Jam-packed with inside jokes and local references, “The Great Sun Valley Game Book” is a fantastic glimpse into the culture of Sun Valley and Ketchum in 1981. Featuring games, illustrations, parody songs, and quotes from novelty t-shirts, few items give such a personal perspective into the atmosphere of Sun Valley at the time. As the book’s creators, Sue Parr and Nicki Lee Foster, write in its introduction, “More than just a place, the valley is a way of life and once you’ve come under the spell of its mystique, you’ll never be quite the same again.”
The most prominent section of the game book, appropriately titled “The Great Sun Valley Game”, features a Monopoly-esque game comprised of notable locations across Ketchum and Sun Valley. Bald Mountain prominently takes up the center of the game board, much like its real-life counterpart towers over the skyline of the valley. The game’s instructions, board, and pieces for cutout make up 32 of the book’s 48 pages.
Other games in the book include “What Was It?”, which challenges the player to recognize the many names under which historic Ketchum buildings have been known, and “Saturday Night Survival”, in which players navigate a Chutes-and-Ladders-like board representing the escapades, victories, and pitfalls of a Saturday night out on the town.
All in all, “The Great Sun Valley Game Book” serves as a love letter to the many social establishments around Ketchum and Sun Valley, and the scenes and people that inhabited each of them.
Created by Sue Parr and Nicki Lee Foster, E 1013, Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History
