Skiing’s past arrives in spring
Ski and Heritage Museum to serve up local history
"I can hardly wait to get some of this over to the
new building."
Museum curator Pat Butterfield
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Gregvig, Northland and Fahlin are hardly names that come
to mind when one thinks of skiing and the boards used to scoot over snow
in winter months, but once upon a time they were commonplace in ski
country.
Near the turn of the 20th century, when Kevlar and
fiberglass were nothing more than pipe dreams, skiing in general was an
entirely different proposition, and skis were more a means of
transportation than play toys.
When the Ketchum-Sun Valley Ski and Heritage Museum opens
the doors of its newly expanded facility in a few months, a tour of
vintage skis—including the aforementioned brands—will be available to
those who seek the archaic knowledge of skiing’s past and the
comprehension of the sport’s evolution through present day.
Including the recent donation of 70 pairs of skis from
Hailey resident Gordon Yates, and a prior donation from Hailey resident
David Elie, the museum has a conservative estimate of 300 pairs of old
skis, curator Pat Butterfield said Thursday.
"It’s probably closer to 400," she said.
A storage room at the museum’s Ketchum Forest Service
Park facilities is overflowing with relics from the past, including a
40-foot-long wall littered with old skis.
Some, dating from the 1880s, sport attached canvas boots
and rounded wooden edges. Other old models are painted white, designed to
match the outfits of Tenth Mountain Division skiers in World Wars I and
II.
More recent models are mounted with metal toe-and-heel
bindings, and metal edges run their lengths.
The attic above the storage room, too, is filled with
old-but-more-modern skis, many of which were also part of Yates’ recent
donation. The brands are more recognizable: Head, Fischer, Hart and
Rossignol.
"I can hardly wait to get some of this over to the
new building," Butterfield said excitedly as she perused the old
gear.
The museum’s new building is on the same property as the
existing museum. It has been undergoing renovations for the past four
months, and is expected to be finished by this spring.
Yates’ donation helped spur the museum to expand its
facilities, Butterfield said. "Without his donation of skis, I don’t
think we would have really had the push to get the other building
done."
When the museum is finished, Butterfield said, antique
skis, boots, bindings and poles will line the walls in chronological
order, and mannequins will model apparel from representative decades.
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The earliest evidence of skiing comes from Scandinavia,
where petroglyphs dating to 6000 B.C. show men skiing. The oldest ski
known, which was found at a Norwegian archaeological site, dates to 2500
B.C.
Modern skis haven’t changed too dramatically in basic
form, only in the quality of construction and materials.
Early American skis were made of wood, and skiers strapped
themselves to the skis using leather straps or canvas that was leftover
from the mines and nailed to the skis’ surface, Butterfield said. Early
miners’ skis were generally eight to 12 feet long and almost an inch
thick.
The early skis were used to move mail and ore, as well as
for general transportation.
The early skis were all handmade, Butterfield said.
By 1900, skiing was catching on, and the first
manufactured skis started hitting the market. Some included metal,
Telemark-style bindings.
"The early European skis were more
sophisticated," Butterfield said. "Metal edges arrived shortly
before World War II. After the war, there was a big technological
change."
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Today’s skis are a world apart from early models, using
carbon fiber construction, high-tech bases, magnetic dampening systems and
cap construction.
But a walk through the past of wooden relics isn’t too
far in the future. The new museum should open this spring.
