How in the World Did You Get to Sun Valley?

Siegfried “Sigi” Engl
came to Sun Valley from Kitzbuhel, Austria, in 1939.

The son of a stonemason, Sigi Engl became a star skier in the Tyrolean Alps—but he was drawn to the United States as pressure mounted in Austria leading up to World War II. Sigi made his way to Sun Valley, then returned to Europe as a member of the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division. He then came back to Sun Valley, where he had met and married Peggy Scott.

For two decades, Sigi (second from left), led the Sun Valley Ski School and shaped the alpine culture of the new Sun Valley Resort. He also loved teaching tennis and playing the accordion.

Helen Murdoch Fassett
came from New York City in 1938.

Helen was an adventurous New York actor who became smitten with Sun Valley’s combination of glamour and stunning natural landscapes. She came west with her actor husband and their son.

The following year, they bought land. Their ranch on the Big Wood River was a retreat from the demands of their busy lives on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Helen loved living alongside the river. She was forward-thinking , and in 1982, donated fifty-five acres for a preserve. Today, the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands manages River’s Edge Ranch. Photo: Helen with her husband, Jay Fassett, at River’s Edge Ranch, 1940.

Chuck Ferries
moved to Sun Valley in 1976.

Chuck started ski racing at age seven and he quickly excelled. He made a mark at Junior Nationals. By age 16, he was dreaming of bigger terrain than Michigan offered, so he ran away from home and took the train to Sun Valley. Finding no snow, he moved to Alta, Aspen, and Seattle—but after a fierce racing career, he followed through on his dream and returned to Sun Valley to live.

Chuck competed in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics; won the Austrian Hahnenkamm Slalom in 1962; developed the PRE Ski; and became the owner of Scott USA.

Gretchen Kunigk Fraser
came to Sun Valley from Tacoma, Washington, in 1938.

Ten years after her first race in Sun Valley, Gretchen competed in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. She became the first American to win gold in alpine skiing.

At age 19, Gretchen came to Sun Valley ready to race, having trained for years at Mount Rainier. Here she competed in the second Harriman Cup, a world-class event. She won second place in the Combined Alpine to Grace Carter’s first.

She ultimately made a home for herself in Sun Valley with her ski-racing husband, Don Fraser. She mentored female ski racers, worked with Paralympians, and served as an ambassador for Sun Valley and alpine skiing.

Photo: Gretchen receiving her gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland,.

Roberta Brass Garrettson
arrived in Ketchum from Caldwell, Idaho in 1913.

Roberta was just a baby when her family moved from the sagebrush town of Caldwell in southwest Idaho to the Brass Ranch between the Pioneer and Smoky Mountains around Ketchum. On the mountain ranch, she fell in love with horses and became a skilled rider.

Photo right: Roberta was the first “Queen of the Sun Valley Rodeo.” In 1936, when she was 23, Union Pacific Railroad purchased the Brass Ranch as the foundation for the Sun Valley Resort.

Photo below: Roberta leather vest with fringe, as seen in the exhibit.

Albert Griffith
arrived in Ketchum from the Montana Territory in 1879.

Young Albert Griffith was restless with prospecting fever. He journeyed from Wisconsin to the Montana Territory where he worked in mines and met banker Isaac Lewis. Together they crossed rugged country for the promise of silver in the Wood River Valley.

Enroute, Albert likely traded for the buffalo hides that he later had made into a coat. The furs kept him warm through Ketchum’s cold winters.

Albert married and had two sons. His oldest joined him in mining. Together they worked with a crew at Dollarhide Mine.

Photo left: Albert’s coat, made from buffalo hide, helped keep him warn in the Ketchum winters.

Sonya Klopfer Dunfield
arrived from New Jersey in 1974.

Sonya and her husband, Peter, were accomplished figure skating coaches in New York City when Sun Valley’s skating director, Herman Maricich, came calling.

The couple told Herman that Sun Valley needed an ice rink before they could accept his offer. By 1974, the promised rink was ready. After the Dunfields arrived, the Summer Skating School and Saturday night shows bloomed.

As a coach, Sonya shaped the development of many young skaters, elevating their abilities and their love of the sport. Among the skaters she trained was Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill.

Top photo: Sonya (back row, far right) with students, Sun Valley, c. 1975.

Bottom photo: Skaters and coaches use this “tool “scribe” to practice compulsory figures.

Maria Epifania “Epi” Inchausti
arrived in Challis from Ibarrangelu, Spain in 1929.

Epi had been married for four years and was raising a young daughter in the Basque region of Spain before she reunited with her husband, David, in Idaho. He had begun working in the sheepherding business, and they made a home in Challis.

Eventually, they stopped ranching, moved to Hailey, and opened the Gem Bar and a boarding house. After he husband died, Epi made ends meet by cooking dinners that became legendary.

