In 1950 in Whitefish, you could rent a two-bedroom cottage for $30 a month. Day passes on the T-bar dipped as low as $1.25. The Big Mountain could barely get a line of credit with most merchants in town.

Racers at the 1949 US National Ski Championships

First “Doug Smith Ski Race” on T-Bar Main Slope, circa 1948

Reid Sabin on vintage tele-gear in 2014 Retro Race

Ed Schenck and son Karl in early-day Tucker Snow Cat

Ed Schenck at the top of the T-Bar lift.

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.

With the opening of The Big Mountain on December 14, 1947, the Ski Patrol of the Whitefish Lake Ski Club made its first public appearance