Schenck and Prentice - they bet their shirts on skiing

This column is created by the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation and the Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing. Enjoy these fascinating stories about the rich and colorful history of skiing in the Flathead Valley and get ready for Ski Heritage Days on March 16 – 18.

That was then

Ed Schenck told the story of the founding of a ski hill on Big Mountain to Edmund Christopherson for The Saturday Evening Post on March 4, 1950.

Whitefish wanted to be a winter resort. So the citizens pooled their savings and plunged into one of the darnedest community projects Montana has ever seen. It’s paying off too.

George Prentice and I had put $20,000 and eight months of hard labor into building a ski run near the little town of Whitefish, Montana. Three weeks before it was scheduled to open, we’d gladly have traded our investment for two coach tickets back to Great Falls, our hometown, just 225 miles away.

The project was dead broke. Everyone in Whitefish, from our creditors to our stockholders, was fed up with the whole affair. It was a community enterprise, and for nearly a year they’d stayed up nights figuring out how to get a ski development under way, selling stock to meet payrolls and even donating their labor to keep things rolling up on the hill.

When the word went around that there was going to be an indignation meeting at 8 p.m. in the Odd Fellows’ Hall, it looked as if we were really finished. “Anyhow, this is a good place for it to die,” George said in his quiet way, as we slowly climbed the steps to the meeting place over Catron’s Funeral Home.

There must have been nearly 100 townsfolk sitting around the outside of the hall, and they were the quietest, longest-faced chamber-of-commerce crowd I’ve ever seen. When it looked as if everyone was there, I noticed that Shirley Lincoln not only closed the doors, he locked them too.

Right away Brad Seeley, president of the chamber, took over the meeting. But instead of setting the tone for a real gripe session, he started out easy and friendly-like, telling about what real progress had been made up on the mountain, and what skiing was going to do for Whitefish. It sounded the way everyone had talked, back when the ski run was still just a bright idea.

Then suddenly the listeners really began to squirm. As Brad continued, it became clear that they had walked right into the most powerful earnest money-raising session the town had ever seen.

The story continues in a future column.

This is now

Hellroaring Ski Heritage Days 2017 is scheduled for March 16 – 18 and promises to be the biggest and best ever!

Hellroaring Ski Heritage Days was conceived in 2014 as a celebration of Whitefish Mountain Resort’s and the Flathead Valley’s rich and colorful skiing history, and as a fundraising event for the new Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing and the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation.

Here are a few highlights coming in Ski Heritage Days 2017:

On March 17 at 6 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center is the fourth Annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Dinner.

On March 18 events take place all day at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

There is a Ski-A-Thon to raise money for FVSEF or your favorite local nonprofit. All Flathead Valley nonprofits are invited to participate and raise funds for their own organizations.

A Retro Race circa the 1960s with old-style bamboo gates will take place. Vintage equipment and outfits are encouraged.

The Best Vintage Outfit Contest — 1930s through 1990 — will be held with cash prizes awarded.

A reception and ski museum preview will be at 6 p.m. at the Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing.

If anyone has questions or would like more information, please contact Tim Hinderman at tim.hinderman@fvsef.org or 406-885-2730.