Travel-Weary Skier Launched Schweitzer Hill Grander Vision Came Years After Jack Fowler Had Idea In 1960
Although Jim Brown Jr. is often credited with founding Schweitzer Mountain Resort, the ski hill was not his brainchild.
It was that of Jack Fowler, a Spokane doctor who tired of driving to Whitefish, Mont., to hit the slopes.
After a miserable, dreary day of skiing in Whitefish in 1960, Fowler spotted Schweitzer’s bowl of snow when his family made a rest stop in Hope, Idaho.
A scouting trip to the mountain basin months later had Fowler set on the idea of opening a ski hill in Sandpoint. His plan was far less extravagant than the resort Jim Brown ultimately built. “Some land, an old Chevy engine and material for rope tow. That was our vision Memorial Day weekend 1960,” Fowler wrote in his 1991 book “Looking Back on Schweitzer.”
Fowler and a partner later bought 160 acres on Schweitzer. They talked about building an A-frame cabin and punching a road up the mountain. There was one problem. Fowler didn’t have the money to get started.
He gathered some Sandpoint residents, including Jim Brown, and city officials. They formed a corporation and applied for government loans. A $320,000 loan came from a program set up during the Kennedy administration to help areas with chronic unemployment.
The federal Small Business Administration also approved a loan for the project and locals, as unofficial stockholders, raised another $210,000.
The little ski area opened Dec. 4, 1963. There was one chairlift and a rope tow to drag skiers up the hill. A day on the mountain cost $4. “Once Mother Nature decided to cooperate, the skiers came and they came in droves,” Fowler recalled. “Weekends saw turnout in the vicinity of two thousand.”
It was Brown who eventually had the vision to take Schweitzer a step further, from being a local ski hill to one with a regional if not national reputation. Land trades with the government and smart buying locked up most of Schweitzer Mountain as private land.
“If Schweitzer were ever to become more than a money losing labor of love it must be converted into a destination resort,” Fowler wrote. “Before that could be done, the Brown family would have to buy out the other stockholders.”
In 1982, Brown bought out the stockholders who had an interest in the resort. The stock was valued at $10. Brown paid $15 a share to own the hill outright.
Brown laid the groundwork to sell mountain homes and develop Schweitzer, but was never able to see his plan completed. He died April 17, 1989.
“At this juncture there was no choice,” Fowler wrote. “The torch had to be passed. And it was passed to the eldest of the Brown children: Bobbie (Huguenin).”
From 1963 to 1990 there were about 350 homes and condo units on the mountain. Now there are 600 plus units, including an 80-room hotel. The mountain, started from Fowler’s initial purchase of 160 acres, now has 2,350 acres of skiable terrain.
“I remind myself it’s been (years) since the Easter weekend in 1960 when I paused at Hope and looked at Schweitzer Basin and had an idea. It turned out pretty good.”
Fowler wrote that six years ago. The resort is now $28 million in debt and fighting for survival in bankruptcy court. Some members of the Brown family are trying to hang onto the resort and oust a court-appointed receiver.
“I would like to see them make a success out of it, but it doesn’t look like that is apparent,” Fowler said last week. “That is the way it goes. What happens, happens.”
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