RESORT HAS RICH HERITAGE.Byline: Richard Irwin Sun Valley's history reflects an American who's who Who’s Who biographical dictionary of notable living people. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 922] See : Fame of influence, wealth and celebrity. Averell Harriman, son of a railroad magnate and a U.S. ambassador and former governor of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , decided to develop America's first destination ski resort. A member of the Union Pacific Railroad's board of directors, Harriman decided a resort such as the St. Moritz St. Moritz (German: Sankt Moritz, Romansh: San Murezzan) is a popular resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. ski resorts in Switzerland would translate into more train passengers. A longtime skier himself, Harriman hired an Austrian count, Felix Schaffgotsch, to search for the perfect location. The count traveled throughout the West and Northwest, but couldn't find an area that met Harriman's exacting standards. Just as Schaffgotsch was ready to abandon his search, he heard about Ketchum, Idaho Ketchum is a city in Blaine County, in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho. The population was 3,003 at the 2000 census. It is in the Wood River Valley, adjacent to Sun Valley; the two communities share many resources and both sit in the same valley beneath Bald Mountain, , an old mining town that was then a center for sheep raising. The count wired Harriman, then Union Pacific's president. Within days of his own arrival, Harriman bought the 4,300-acre Brass Ranch and began building a lodge. To promote his new resort, Harriman hired Steve Hannagan, a public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most genius who had helped turn a Florida sand dune sand dune Hill, mound, or ridge of windblown sand or other loose material such as clay particles. Dunes are commonly associated with desert regions and seacoasts, and there are large areas of dunes in nonglacial parts of Antarctica. into Miami Beach. Hannagan coined the name Sun Valley. The ski resort was built in only seven months at a cost of $1.5 million. The railroad's engineering department designed the chairlift for Sun Valley, the world's first. To attract visitors, Hannagan turned to Hollywood. He flew starlets in for the 1936 opening. They soon were followed by film stars such as Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert. In 1977, R. Earl Holding bought the Sun Valley resort as part of his Little America holdings. He refurbished the Sun Valley Lodge and Sun Valley Inn to their former opulence. |
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