The Spirit of Ski Tur Valley

When they acquired their cabin building site in Ski Tur Valley in the fall of 1967, things didn't turn out exactly as they envisioned. Jim and Louise Bennett and their five children thought they were going to build a simple, uncomplicated, leisurely, and totally carefree retreat in the mountains. Most their Valley neighbors felt the same way. But in fact, what they really acquired was forty years of beauty, adventure, excitement and testing. The vision of having a cabin in the mountains was exciting and compelling, but what they actually experienced turned out to be far more so.

There were no phones, no power with television and computers, and only seasonal river water when they built their Castle in the Mountain. In the cold of winter it was two miles over snow just to get to their cabin from their parked car and back.

They experienced this wilderness area as it went through many changes, beginning as a rough "undeveloped" development to its present status as a highly coveted and well organized mountain recreational community. The history of that evolution contains volumes of exciting stories of adventure for residents and visitors alike. Mother Nature with the help of Murphy and his law, contributed to these adventures in many unexpected and unusual ways. Everyone was put to the test!

That evolution was fueled by what the author calls the Spirit of Ski Tur Valley, a Spirit which bonded members of the community into a vital force that overcame many threats to their pristine retreat. Some of those threats came from Mother Nature herself, in the form of blizzards, floods, and avalanches, but others from high powered land developers intent on destroying the Valley as members knew and loved it.

THE SPIRIT OF SKI TUR VALLEY is filled with true stories, some poignant, some of evacuation from flooding, of rescuing ill-fortuned hang-gliders, of bears breaking into left over birthday cake. There are tales of Mr. Bates, and Old Blaze, the truck that rescued his owner after ten years of separation.

Because he was involved in Ski Tur Valley from its inception in the late sixties, and had lived there full time on a couple of occasions, Bennett was asked to collect stories from community members and present them in book form along with other background history. This remarkable book is based on a family log, kept by his wife Louise, along with contributions from the memories of community members and also from the archives of the Community Association , consisting of legal records, minutes of meeting and records of legal activity.

All of these sources combine to unfold the story of THE SPIRIT OF SKI TUR VALLEY.