Historic Photo Stories from the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History
For Women’s History Month, let’s look back to some of the leading ladies of the mining town known as Ketchum. In this image we see the grace and elegance of Teresa Parks, Sarah Jane McCoy, and Frances Venable standing in their fur coats in front of the Ketchum Kamp Hotel, sometime between 1926 and 1937. All three of the ladies had moved to Ketchum sometime between 1880 and 1884, and raised their families in the tough conditions of the Wood River Valley during its mining days before Sun Valley existed.
They all witnessed many changes in the Wood River Valley, such as the opening of Sun Valley. Parks would sadly pass in January of 1937, but Venable and McCoy would continue to live in the Wood River Valley until their deaths in 1955 and 1951 respectively. Venable would be known affectionately by locals as Mother V and her home was a favorite meeting place for local youth of the Wood River Valley. The McCoy family ranch is today known as the Reinheimer Ranch and is considered by some as the entrance to Ketchum when driving north.
To find out more about these women and their family stories in the Wood River Valley, visit the Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History.
