STORY AND PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN W. LUNDIN

In the early days of Sun Valley Resort, “you knew pretty much everybody that was here,”

So said Sun Valley developer Averell Harriman’s daughter Kathleen Harriman.

After skiing, she noted, everyone would gather in the Lodge living room with its huge fireplace and comfortable chairs.  You could order tea and sandwiches and the instructors joined you.

On Fridays guests would go to Galena, be taken to the top and ski down in deep power snow.  There were informal parties in the Dollar Cabin during full moons, and “famous parties” at the Roundhouse in the evenings with a band attended by the ski instructors.  When done, you could ride the lift or ski down Bald Mountain from the Roundhouse, although you had to “pass muster” to be allowed to ski, proving that you hadn’t had too much to drink.

There were gambling joints in Ketchum--the Alpine Club and Slavey’s—where Sun Valley visitors could get a steak on a plank for $3.50. And the Christiania attracted the most sophisticated Hollywood gamblers.

Clara Spiegel from Chicago was a regular at Sun Valley after it opened.   She said that in the evenings guests went to Ketchum in sleds pulled by dogs or reindeer.  There was not much there except a couple of saloons, a drug store and a Post Office.  

The Tram, Alpine and Sawtooth Club offered drinking and gambling.  Poker was played in back and there was roulette, black jack and dice in the front.  Slot machines were all over the place.  Many of the guests and locals played for high stakes.

Spiegel remembers seeing sheepherders with large stacks of cash and their sidearms on the tables.  The St. Georg Hotel was a nice place, she said, but it burned down shortly after opening.

In late January 1939, Fortune magazine published a story titled, “Sun Valley: If You Ski...it is a $3,000,000 monument to your pleasure, if you don’t, W. Averell Harriman thinks you probably will.”  The story was condensed in February 1939 in Readers Digest to reach more readers.

“Sun Valley has absorbed some $3,000,000 of Union Pacific’s money,” the article noted.  “It has stables, tennis courts, two ice rinks and two glass-enclosed outdoor swimming pools full of heated water.  It has cutters and dog sledges and snow tractors. It has three ski lifts with a total length of 7,750 feet...There are toboggan runs and ski jumps and slalom courses.  There is a winter staff of 435.  There is a lake and a rodeo stadium and a nine-hole golf course for the summer season.  There are four residence buildings with a capacity of 800.  There is a beauty shop, a barbershop, a movie theater, and a branch of Saks Fifth Avenue. There is even an Eskimo....”

After dinner, the article noted, you could go to Ketchum where there were more gambling houses than private homes.

The Seattle Times on Feb. 4, 194, published a report about the social aspects of life at the resort.  Sun Valley offered limitless amusements and diversions, the reporter wrote:

“This is an entirely different world...a world where the unconquerable spirit  rides in shining splendor on a pair of skis--even after some bad breaks...where, in the pristine glitter of the falling snow, you feel you’re on the slate for the ‘Nutcracker’ ballet - the second act, when the Queen goes to the Snow Country...Sun Valley, the St. Moritz of the North American continent, is anything you want it to be.”

In the Lodge, the article continued you can eat next to the Gary Coopers, whose 3 ½-year-old daughter is already skiing.

“Norma Shearer is here with her two children, as is Claudette Colbert, who will return for a lengthy stay.  A sleigh takes you to Trail Creek Cabin with fires in two huge fireplaces, where an orchestra plays old tunes and a bartender serves warm drinks.

“There is a community sing after dinner and dancing and games. Everyone dances with everyone else and the world dissolves into one big warm friendship.  After a sleigh ride back to the Lodge, some us go to the Christiania, which outrivals any elaborate night club I’ve ever seen, including those in New York, Havana or Honolulu.”

Jack Simpson, who worked with his father Owen at the Sawtooth Club, said in his oral history at The Community Library that Ketchum was wide open when he returned from World War II in 1946.  He taught skiing for Sun Valley, dealt cards at the Sawtooth Club and later worked at the Warm Springs Ranch, now the Warm Springs Preserve.  There were five or six bars offering gambling that were open all night.

In fact, things didn’t really pick in Ketchum until about 11:30 p.m. or midnight when things shut down in Sun Valley.  Then, all the guests and employees at Sun Valley would head to Ketchum and stay there until nearly daylight.

