Sun Valley Has Been Quietly Hosting America's Old Money Since the 1930s

Long before Aspen or Vail existed as ski destinations, a railroad executive built Sun Valley from nothing in the Idaho mountains, and the small resort town has spent nine decades since quietly holding onto a wealthy, low-key crowd that most of America's other resort towns eventually traded for volume.

Built by a railroad, not a ski company

Sun Valley was the creation of W. Averell Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, who wanted a destination glamorous enough to fill his trains during the Depression. Opened in 1936, it is generally credited as America's first purpose-built destination ski resort, and its Sun Valley Lodge became an immediate draw for a wealthy East Coast crowd that Harriman specifically courted through the railroad's own publicity machine.

Hemingway made it a literary address, not just a ski one

Ernest Hemingway first came to Sun Valley in 1939, lured by the resort's own publicists, and finished For Whom the Bell Tolls in Suite 206 of the lodge. He kept returning for two decades before making the area his final home in 1958 outside Ketchum, and is buried in the town's cemetery, a fact that still draws literary pilgrims to a place most visitors associate purely with skiing.

Where the billionaires actually meet

Since 1983, investment bank Allen & Company has run an invitation-only media and business conference at Sun Valley Lodge each July, informally nicknamed the "summer camp for billionaires" by the press that gathers outside its gates. Attendees have included some of the most prominent names in technology, media and finance, and the conference is widely credited with helping broker major corporate deals over the decades, made easier by the resort's remove from both coasts.

Traveller tips

• Friedman Memorial Airport in nearby Hailey is the main gateway, with seasonal direct flights from several major US cities.
• Sun Valley Lodge remains open to the public year-round; the Allen & Company conference in July is the one week the town's profile spikes nationally.
• Hemingway's grave and memorial in Ketchum's cemetery are open to visitors and require no advance booking.
• Winter (December to March) is peak ski season; summer draws a quieter crowd for hiking, fly-fishing and the Sun Valley Music Festival.