ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All photographs and illustrations, unless otherwise noted, are in the author’s collection housed in the California Ski Library. Many of these photographs are due to the generosity of a number of Southern California skiers and their families. My utmost thanks to:

Craig Van Degrift, son of Ethel Van Degrift, for his mother’s incomparable archive.

Aileen Spiller, for Cecil Charles’s photograph collection.

Claudia Benedikter Pedersen, for Sepp Benedikter’s archive.

Jamie Lewis, daughter of Elmar Baxter, for her father’s photograph collection.

Posthumously to Wolfgang Lert for his extensive photographic archive.

A number of other individuals made valuable contributions to the rich history of Southern California’s lost ski areas:

Many thanks to Aubrie Koenig, commissioning editor at The History Press, for her guidance and suggestions throughout the development of this book.

Special thanks to Bev Brown, owner with husband Kerry of Rim Nordic Ski Area, and longtime mountain resident. Bev knows everyone and is an invaluable resource for tracking down people, information and photographs.

Thank you to Peter Brueggeman for his assistance with the history of Palomar Mountain Ski Area.

Ray Ransom generously provided photographs of the installation of Snow Forest’s triple chairlift in 1981–82.

Thank you to Randy Pattison, former owner of Trinity Mountain Resort in Green Valley Lake, for insight into his personal history of the area.

Thank you to Carol Meyers of the San Diego History Center for help locating and access to photographs of Palomar Mountain Ski Area.

A special thank-you to Chuck Morse for his archive of Ski Villa memorabilia.

Thank you to Russ Keller, Lake Arrowhead historian, for access to his photograph collection and use of Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl photographs.

Thanks to Rick Metcalf for providing key information about Kratka Ridge since his purchase of the area.

Special thanks to Tom Preston for details about his family’s O’Ongo Ski Tows.

Heartfelt thanks to longtime Wrightwood resident and historian Barbara Van Houten. She is an invaluable resource for all things Wrightwood and Big Pines.

Thanks to Douglas H. Milburn, U.S. Forest Service archaeologist for the Angeles National Forest, for his assistance with the early history of Table Mountain.

Many thanks to Karen Wullich Herbst for use of her historic San Diego Ski Club photographs and information about her mother, Dorothy McClung Wullich, first female member of the National Ski Patrol.

Thank you to Ann Dormer Johnson, daughter of Harlow Dormer, for use of her rare and extraordinary Table Mountain photographs.

Thank you to Lena Zimmerschied, public affairs manager for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, for help regarding the history of the rope tow at Mountain Station.

Thanks to Bob Smith of the Idyllwild Area Historical Society for photographs of Halona Hill.

I am indebted to Randy Thompson, senior archivist at the National Archives at Riverside, and his staff for their invaluable help accessing the San Bernardino National Forest archives.

Special thanks to Peg Wubben Weiler for access to her Uncle Bob Wubben’s photographs of his historic Green Valley Lake ski tows.

I am indebted to Ray Hensley and the rest of the Hensley family for sharing their amazing thirty-three-year involvement in the history of Kratka Ridge. Thank you for the special meeting with the entire Hensley family and for access to the Hensley family Kratka Ridge archive.

Special thanks to Jill Salm Walker, daughter of Les Salm, for access to his remarkable Forest Service photo albums and Lake Arrowhead fire service daybooks. These lent many important new historical facts to Southern California ski history.

Last, a most special thank-you to ski historian extraordinaire and fellow ski book collector Doug Pfeiffer. From the beginning of work on my first book in 1999, Doug has been a most kind and generous mentor, always willing to provide suggestions, ideas, encouragement and humor. More importantly, I count him as a dear friend. Thanks, Doug.