Today is Brundage Mountain’s 50th birthday. We first opened for skiing on November 23rd, 1961, 50 years ago today.

We appreciate everyone who contacted us to share their birthday wishes (we don’t feel a day over 40, by the way).

One especially astute friend, Sam Sandmire, brought this to our attention:

The historical photo of Brundage Lodge indicated that it was built in Lardos where our cabin was also built. I’d love to get a coopy of that historical photo. 

A book about the history of Brundage Mountain is now being penned by author Eve Chandler. She offered this excerpt on the topic of the lodge’s origins. It’s just one of the fascinating anecdotes about the early days of Brundage Mountain:

“Warren Brown’s son, Frank, designed and built the ski lodge. Frank modified the A-frame pre-fabricated kit home he was manufacturing. He joined three A-frame structures together, calling it a triad lodge.  “Corey and Dad wanted the A-frame lodge,” Frank said.  “It was a good, inexpensive way of building a lodge.  We built the lodge with the lumberjacks from Brown Tie and Lumber.  I was on-site supervising.  The lumberjacks were perfect for building the lodge because they understood building.”During the summer of 1961, Frank Brown designed and supervised the building of the triad ski lodge at Brundage. Boydstun Archives

“The A-frame was partially manufactured before it was placed on-site.  The original manufacturing building is where Lardo’s Restaurant is now located.  The triad lodge was a three-story building.  The first floor was a partial basement, because it backed up against a hill; the second floor was called the first floor; and the top floor was called the second floor.  Frank said, “We extended out each wing of the A-frame to create the lodge.” The shop for the mechanics was located in the daylight basement as were the restrooms, ski patrol, and ski rental shop.  There was an inside staircase and the first floor had the kitchen and restaurant.  The north wing was the kitchen, and the other two wings were seating for the restaurant.  The seating faced the base area and the lift.  The second floor was small, and it held offices for Corey (Engen) and storage.”

Thanks again to author Eve Chandler for providing this excerpt. We look forward to the publication of her book for more of these great stories!

– April