The Austrian Who Found Sun Valley
Near Sun Valley, Idaho
Before there was a resort at Sun Valley, there was a search. In the winter of nineteen thirty-five to nineteen thirty-six, Averell Harriman hired an Austrian sportsman named Count Felix Schaffgotsche to travel across the American West and find the right location for a world-class ski destination. The Count was a skier and a man of leisure with an eye for mountain terrain, and he was methodical about the task.
Schaffgotsche toured mountain range after mountain range: Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Yosemite, the San Bernardino Mountains, Zion National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, ranges in Utah, and Jackson Hole in Wyoming. He was looking for a specific combination: adequate snowfall, abundant sunshine, a mountain with significant vertical rise at a moderate enough elevation that guests could breathe comfortably, absence of wind, and close proximity to a Union Pacific rail line, since Harriman intended to bring paying passengers from his trains. Late in the search, nearly ready to declare the mission a failure, Schaffgotsche backtracked toward Ketchum on the suggestion of a Union Pacific employee who had mentioned a rail spur to the valley.
He skied Bald Mountain. He was satisfied. He sent his report to Harriman, who approved the location.
Construction began in the spring of nineteen thirty-six. The resort opened that December. The whole project, from the Count's first schuss on Baldy to opening day, took less than a year.
