The historic Sun Valley Gun Club found its third new home last week, ensuring that shooting activities will resume next spring. Relocation of the facility comes in light of Sun Valley Co. plans to use a new site on Trail Creek Road, located across the road from Trail Creek Cabin, as the long-term location for a permanent gun club facility.
"The Gun Club visually fits in. If you have to have something out there, this fits in perfect," said Mark Hofman, city of Sun Valley community development director.
The city of Sun Valley granted administrative approval Thursday, Aug. 31, for temporary storage of the Sun Valley Gun Club clubhouse. The city received plans from Sun Valley Co. in August to move the clubhouse and to use another Trail Creek site as the long-term location for a permanent shooting facility. The site is presently used for excavation work in conjunction with Sun Valley Co. construction.
The Sun Valley Planning and Zoning Commission will consider a design review application Tuesday, Sept. 12, for the permanent facility consisting of one skeet field, three trap fields and a sporting clay shooting facility.
"Our hopes are to have the same amenities we have had, plus we would like to have a sporting clay field. At this point we are very optimistic," said Lana Breazeale, Sun Valley Co. director of recreation. She said the company plans to install three trap fields, but given the topography of the land, only one trap field may be feasible.
Activity at the historic facility—previously located northeast of Sun Valley Village along Trail Creek Road—ended in July to make way for a new 9-hole golf course and housing. The facility closed to allow for new development, which is part of Sun Valley's long-term master plan for its vast acreage.
At the time of the closure, no determination was made as to how the historic clubhouse building would be used, or where it might be relocated.
Sun Valley Co. spokesman Jack Sibbach said a shooting facility will likely open in the spring of 2007. And, the historic structure will continue to function as a clubhouse.
"We would encourage preservation ... the Gun Club has a lot of sentimental value," Hofman said.
The club has long been a signature Sun Valley amenity. During Sun Valley's formative years, the Union Pacific-owned resort hosted trap shoots on 14 trap stations located on the south side of Trail Creek, near what is now the Fairways Road side of the resort.
Around 1950, Sun Valley moved cabins off Proctor and Dollar mountains, the nearby ski hills, to the trap range to form the formal clubhouse. The cabins were joined to make the now-historic clubhouse. In the spring of 1964, Sun Valley Co. owner Bill Janss moved the facility to its previous location northeast of Sun Valley Village.
The historic Sun Valley Gun Club was moved last week to a new location farther north on Trail Creek Road, across from Trail Creek Cabin. Photo by Willy Cook
