Hills mined for resorts

The Canyons: The resort, then called Park City West, opened in 1968 with three double-chair lifts and four rope tows and an uphill capacity of 3,300 skiers per hour. The name change to ParkWest came with the sale of the resort in 1975. Four years later, the resort opened the doors to the ski industry by being the first to allow telemark skiers on its slopes. In 1995, the resort was sold and once again the name was changed — to Wolf Mountain. This was also the year that the resort became the first in Park City to allow snowboarders. The real growth came in 1997, when the American Skiing Company purchased the resort and changed the name, again, to The Canyons.

Deer Valley: Deer Valley officially opened in 1981, but its history actually goes back into the 1940s. Bob Burns and Otto Carpenter opened Snow Park with a single "T-bar" on Deer Valley land, then added a chairlift back in 1949. The vision of Deer Valley belongs to Edgar Stern, who at one time was an owner in Park City Mountain Resort. Stern set out to build an upscale resort and did just that, introducing many new services other resorts have now adopted. These include fine dining, guest service attendants to help guests unload skis, limited lift ticket sales (no more than 6,000 tickets sold per day), parking lot shuttle, complimentary ski check and a state-licensed child care center.

Park City Mountain Resort: It was in the winter of 1963 that Treasure Mountain Ski Area — Park City Mountain Resort's precursor — opened, boasting America's longest gondola, a double chairlift and two J-bar tows. The lifts served 18 miles of skiing terrain and transformed Park City from a silver mining town gone bust to the beginning of the premiere resort it is today. The local newspaper proclaimed the event a "new rich lode — one of recreation — to the storied community of Park City which was the West's mining capital some 65 years ago." The resort was also one of the first in Utah to introduce the new high-speed lifts and was the first to have a six-passenger high-speed lift.

Powder Mountain: Frederick James Cobabe herded sheep on the summer ranges around Grand Targhee in Idaho. When Targhee became a national forest, he had to move to land around Powder Mountain. In 1948 Cobabe's son, Alvin, purchased the land. While riding horses in the 1950s, a friend suggested his high-mountain land would make a great ski area. He liked the idea and started to acquire adjacent land. By 1972, when Powder Mountain opened, Alvin Cobabe owned approximately 14,000 acres.