Then and Now: Ski-Mor one of first ski runs in area
In the 1970s, there was Holiday Hills in Liberty Lake. There was skiing on Indian Canyon Golf Course in the 1950s and ’60s. There were small ski areas in Hayden Lake and Post Falls in Idaho.
Sometimes snow was trucked to the slopes from higher elevations. Most closed because the snow was inconsistent from year to year.
On the east slope of Browne Mountain, skiers would turn onto Schafer Road to access Ski-Mor, which was opened by William Schafer and his son-in-law Orrin Torrey. Schafer was a pioneer who had come to the Spokane River valley in 1888 as a boy. He farmed and sold water from the mineral springs near his home.
Torrey moved to Spokane Valley from Odessa, Washington, in 1928. He was a blacksmith who ran a metal shop and repaired many things, including engines, wagon wheels and artificial limbs. He built the first fire cart for Opportunity Township. He also built delivery beds for his wife, Stella, a nurse who operated a maternity home and delivered more than 600 babies in her career. She taught many other Spokane nurses about the birthing process.
The Torreys also ran a meat locker business, with a refrigeration unit Orrin designed, and a factory that made boxes. A 1954 Spokesman-Review story said: “If there was a contest to find the busiest valley family, friends say that Orrin and Stella Torrey would take the prize running away.”
Ski-Mor operated from 1933 to 1942. Schafer died in 1960; Orrin Torrey in 1963;, and Stella Torrey in 1993.