While Sun Valley may not be America's first ski area, it's considered the country's first destination ski resort. This cheesy vintage video shows you what the resort looked like about a decade after it opened. 

According to Visit Sun Valley, Union Pacific Railroad's chairman, Averell Harriman hired Count Felix Schaffgotsch of Austria to help find the perfect location for America's next great ski resort. Schaffgotsch toured many places in the Rocky Mountains, but ultimately told Harriman "Among the many attractive spots I have visited, this combines the more delightful features of any place I have seen in the United States, Switzerland, or Austria for a winter ski resort" after visiting Ketchum.

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It was a win, win situation for ski enthusiasts and the railroad, which originally owned Sun Valley Resort. Ketchum had once been a booming mining town, but once the mining operations slowed down, most of Ketchum's population decided to leave too. Once the resort opened in 1936, there was a renewed interest in train trips to the area.

YouTube/PeriscopeFilm
YouTube/PeriscopeFilm
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Union Pacific was also responsible for engineering and installing the world's first chair lifts at Sun Valley. You'll see them in the stills we pulled from this vintage film that we found on YouTube!

It was shared by Periscope Film, a group dedicated to preserving historic 8mm, 16mm and 35 mm films. According to the description they posted on YouTube, this promotional film for Sun Valley was called "Skifully Yours" and was produced by the Ford Motor Company in 1947. Ski pioneer and film producer, Otto Lang, makes an appearance to demonstrate ski skills toward the end of the film.

Ready for a trip back in time? Check out these photos!

You Need to See This Cheesy Vintage Video of Sun Valley, Idaho in the 1940s

An old vintage film uploaded to YouTube takes you back in time to see what the early years at Sun Valley resort looked like. You can watch the full film and read more about how the resort came to be by clicking HERE.

KEEP READING: Do You Remember When Boise Had An Adorable Amusement Park?

Once upon a time, Boise was home to a small amusement park called the Boise Fun Spot. Some generous contributors in the "Boise & the Treasure Valley History" All of Idaho's History group gave us permission to share their family photos of the park! You can learn more about its history HERE.

Eerie Video Shows What's Left of One of Idaho's Most Unique Ghost Towns

The back of one of these historic postcards describes Burke, ID like this "This quaint show-piece of the area’s early-day mining is jammed in a canyon with hardly room for its street, railroad and stream. Shoshone county is one of the world’s great mining regions and has produced over 2 billion dollars - mostly in lead, silver and zinc." Burke's mining operations came to a halt in 1991 and the remaining residents left town. Today, the structures that have survived look like the town that time forgot. Read more about the history of Burke HERE.

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