History of Sun Valley

Warren Miller

Noted ski film producer Warren Miller, while in his early twenties wintered in Sun Valley from 1946–49, first living in a car and small teardrop trailer in the River Run parking lot. Miller would later rent an unheated garage for five dollars per month and sublet floor space to friends to pitch their sleeping bags (at fifty cents per night). One of these friends was Edward Scott, the future inventor of the lightweight aluminum ski pole. This extra cash helped Miller purchase his first rolls of 16 mm movie film, jump-starting his motion picture career. During this time he evolved from ski bum, to ski instructor, to ski filmmaker.

Miller has since traveled and filmed all over the world, but until recent years he continued to return to Sun Valley virtually every year. He has featured Sun Valley in dozens of his annual films, which has helped publicize the Sun Valley region worldwide. His movies still play around the country today.

Bill Janss (1964–77)

After World War II, Harriman focused on his career in government service and the Union Pacific gradually lost interest in the resort. Rail service was discontinued to Ketchum in 1964 and that November the resort was sold to the Janss Investment Company, a major Southern California real estate developer headed by a former Olympic ski team member, Bill Janss (1918–96), founder of Snowmass. (Janss was an alternate on the 1940 team, but the games were cancelled due to the war). The railroad's management had called in the Janss Corporation as consultants and it was determined that it would take a lot of work and no less than $6 million for a face-lifting. The Union Pacific decided to sell and brothers Ed