Sun Valley, ID Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Although these days Sun Valley is the common label for the entire Wood River Valley area – in the center of southern Idaho, 150 miles west of Idaho Falls and east of Boise – technically it is just the name of a ski resort . This was the 1930s brainchild of Union Pacific Railroad chairman Averell Harriman, who, on discovering his railroad was obliged to maintain a passenger service, decided an alpine ski center would be an ideal stimulus to tourism. His scout, Austrian ski champion Count Schaffgotsch, set out to find dry powder snow on open treeless slopes, sheltered by higher mountains and not at too … more »