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Glory days of Purg

Reunion of ski area old-timers sets stage for 50-year event

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ann Butler’s mother, Kathy Butler, ran the accounting department for Purgatory Ski Area from January 1966, a month after it opened, until 1982. As a girl, Ann Butler helped process ski passes, sell tickets and run the summer switchboard, making her a Purgatory employee in those early years as well.

By Ann Butler

Herald Staff Writer

They have ski runs named after them and are icons of the local ski community, but when the people who worked at Purgatory Ski Area in its earliest days gathered Tuesday night at Silver Pick Lodge for a reunion, they became, for a moment, young people remembering a great adventure.

“Those are some of my fondest memories,” said Sam Hoffman, who, although not officially on the payroll, was responsible for a lot of the area’s promotion in Phoenix. “I would visit all the ski clubs with Warren Miller films to make them salivate, then tell them about Purgatory. And every single weekend, I’d bring up a big cargo van with 12 or 15 people, and (Chester “Chet” Anderson, the first general manager) would have seven tickets waiting for me at the ticket office. And it was informal, all on a handshake.”

Those were the days all right – gas was 33 cents a gallon, he said, unless you had to buy it in Kayenta, Arizona, where it was 36 cents.

“I was peripheral in Purgatory’s golden years,” Hoffman said, “but they were some of the best years of my life.”

The attendees, more than 200 of them, were photographed in groups depending on what their jobs were: Ski Patrol, ski school, combined with the early Dave Spencer Adaptive Sports, rental shop, lifts, food, beverage and bar, ground maintenance and parking lots, the child care center and administration, marketing, sales and retail.

Among them were several people who have been inducted into Durango’s Winter Sports Hall of Fame, including Anderson, three-time Olympian Mike Elliott, longtime coach and guest services guru Dolph Kuss (the first inductee) and Richard Flock. Founder Raymond Duncan wasn’t able to attend, but there were more than a few “Ray stories” floating around.

“None that I’d want to see in print,” said one of the attendees, who preferred to remain anonymous, with a grin.

The invitations went out to people who had been involved with Purgatory from 1964, when the financing was being assembled to 1980, “when it was still about skiing, Kuss said.”

The official 50th celebration in December 2015 will mark the first opening day, but as far as the folks at the event Tuesday were concerned, the celebration has now started.

George Usinowicz, who also worked at the ski area in those early years, is finishing a degree at Fort Lewis College. His project is assembling the “Purgatory Collection” for the Center of Southwest Studies, in honor of the area’s 50th.

“It was a little slow until this reunion came up,” he said, “But then about 1,200 images came flooding in. Now I’m getting some really good stuff, and I think the exhibit is going to be great.”

Maybe not as great as the memories, though, if the smiles and hugs at the reunion are any indicator.

abutler@durangoherald.com

To donate

The Center of Southwest Studies is creating a “Purgatory Collection,” in honor of the ski area’s 50th anniversary, which will take place in December 2015. George Usinowicz is gathering photos, posters, memorabilia and artifacts for preservation. They can be donated or lent on a long-term basis, and they will be stored in a secure, climate-controlled environment and made available for research by the public and scholars.

Email Usinowicz at gusinowicz@fortlewis.edu or call him at 749-2602 for more information.



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