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Quick #mininghistory #envhist thread: I'm reading the Gallatin History Quarterly, which includes an article by Theodore Lang & Jerry Stephens about a notable civil engineer in the Bozeman, Montana area: Thomas G. Haggerty. He later helped to develop the Bridger Bowl ski area. 1/7
The article notes a #mininghist beginning for Bridger Bowl, which is the local ski area that I grew up near. Bridger Bowl began with the 1954 donation of leftover mining equipment from the Anaconda Company: a 1500 ft. cable and 8 ft. diameter bull wheels to drive that cable. 2/7
I didn’t expect this connection because Anaconda’s Montana metal mining operations, based around Butte, were a good 100 miles from Bridger Bowl. However, the connection between the skiing industry’s post-WWII development and the mining industry is well established. 3/7
Searching for a way forward (and based in beautiful mountain settings), many former mining towns transformed into ski towns, shifting from an old western extractive economy to a new western outdoor recreation-based economy. Aspen, Breckenridge, & Park City are good examples. 4/7
In this instance, a mining company influenced the development of the ski industry outside of where mining actually happened. I shouldn’t be surprised, though, as many early ski lifts were engineered and built by the same companies that made mining trams to move ore. 5/7
On trams to ski lifts, see journalism like https://www.aspentimes.com/news/willoughby-from-mining-tram-design-to-ski-lift-layout-a-short-schuss/. The best work on trams is Bob Trennert, e.g., https://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/Journal/MHJ-v4-1997-Trennert.pdf. 6/7
On mining towns’ transition to ski towns, see Kristin Smart Rogers’ 2001 article https://digitallibrary.utah.gov/awweb/awarchive?item=34841 & chapter 8 of Hal Rothman’s Devil’s Bargains https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-0910-9.html. #twitterstorians tip: read local historical quarterlies/mags, not just big "professional" journals! 7/7
