Dave McCoy

Dave McCoy (born August 24, 1915, El Segundo, California) founded the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in 1942.

McCoy was born in El Segundo, California in 1915. He spent the first six years of his life there while his dad worked at the oil refineries in the area. He first visited the eastern Sierra when he was 13, and went on to make his own first pair of skis in a high school shop class. After finishing the eighth grade, he moved to Washington state to live with his grandparents because his parents divorced. There he met some Norwegian ski jumpers who further sparked Dave's interest in skiing. Right after graduating from high school, he moved to the tiny town of Independence, California. Two years later, he moved a few miles north to Bishop. In 1936, McCoy took a job as a hydrographer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which involved skiing up to 50 miles per day. While being a hydrographer, he joined the Eastern Sierra Ski Club. At age 22, he became the California State Champion in skiing.

In 1938, McCoy got a permit and set up a primitive rope tow using parts from a Model "A" Ford truck on McGee Mountain, near US Highway 395. He went to the bank, attempting to acquire an $85 loan to set up a permanent rope tow. The bank turned him down but the bank's secretary, Roma, urged the bank to give him that loan. A few years later, McCoy would marry Roma and the two would raise six children together. By the early 1940s, the climate started to warm up, however, and the snowfall on McGee Mountain was not as heavy as it had once been. It was suddenly not an ideal location for skiing anymore. Remnants of McCoy's original rope-tow can be spotted, and the site is marked with a historical marker sign along the current Highway 395.

McCoy noticed that the snow was better at Mammoth Mountain, where he set up a rope tow in 1942. The Forest Service decided then to offer, for bid, the right to operate a ski area on Mammoth Mountain. No one bid on this permit, including McCoy, who didn't have any money. In 1953, the Forest Service gave McCoy the permit on the condition that he develop the mountain as a ski resort. A ski lodge followed in 1953, and the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area incorporated in 1955. McCoy struggled to develop Mammoth. The "lodge" was actually only 12' by 24', had a dirt floor with an outside toilet, and served snacks. The McCoy family used it as a home during the early years of Mammoth.

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