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Snow King Mountain Resort History
2015
The 35-year old Rafferty lift is replaced with a Doppelmayr fixed grip quad. The Cowboy Coaster opens to the public, the Treetop Adventure and two new base lodges are built.
2014
Snow King Mountain Recreations is formed to separate mountain operations from the real estate holdings. Max C. Chapman, Jr takes over as president.
2012
Snow King Resort sells The Snow King Hotel and Grand View Lodge properties to JMI Realty. Snow King Mountain becomes its own business entity with mountain operations and real estate holdings
2010
Pre-Winter Olympic Training at Snow King, U.S and French women’s ski teams
2002
Pre-Winter Olympic Training at Snow King (8 international ski teams, many medaled).
1998
King’s Tubes (tubing hill) opens.
1996
Jackson Hole Ski Club hosts regional race teams pre-season invitationals
1994
The Cougar triple chairlift opens; 1,200 riders per hour.
1993
Snow King Center (ski center and ice rink) opens and the old ski shelter demolished.
1989
The Jackson Hole community celebrates the 50th anniversary of Snow King.
1981
A new Summit Lift is constructed.
1979
Snow King Resort is formed combining the Snow King Inn and Snow King ski area with Manuel Lopez as general manager.
1978
Rafferty lift constructed on east slope of Snow King; land leased to Western Slide Corporation to build and operate a summer slide.
1976
The Ramada Snow King Inn (now the Snow King Resort Hotel), built by Western Standard, opens in its current location.
1974
Neil Rafferty retires
1971
Western Standard Corporation of Riverton, Wyoming, purchases the Snow King ski area operation along with 60 acres at the base of the mountain, and secures a lease from the town of Jackson on 27 contiguous acres on the mountain, and a 20-year Forest Service lease on the Snow King ski and recreational area (approximately 375 acres)
1959
The new Summit Double chairlift opens.
1958
The Winter Sports Association begins working to upgrade the single chairlift to a double chair. The old cable is replaced with an 8,800-pound track cable and a new break-over tower is constructed for unloading the double chairs.
1949
Single chairlift carries 8,500 people to the top of Snow King during the 1948 – 1949 season.
1947
Wyoming’s first Single chairlift opens (January 7).
1946
The Jackson Hole Winter Sports Association is formed. The association raises $40,000 from local investors, buys an old tramway from a gold mining operation near Salida, Colorado, and hires a Denver contractor to construct a lift from it. In its first full year of operation more than 8,500 people ride the lift to the top of the mountain.
1940
Old Man’s Flats rope tow, first cable tow on Snow King, opens; Neil Rafferty becomes part-time lift operator.
1939
The cable, used to power the uphill tow, was bought used from an oil drilling company in Casper, Wyoming. The work crew ran the cable through a narrow cut in the forest up the west side of the ski area, all powered by an old Ford tractor.
1938
Ski area name changed to “Snow King.”
1937
Mountaineer and skier Fred Brown helps begin the Jackson Hole Ski Association and becomes the first president of the Jackson Hole Ski Club.
1936
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructs a horse and hiking trail to the top of Snow King for the Forest Service, making the first of many physical changes to the hill to facilitate recreational use. The CCC trail became the first “official” ski run on the mountain.
1932
Town hill named the “Ruth Hanna Simms Ski Hill” in honor of local resident who donated money to build a ski jump.
1926
Mike O’Neil builds a ski jump on Jackson’s “Town Hill”.
1920s
Skiers began hiking up the mountain – sometimes called Kelly’s Hill or simply “the town hill”- and enjoying the steep downhill run.