It was a tough sort of group but also involved movie stars. Ketchum was full of movie stars, movie producers and other celebrities. At the time, nobody paid attention to the movie crowd—they were treated just like everyone else.

Every nightclub on Ketchum’s Main Street had to take care of its own problems, especially when the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA) rodeo came to town. After rodeoing during the day, the cowboys partied at night. When they weren’t riding bucking horses or bulldogging, they fought.

One night, Jack witnessed a big fight involving RCA cowboys at the Casino, which to him, “looked like a real movie fight scene but better.”

The New York Times published an article about Sun Valley on Feb. 15, 1948, titled “Wide-Open Idaho, Ketchum Near Sun Valley Revives the Old Wild West.”

While Sun Valley was modern and glitzy, next-door Ketchum was an old time western town where sheepherders and cattlemen mixed with skiers, celebrities and Hollywood stars in the bars, restaurants and gambling dens.

This is the one town in the nation where winter-sports enthusiasts can step nonchalantly from a dog sled, imbibe such tasty Basque dishes as arroz con pollo, chorizos or patatas en salsa verde, and then—well-fortified against the Idaho climate--listen to the clanking of silver dollars in a slot machine, watch a spinning roulette wheel or follow the antics of expertly rolled dice, the article offered.

“The dog sled is a licensed taxi. Basque shepherds come into town when snow sets in and the gaming tables put this tiny town...in a class with Reno. Herders and cowmen mix with resplendent skiers in town.  Ketchum is a magnet for well-heeled vacationists at Sun Valley’s Lodge and Challenger Inn, and the 93-Club attracts many a connoisseur...A score of high spots offer warming beverages of a rather different vintage.”

The town’s emporiums “seek to capture the spirit of rough, tough frontier days with fair success, catering to hardy New York and Los Angeles pioneers,” the article continued. “Western dance music is presented by a bevy of Hollywood girls at the Alpine Club, and the Christiania Club is currently the last word in snow country decor...”

Showing how important the Christiania Club and its manager Dutch Weinbrenner were to Sun Valley, Union Pacific publicist Steve Hannagan told U.P. president Arthur Stoddard in 1949:

“Dutch Weinbrenner, who owned the Christiania Club, is very ill--may not recover.  I am reliably informed that his wife--who is unstable--is heir to the place.  We have a real interest in the Christiania and how it is operated and should keep an eye on it and its developments in case anything happens to Weinbrenner, or if he remains ill..”

In 1947, Idaho law changed to permit the sale of liquor by the drink, but on-site gambling was outlawed.  As gambling ended, slot machines appeared.

From 1947 to 1953, one-armed bandits could be found on the outskirts of Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Garden City.  There were slot machines in the clubs, Sun Valley, even in grocery and drug stores.

The cities of Sun Valley and Ketchum were incorporated in 1947 when the new law gave incorporated areas local option on the sale of liquor by the drink.  The city of Sun Valley had no local taxes--expenses were paid for with slot machine taxes and revenue.

Union Pacific Engineer Ed Seagle, who helped build Sun Valley Resort in 1936 and served on the first Sun Valley City Council, said there were slot machines in the Sun Valley Lodge lobby. The Challenger Inn had 14 slot machines, and there were small portable slot machines guests could take to their rooms.

The resort paid a license fee of $125 per machine to the state and $25 to the county.  Sun Valley had a Games Department that collected revenue from the bowling alley, pool tables, and slot machines that often yielded around $41,000 a month.

Union Pacific’s accounting Department in Omaha did Sun Valley’s accounting.  That office did not know about gambling at the resort and asked how it was possible to earn that much money from the bowling and pool.   General Manager Pat Rogers would only reply, “it’s possible.”  

Ultimately, the Idaho Legislature made slot machines illegal in 1953, and owners faced the option of destroying them or shipping them to Nevada, said Jack Simpson. Many club employees went to Las Vegas.  The Christiania closed, and George Kneeland, Don Siegle and Chuck Atkinson bought the property, opening Atkinsons’ first grocery store in Ketchum.

Today, the Christiania Restaurant and Gold Mine are located on the old Christiania property.

EDITOR'S NOTE: John W. Lundin, a retired lawyer has written several books, including Skiing Sun Valley: Union Pacific to the Holdings.