Moscow Mountain Ski Area

Moscow Mountain Ski Area near Troy, Idaho, opened on New Year's Day 1966 on the east slope of East Moscow Mountain, about six miles north of Troy and 18 miles from the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. People in Moscow and Pullman had wanted a nearby winter recreation area for years, and surveys of sites within 50 miles of Moscow had picked this slope as the best bet. A nonprofit Moscow Mountain Ski Association formed in 1962 to line up leases and local backing. The Latah County Historical Society credits Ken Hungerford, a university wildlife professor who had studied snowpack records with his students, with leading the effort. To qualify for a Small Business Administration loan, the backers set up a for-profit Moscow Mountain Ski Corporation to build and run the hill.

The area sat on 188 acres leased from the State of Idaho and the village of Troy. It had a 2,000-foot Swiss-built Buehler T-bar rising from about 3,700 to 4,280 feet, an 800-foot rope tow for beginners, a rental shop, a lunch counter and a three-story A-frame lodge roofed in cedar shakes. There were no power lines, so a diesel generator ran the place, and miles of road had to be plowed. Volunteers, many from the university, trained in first aid and formed the ski patrol, and a bus carried skiers up from a drugstore in Moscow. In the fall of 1966, after one partial season, the area took the name Tamarack Ski Area, the winning entry in a contest to rename it. The Moscow Mt. patch dates from the first name.

Snow was the problem. The hill was low for the region, and good winters paid the bills while thin ones lost money. The original corporation went under around 1970 and defaulted on its loan in 1971, the area passed through a string of owners, and the student government at the university twice looked at buying it, in 1971 and again in 1984, without acting. By 1984 the lodge had sat empty for several winters. An attempt to revive it was reported in 1986, and in January 1990 the city of Troy, which owned the land, barred an opening because the insurance fell short.

In 1992 the county put the lodge and equipment up for auction over back taxes and found no buyer at the minimum bid. The city of Troy sold the T-bar to the ski club at Cottonwood Butte, another small Idaho hill. The A-frame was torn down and its foundation removed. The old parking lot is still used by hikers, skiers and mountain bikers heading onto Moscow Mountain.