The University of Idaho Library’s newest digital collection, the Sheldon Z. and Vernice Thayer digital collection, contains digitized photography and correspondence from an Idaho family, the Thayers, during and after the Great Depression. These items, which were donated to the University of Idaho by Sheldon Thayer’s granddaughter, provide a unique glimpse into Idaho history.

The majority of the photos in the collection show the family’s outdoor adventures, which included dogsledding, hunting, fishing, camping, and skiing. Notably, a large number of the photos were taken at Sun Valley Resort, known as America’s first destination ski resort, within the first few years of its opening in winter 1936.

Sun Valley’s history is a fascinating one, as the success of the resort itself is tied to the United States’ post-Depression recovery. Founder Averell Harriman was eager to capitalize on the resurgence of a mobile middle class. He worked to make the resort a destination that the middle class as well as the very wealthy would travel to, travel that would be conducted via the Union Pacific Railroad for which he was Chairman of the Board.

In order to make the resort a desirable destination, Harriman hired renowned advertiser Steve Hannagan to attract new visitors to the resort through inventive marketing and entertainment campaigns. Hannagan was highly skilled at attracting not only celebrities, but also middle-class guests like the Thayers to destination spots.

Hannagan’s illustrious career is well-documented. The Thayers, however, may have photographed one of his rare less-than-successful PR schemes for Sun Valley: Santa’s sleigh pulled by live reindeer.

News coverage from the time informs us that the reindeer were captured in Golovin, Alaska and trained to pull a sleigh and to eat oats and alfalfa.

The reindeer, according to Sun Valley historian John Lundin, refused to eat any food other than Alaskan Tundra, attacked Santa, and bit the children they were meant to charm. Santa’s sleigh wound up an expensive single-season attraction, and the reindeer were flown back to Alaska.

Advertising oddities aside, the digital collection contains much to interest researchers interested in outdoor recreation and middle-class Idaho life around the Depression Era.

The original documents are held at the University of Idaho’s Special Collections and Archives.

To see them in person please contact Special Collections and Archives at libspec@uidaho.edu.

Sources

Croessman, Delia, “Las Vegas’ rise from regional vice destination to glittering hotspot detailed in new book,, Missouri S&T.

Evanslas, K.J.,“Steve Hannagan,” Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“History of Sun Valley,” visitsunvalley.com.

Lundin, John, “Sun Valley Reindeer Used to Terrorize St. Nick,” Eye on Sun Valley.

“Sun Valley has Eskimo and a Herd of Reindeer,” The Genesee News, 1938-01-07, 2.

“The Railroad and Sun Valley,” Union Pacific Railroad Museum.