Treasure Mountains News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

In 1946, Otto Carpenter and Bob Burns opened Snow Park, Park City's first alpine ski area.

It was O-Dark-30 as the patrollers climbed on board a shiny gondola cabin at the base of the new Treasure Mountains ski area. Coffee in hand, plus a copy of the day's Salt Lake Tribune newspaper to while away the time, they settled in for the long ride to the top of the ridgeline — 11 minutes to the angle station, another 11 more to the summit.

Treasure Mountains officially opened to the public at 9 a.m. on Dec. 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.”

By Dec. 21, only 60% of the cars on the gondola from the base to the angle station and then on up to the Summit House would be installed.

In an essay called “The Hidden Life of a Miner,” Park City historian Gary Kimball recalled overhearing a couple standing outside his home on Woodside Avenue. The woman was studying a huge steel tower looming in Kimball’s yard, a rusting remnant of the Silver King Mine’s 1901 aerial tramway.