Beaver Mountain Offers Excellent Skiing and Snowboarding Slopes
Congratulations to Beaver Mountain Ski Area. It now holds the distinction of being the oldest continually owned, family-run ski resort in the entire United States.
The snowy, high-altitude destination in Cache Valley opened in 1938 so that owners Harold and Luella Seeholzer could have a place where their children could enjoy winter recreation. The Seeholzers didn’t initially know that their mountainous land would turn into a business, but it is still going strong 70 years later.
Nowadays, their son, Ted, and his wife, Marge, own the business that retains a family flavor and a personal touch.
“We don’t have millions of corporate dollars to put into our facilities, so we might not be as fancy as all of the larger resorts in the country,” Seeholzer says. “But we know many hundreds of our customers by name – and vice versa. We are a really nice place to get in a good day of skiing.”
Beaver Mountain is a day resort only, meaning that it does not have overnight accommodations. Its main ski season is during the months of December, January, February and March, when a total of 400 inches of snow might fall during an ideal winter.
“We don’t make snow, so we depend entirely on Mother Nature for our business,” Seeholzer says. “Every day of snow is important to us.”
The base of Beaver Mountain is 7,200 feet above sea level, and a total of four ski lifts can take skiers and snowboarders to an elevation as high as 8,600 feet.
“We have a full rental shop for both skiing and boarding, along with a retail and gift shop, a cafeteria and we offer skiing and snowboarding lessons,” she says. “During the summer months, we also rent our lodge to youth groups and family reunions, and also rent some sites for RV camp hookups.”
Seeholzer adds that Beaver Mountain also has an all-volunteer ski patrol made up of 105 men and women.
“An all-volunteer ski patrol is almost a thing of the past, but we always have skiers who patrol the mountain during our operating hours,” she says. “They are volunteers from every walk of life. In fact, in January 2008, we had a farewell dinner for a gentleman lawyer who was on our ski patrol for 50 years.”
More information on Beaver Mountain Ski Area can be found on their interestingly named Web site – www.skithebeav.com.
“I also would like to mention that my daughter, Annette West, and her husband, Jeff, help very much with operating the business, as do our son, Travis, and his wife, Kristy,” Seeholzer says. “They all contribute a lot to the family-friendly atmosphere we strive to provide here.”
