Kristine Bretall, Wood River Museum Community Engagement Manager
December of 1937 brought Santa and his ‘reindeer’ to Sun Valley’s Challenger Inn for the first time (and the last time for the reindeer)! Sun Valley’s opening season was the 1936-1937 winter season, and when the resort closed in April of 1937 for spring, the resort addressed some key needs for their guests: more entertainment options for winter and summer, and of critical importance, a more affordable option for lodging and dining.
The summer of 1937 meant a building frenzy around the resort. On the building schedule were: a movie theater to be named the Opera House, a rodeo grounds with grandstands along Sun Valley Road that could set 11,000 spectators, the moving of the Proctor Mountain J-Bar, and rebuilding it on Ruud Mountain as a chair lift, and most importantly, the Challenger Inn with accommodations for another 400 guests, the Continental Room – a cafeteria style dining option, The Ram Bar, a General Store and a Camera Shop. All of these new amenities opened on December 21, 1937.
Never one to shy away from making a splash and finding ways to make headlines with catchy photos, the Union Pacific audaciously imported “reindeer” (actually Alaskan caribou) to provide picturesque rides for guests in sleighs and to transport Santa Claus. The reality on the ground was complicated, the caribou wouldn’t eat the hay provided, necessitating importing of lichens and mosses, and also, they were not eager participants in the reindeer games. After a few incidents, including a bit of an attack on Santa’s backside, the reindeer were returned to their homeland.
Sleigh rides continued with more happily domesticated horses at times picking up guests from the train station, bringing guests into the bars and gambling houses in Ketchum and to this day shuttle guests out to Trail Creek Cabin for a cozy dinner in the hunting style lodge first envisioned by Averell Harriman and enjoyed by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Claudette Colbert and Ingrid Bergman over the years.
Note this story was originally published in January of 2026 in the Idaho Mountain Express.