Epi’s delicious Basque food drew fans from far and wide, including Ernest and Mary Hemingway, Gary and Rocky Cooper, and Colonel Sanders of KFC.

Top photo: Epi is seated second from left with with her family.

Bottom photo: Epi’s cooking pot, featured in the exhibit.

Wah Kee Lea
arrived in 1880s, most likely from San Francisco.

Wah’s portrait – taken in Hailey between 1880 and 1890 during the silver mining boom – is the only clue to his presence in the Wood River Valley.

Details of his life are unknown. Did he come like many other Chinese immigrants from the densely populated southern region of Guangdong province? Did he work as a miner, or was he a cook, laundry worker, small farmer, doctor, or restaurant owner?

We do know that early in the silver boom of the 1880s, more than 150 Chinese residents lived in the area. But political pressure turned against them.

Photo: The Hailey Anti-Chinese League ran a notice in the Daily Inter-Idaho newspaper urging a “boycott of all persons employing Chinamen in any capacity.” May 6, 1996

Hap Miller
arrived from St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1936.

Piano player Hap Miller came to Sun Valley with the jazzy Harl Smith Orchestra one week before the Sun Valley Resort opened. The group was an essential ingredient in the resort’s success. Known as the “biggest little band in the world,” the orchestra swung every day from four o’clock in the afternoon into the early morning hours. They kept the party going at Sun Valley’s winter wonderland.

Hap later led the group, which became the Hap Miller Band, and continued playing swing music and popular show tunes. They were a lively presence and a big draw for Sun Valley visitors during the 1950s and 1960s.

Top photo: Hap (second from the right) with members of the Hap Miller Orchestra, Sun Valley Lodge dining room, New Year’s Eve, 1953.

Bottom photo: It Happened in Sun Valley LP. Recorded live in the Duchin Room at Sun Valley Lodge, this album features twenty-five of the guests’ favorite songs. Led by Hap Miller, the orchestra provided the soundtrack feeling as if you were there.
Stanal Records, Judy Grisby Collection

Jeanne Rodger Lane Moritz
moved to Sun Valley from Chicago in 1945.

In 1955, Jeanne and sixteen other women founded The Community Library Association as an independent library. They opened the Gold Mine Thrift Store to fund it—a legacy that continues to today.

Jeanne grew up in Chicago in a prominent family. When she was a teenager, executives from Union Pacific Railroad invited her family to visit the new Sun Valley Resort. Here, she fell in love with a local fellow, Pete Lane.

Jeanne and Pete married in 1942. Their wedding gifts suggest the start to a big-city life. But they soon embarked on a different path, moving to Idaho, where Pete managed the Village General Store.

Charles Proctor
arrived from Boston in 1936.

Charlie Proctor’s success as a competitive skier was his ticket to Sun Valley. He won many medals and was coaching skiing at Harvard when W. Averill Harriman recruited him to develop the new Sun Valley ski area.

His arrival in Sun Valley on March 25th was the same day Harriman finalized the purchase of property for the resort. Charles trained the first local ski instructors, designed the location for lifts and ski runs, and advocated for mechanical chair lifts.

Together with Harriman, mapped the ski runs on Proctor, Ruud, and Dollar Mountains. He went on to manage Badger Pass Ski Area in California. He returned to Sun Valley often with his family of skiers.

Photo: Charles and family (left to right: Charles, Mary, Nancy, Peggy, and Bill) Sun Valley, 1955.

Juan Salamanca
arrived from Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1994.

Juan grew up in Zacatecas, Mexico. His family valued education and he traveled to Mexico City for elementary school. As a teenager, he moved to Las Vegas with his cousin and to go to school in the United States. Juan’s sister had settled in Hailey. After years of living apart, Juan and his parents joined her here.

Juan earned bachelors and master’s degrees in education from Boise State University. For nearly two decades, he has been an esteemed elementary school teacher and soccer coach in the Wood River Valley.

Photo: Ron celebrates his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary with his extended family, Hailey, 2020.

Rosmery Serva
arrived from Huancayo, Peru, in 2016.

Just before her 22nd birthday, Rosmery left her home in the Andes Mountains for Idaho. Her father had come to the United States to work before she was even born. Her mother came was Rosmery was thirteen.

Rosmery was torn between staying to attend college in Peru or following her mother to the States. The pull of family was stronger. Before leaving her hometown for a new life in Idaho, she brought a pair of leopard-print pajamas. They still provide comfort and a reminder of her hometown.

Photo: Rosmery (second row, seconds from right) celebrating her birthday with extended family, 2016.

Mitsuru Takahashi
arrived at Minidoka from Seattle in 1942.

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Photo: Mindoka interment camp