In 1879 a tall, wiry prospector named David Ketchum built a small shelter along the Trail Creek to use as his base of operations in the area. He didn't stay long. By 1880, when mining operations began to be permanently established, Ketchum was long gone, rumored to be in Arizona, or perhaps dead in a saloon standoff.

The new town called itself Leadville but the United States Post Office turned down the name because Leadvilles were as common in the West as dashed dreams by that time. The settlers decided to name their town after pioneering David Ketchum, whose rudimentary shelter still stood down by Trail Creek.

For more than a decade Ketchum boomed but the collapse of the silver market in 1894 opened a gash in the town's economy that drained 90 percent of its population. The town recovered some with an infusion of sheep ranching but by the 1930s there were fewer than 300 people living in Ketchum.

In 1935 Austrian Count Felix Schaffgotsch was hired by Union Pacific Railroad Chairman W. Averell Harriman to scout the American West for the best site to build a destination ski resort like the tony resorts in the European Alps. Schaffgotsch scoured the mountain regions of the West and rejected such places as Aspen, Jackson Hole and Yosemite. He was prepared to return to New York and report his failure when a railroad representative from Idaho asked him to check out Ketchum. Within three days, the Count wired Harriman: "Among the many attractive spots I have visited, this combines more delightful features of any place I have seen in the United States, Switzerland, or Austria for a winter sports resort.” Eleven months later Sun Valley Resort opened to international acclaim and Ketchum's future viability was assured.

Ketchum features over 40 miles of dog-friendly trails located within a 5-mile radius of town. The marquee walk is the 5-mile Bald Mountain Trail, at the end of 3d Avenue at River Run Plaza on the edge of town. The trail crosses numerous ski trails up 3400 feet to an elevation above the tree line at 9151 feet. Not only can you hike with your dog on the Bald Mountain Trail, but halfway up the mountain, in a glade of giant fir trees, is a drinking fountain with a perpetually-filled dog drinking bowl built right into the trail. About the only place dogs are not allowed is on the ski lifts.

Other trails around Ketchum include hikes along Corral Creek in the Sun Valley resort and additional alpine walks north of town on Highway 75 at Fox Creek and Adams Gulch. These dirt and grass trails are afire with wildflowers through the

Further up Highway 75, just seven miles from Ketchum is the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, with 756,000 acres of public land. A highlight in the Sawtooths, with more than 40 peaks higher than 10,000 feet, are more than 300 high mountain lakes. Several of the lakes, including Baker Lake and the Norton Lakes are within two miles of a trailhead.

The Harriman Trail is a 31-kilometer corridor in three segments that is open to hiking, biking and cross-country-skiing that starts at the Sawtooth headquarters. The trail climaxes in Galena, overlooking the headwaters of the Salmon River.

Ernest Hemingway spent his final years in Ketchum and he is remembered with a memorial on a shaded bank of Trail Creek in Sun Valley. Nearby, in the Ketchum Cemetery on the northern edge of town on Route 75, is Hemingway's unadorned grave. Guarded by a sentry of trees, the marker is flush with the ground and offers no more than a name and dates for the life of America's most celebrated writer of the 20th century. Hemingway's four dogs - Black, Negrita, Neron, and Linda - are buried in a neat patio at his home in Cuba.

Ketchum is north of I-80 on Highway 75. The Visitor Center on Main Street (Highway 75) features abundant material on the various hiking options in the area.

copyright 2006

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