Group says plans for Hemingway house on track

BOISE – A shakeup at The Nature Conservancy’s Idaho chapter won’t derail the environmental organization’s controversial bid to create a literary memorial at the former Ketchum home of Ernest Hemingway, a conservancy official says.

Geoff Pampush, who led the group’s state efforts for five years, quit suddenly last Thursday, acting director Lou Lunte said Tuesday.

It may take six months to find a replacement, said Lunte, the director of conservation programs. He refused to say why Pampush quit but said he would take over the memorial effort.

In a telephone interview, Pampush also declined to provide specific reasons for his departure.

“It was the right thing to do,” he said Tuesday from his home in Hailey.

Pampush has been spearheading a drive to turn the Nobel Prize-winning author’s house above the Big Wood River near Sun Valley into a site for writers’ workshops and public tours. Hemingway committed suicide there in 1961.

The Nature Conservancy was given the house in 1986 by Hemingway’s widow, Mary.

On April 19, the Ketchum City Council is due to consider a proposed amendment to the central Idaho resort town’s zoning regulations that would allow educational programs and tours in historical structures.

Neighbors oppose the conservancy’s plan, saying it would violate their property rights and conflict with the neighborhood’s residential character.

Depending on how the Ketchum council votes, it would take at least a month for the conservancy and the Hemingway House Foundation, which would assume ownership of the home, to prepare an application.

Proposed tours would include as many as 30 people a day, in addition to literary workshops and a writer-in-resident program.

Some opponents have threatened to sue.

Four neighbors, concerned the proposal would bring thousands of unwanted visitors annually, have offered to buy the house for market value so it could be moved to another site. Sun Valley real estate agents have estimated it is worth millions. Hemingway bought the house in 1959 from then-New York Yankees owner Bob Topping for $50,000.

The Nature Conservancy has no right to use a private drive leading to the house for even limited public access, said Jonathan Neeley, a real estate investor who lives across the street.

Neeley said he’s been forced to call police to curb trespassing at the house.

“The Hemingway house needs to be moved,” he said. “That’s the only legal way to accomplish what they want. And it’s the best way to honor Hemingway’s literary heritage.”

The Nature Conservancy rejected the neighbors’ buyout offer at a Feb. 25 meeting, saying Hemingway’s legacy was linked to the 13-acre property.

Jim Jaquet, a Hemingway House Foundation board member, said proponents of the literary memorial still must raise $1.5 million to renovate the aging structure and create an endowment.

That could take months, meaning that regardless of what the Ketchum City Council decides, the home won’t be open for the planned Ernest Hemingway Festival, set for Sept. 22-25.