The Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, California, is one of the largest and most high-concept ski areas in the United States, and was the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. It was the first Winter Olympics to be televised live and attracted millions of viewers.
By 1942 Wayne Poulsen, a former star skier from the University of Nevada, had acquired 2,000 acres (810 ha) in present-day Olympic Valley, California, from the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1946, Poulsen met Alex Cushing, a Harvard University-trained lawyer, with the political connections and access to capital that would make the resort a success. Shortly before opening in 1949, Poulsen and Cushing had a disagreement over the future of the resort. Cushing ended up controlling the Squaw Valley Ski Corporation that brought the 1960 Winter Olympics to Squaw Valley and transformed Lake Tahoe with his vision for the mountain and innovations in the ski industry. Until his death, Cushing was the founder and chairman of Ski Corporation, the parent company of the Squaw Valley resort.
Cushing modeled Squaw Valley after European resorts by putting pools and lodging on the mountain instead of at the base, and by bringing the latest lift technology to the United States.
Though the 1960 Olympics had practically been promised to Innsbruck, Austria, Cushing went to Paris in 1955 with a scale model of his proposed Olympic site and persuaded the International Olympic Committee to choose Squaw Valley.
The Gold Coast Concert Bowl played host to a world-class lineup of music, for the first time since Jerry Garcia Band headlined Bill Graham’s 1991 Summer Music Festival on the magical mountain stage, on July 24-26, 2009.
If you were wondering where on the mountain the Gold Coast Concert Bowl is located, Gold Coast Village is at the top of the gondola. There was no gondola in 1991 that I recall, it was a chairlift that I rode up...and I walked down after the show in the dark!
Jerry performed here on
8/24/91 Jerry Garcia Band
8/25/91 Jerry Garcia Band and David Grisman (acoustic)
There was a gondola in 1991. It was light heartedly known as the ganjala.
ReplyDeleteThe gondola was there but you may have taken a chairlift up. we rode the gondola up and then walked down due to the long wait lines after teh show.
ReplyDeleteI was there. Great weekend. I liked the Eel shows that week even better because I was 21 and there was great music and SO. Much. Nudity. When I lived out west I used to ski Squaw in the Spring. It would take a few hours to ski from the top to the bottom. Great ties.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we most definitely took the gondola up. I have a lot of photos from that weekend. It was a hot show, and the weather were hot.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see your photos, please send to slipnut01@gmail.com
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