From woolly mammoth to a Kmart store

Over the span of eight years, Wendolyn Spence Holland spent untold hours buried in the stacks of the Smithsonian Institute, Union Pacific Railroad Museum, Idaho Historical Society, and other august organizations researching the history of the Wood River Valley.

"In time (not quickly enough!) I learned the Taoist principle, ‘The further you go the less you know,’"she writes in the introduction to Sun Valley: An Extraordinary History (Idaho Press: $79).

"I hoped to create a thorough, up-to-date history of the Sun Valley region and place it in the context of the larger American West."

The book is a testament to fine writing, meticulous research and the highest production values.

Hundreds of photographs, posters, advertisements, ancient newspaper reprints, and maps punctuate the book’s 424 pages.

One of its many delights are the author’s clear commentary on the various societal currents at work on the populace. Holland is dedicated to presenting the facts even when, as in the treatment of Chinese immigrants at the hands of the good people of Hailey, they are unfortunate and disquieting.

She goes far beyond the story of the resort and hypothesizes on the role sports play in the valley’s culture.

"Sport influences and is influenced by other elements of the social fabric," she writes. "Sport takes what would commonly be called leisure and creates a source of identity, of belonging, among its participants.

"Sport is also a good lens through which to view American society, particularly in the West, where outdoor activity and tourism have grown to rank among the region’s larger industries.

"In the Wood River Valley, the interplay of regional concerns, environmental factors and local boosterism remain as lively today as they were a century ago."

The saga starts 70 million years ago – five million years before the death of the dinosaurs.

The Idaho Batholith, a large volcanic intrusion covering 15,400 square miles, along with smaller intrusions created the ragged topography of the Sawtooth mountains, rich veins of precious metals and radioactive elements which decayed to form the valley’s extensive hot spring system. The long linear ranges of the Pioneer and Lost River mountains were later created through the line-up of faults.

The earliest Idahoans, nomadic hunters in pursuit of the woolly mammoth and great bison, appeared approximately 14,000 years ago. More modern indigenous peoples, the Shoshoni-Bannock, migrated in and out of the area starting about 1,000 years ago.

From a comprehensive history of the "Indian experience" in southern Idaho including sections on Fort Hall, the Oregon Trail, the Sheepeater Campaign, and the internment of tribes on reservations, Holland moves on to the mining boom (1879-1892), the impact of the railroad (1883-1892), the area’s economic shift from silver to sheep (1892-1935), to the story of W. Averell Harriman and the creation of the resort (1931-1936).

Harriman’s life, career and politics are presented in a fresh intriguing manner. Not only do we learn he had never skied before he built the Sun Valley resort, we also learn about his marriages, peccadilloes, and uneasy relationship with Count Felix Schaffgotsch whom he had hired to find the spot for his Sun Valley.

Side stories on the history of skiing, public relations maven Steve Hannagan, the Duchin family and Harriman daughter Marie’s affair with Eddy Duchin, make for interesting reading.

Sections on the Austrian ski instructors are fascinating (especially Hans Hauser and the notorious Virginia Hill Hauser) as are the details of the resort as the Naval Convalescent Hospital during World War II, Nazi-sympathizers among ski school personnel, and Charles "Minnie" Doles’ creation of what became the Tenth Mountain Division– skiers for mountain warfare.

Postwar, the new celebrities are stressed including Lucy and Desi Arnez and Marilyn Monroe. Holland details the founding of many modern day Idaho and Sun Valley institutions such as the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory, the Wood River Medical Center, the Community Library, and the Casino.

Plenty of space is dedicated to the passing of the mantle from Harriman to Bill Janss and Janss’ innovations at the resort.

The final chapter "Enduring Changes" (1977-Present) talks about how the natural exodus from crowded and deteriorated metropolitan areas to the valley has revitalized the local economy.

"A growing and empowered middle class now drives the Valley’s real estate market," Holland states. "Businesses, residents and vacationers now consider Hailey the most growth-oriented community in the area."

Capital improvements with resort ownership in the hands of Earl Holding, cultural tourism, and "Clint, Arnold, Bruce and Yoko," vie for space in the epilogue.

The proposal by sometime resident Eliot Caplow to construct a Kmart discount store wraps it up with the author’s commentary on growth, hillside building, transportation, ecology, the environment, Picabo Street and J. Crew.