the guests of the opening ceremony rode it to the Summit House for breakfast, remarking “one realizes they are not on a plane… and are tempted to feel their shoulder blades to see if wings have sprouted while they are still here on Mother Earth.” She continued, “the views as one travels ever upward to 9,300 feet grow larger and more breathtaking, and the scene that spreads out before you from the summit, on Pioneer Ridge, is simply marvelous and beyond description.”
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum, PCHS Photograph Collection
The runs available that opening day were Miner’s Mile, Claim Jumper, Treasure Hollow, and part of Lost Prospector for novice skiers; Bonanza, Silver King, Pay Day, and the other part of Lost Prospector for intermediate skiers; Silver Queen, Hidden Splendor, The Shaft, and Silver Skis (a race course) for expert skiers; and The Slide, a toboggan run.
The Ski School was open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., with lessons given by Jim McConkey and Norm McKinnon. A two-hour lesson cost just $3, while a full-day lesson (four hours) cost $5.
The Deseret News ran comments from early visitors that cited the ease of access to get to the resort, the ample parking (a relic of the past!), the array of terrain, and the novelty of the gondola keeping skiers warm all the way to the top of the resort. One commenter noted “Boy, this sure is some area for the recreation skier!” That last quote sounds more like something a PR person thinks would be a good quote for a visitor to say, rather than something someone actually said, but it was presented in the paper as the latter.
Summing up the successful opening for Park City’s first full-scale resort, Reah Hurley wrote for the Park Record that “the full impact of the years of planning this great project, and the brains and ability and manpower of skilled workmen of many trades, have all come to a most wonderful completion in the west’s newest and finest playland.”
The Park City Museum will be closed to the public during Sundance Film Festival from Monday, January 15 through Friday, January 26. Happy film-watching!