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~ars of international marketinq hasestablished Lake Tahoe as a worldclass destination for the wintersports crowd. Nearly 100 moviesand commercials have been filmedhere, but long before slick advertisementsmade the region a household name, therewas Sky Tavem, a small, historic ski area thatwas once one of the most popular resorts inthe West. .The Tavern blossorried., when Keston

and Carlisle Ramsey opened. the resort inDecember 1945. Their goal' was to promotethe many tienefits of skiing hat t y enjoyed:its physical exuberance, emotional releaseand sense of pure freedom. Today the Tavernrepresents the best of what skiing, wintersports and community is all about..Sky Tavern boasts a rich and colorful

history, one that includes appearances bymany Hollywood movie stars, prominentsports celebrities and some of the most notedcontributors to U.S. ski history. In the yearsafter World War II and during the early 1950s,Sky Tavern basked in the spotlight as a chic,intimate resort patronized by some of the mostfamous personalities of the day.Organized skiing in Western Nevada got its

start in 1931 when Washoe County built a skijump and stone warming hut off the MountRose Highway. In f939, local skier Wayne'Poulsen (founder of Squaw Valley USA) and afriend installed a small rope tow on what wasthen called the Mount Rose Bowl. Poulsen'smodest weekend operation was short-lived,however, because Robinson Neeman boughtthe land in 1940. Neeman then hired Renocontractor Keston Ramsey to improve theplace. Ramsey didn't know it at the time, but ina few short years he and his wife Carlisle wouldbecomes owners ofthe fledgling resort.Sever years ago, the now deceased Ramsey

told me that in 1945 Neeman ran into troublewith the mob down in Las Vegas. He fled toReno where he told Ramsey he wanted leavethe area in a hurry, so Ramsey and a partnerpurchased the Mount Rose Bowl for 575,000.Ramsey converted the small on-site cabin intoa rustic, four-story, 21-room hotel, with coffee.shop and bar. When the newly christenedSky Tavern opened for business in December1945, the Nevada State Journal proclaimed ita second Sun Valley, Idaho.Sky Tavern opened as World War II ended,when America's rich and famous were ready

to take up skiing as a sport and lifestyle. Sky

Tavern had a new hater and was less than20 miles from Reno's Hubbard Field airport,making it a short hop, skip and a jump forcelebrities living in Southern California.Sky Tavern had it all: an elaborate T-bar lift,

three rope tows, challenging downhil l runs andtwo full-time employees. The resort's lodgeoffered hearty meals, chilled cocktails, dancingto a jukebox and, as an added Neyada-styleattraction, a small gambling operation run byBill Harrah. The ski area had no electricity(power was supplieSby-a gasoline generator)and all day tickets cost $2.50.The history of th~ Tavern is replete with

Hollywood legends and colorful tales ofyesteryear. Movie stars, prominent SanFrancisco socialites and famous personalitiesflocked to the slopes at Sky Tavern in theyears after World War II. Contemporarycelebrities like Edward Teller, the father of thehydrogen bomb, and actors Rita Hayworth,Ingrid Bergman, Robert Stack and others allfound the Tavern experience exhilarating. Thepioneer radio journalist, Lowell Thomas, wasan ardent skier who performed one his famouslive national news broadcasts from the Tavern.Hollywood movie star Gary Cooper enjoyedvisiting but didn't ski, claiming he had a bumhip. He preferred hunting jackrabbits withKeston in the flats below the mountain.The Tavern was one of those intimate ski

areas where everyone knew everybody else.Once, when Gary Cooper and his wife ' .ereexpected for one 'of their lreq'uent visits,Carlisle Ramsey realized that the hotel wasnearly out of toilet paper. She called herneighbor Frank Leonard down at the GalenaCreek Ranger Station and asked him to sendsome up. Leonard took a few rolls out to thehighway and he flagged down the first carcoming by. He told the driver that the preciouspaper was needed for the Cooper's room at theSky Tavern. As Carlisle tells it, when Cooparrived, he leaned on the lodge's registrationdesk, put down several rolls of bathroomtissue and drawled, I hear y'all need this.Severe winter storms tested the Ramsey'sresolve and endurance, as well as the

patience of guests occasionally isolated at the

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resort. December 1951, baseball great JaeDiMaggio. rented a small cabin at the Tavemas a Christmas present far his ex-wife Darothyand their san Jae. Jr. Slugger DiMaggio. hadbad knees and didn't ski, but he haped that apeaceful weekend in the mauntains might helpreconcile his marital difficulties. Unfartunately,an Christmas Eve, a powerful Pacific cold frontbarreled into. the Sierra dumping snaw by thetoot. Pawer lines snapped, roads were closedand thousands of residents and tourists weretrapped by the stormAt Sky Tavern, DiMaggio. and 70 ather guests

and staff were marooned by 20 faat snawdriftscavering the road, and it made natianal news.-Faad was plentiful, but it took faur days far

the rotary plaw to churn through the massivedrifts an the highway. When it did, Jaltin' Joetald the swarm af reporters, After what I'veseen the last few days, I'm convinced skiersare worse than baseball fans. Same af themwere sleeping in their cars waiting far the road[to. the ski area] to. be apened. They just don't. quit.Over time newer, larger and mare modernski resorts apened around Lake Tahae, andeventually the City of Rena purchased the143-acre Tavern in 1968 for the exclusiveuse af teaching school children haw to ski,and naw snawboard too, In the 1990s,' anAdaptive Skiers Pragram got under way withspecially trained volunteers to serve childrenwith various disabilities. These programs areabout sharing the love af skiing and wintersports with athers less fortunate, somethingthat Keston and Carlisle Ramsey believe in.It is an honorable evalution for the venerableSky Tavern, ance a chic, destinatian resortand now home to a volunteer-based, nanprofitprogram that has enabled three generations afschool children and teenagers the appartunityto be all they can be.Tahoe historian Mark McLaughlin is

nationally published author and professionalspeaker His awardwinning books are availableat local stores or at wwwthestormkingcomYou can reach him at mark@thestormkingcom