Olympic Valley, California
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Squaw Valley Olympic Valley |
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| Unincorporated community | |
Sign at entrance to Squaw Valley
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 Squaw Valley
Squaw Valley
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| Coordinates: 39°11′47″N 120°14′01″W / 39.19631°N 120.23356°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Placer County |
Olympic Valley, California (also known as Squaw Valley) is an unincorporated community located in Placer County northwest of Tahoe City along California State Highway 89 on the banks of the Truckee River near Lake Tahoe. It is home to Squaw Valley Ski Resort, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Olympic Valley is the smallest resort area to host the Olympic Winter Games.
The town of Claraville, formerly located at the mouth of Squaw Valley was once among the biggest mining operations in the Lake Tahoe region. There were rumors that the mine was salted with ore brought in from Virginia City, Nevada.George Wharton James, author of the book The Lake of the Sky doubts the mines were salted with ore and suggests that the energetic prospector Shannon Knox started the mine with good faith. He writes about the History of the Tahoe Region (pre 1915) in many of the chapters of his book. The Squaw Valley Mining boom was short lived and by 1863–64 the valley had lost almost all of its inhabitants to the in Virginia City.
By 1942, Wayne Poulsen, a former star skier from the University of Nevada, had acquired 2,000 acres (810 ha) in Squaw Valley from the Southern Pacific Railroad. Poulsen met Alex Cushing, a Harvard University-trained lawyer, in 1946 while Cushing was vacationing at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort. During his vacation, Cushing toured Squaw Valley at Poulsen's invitation and decided to invest in building a ski resort there. Unlike Poulsen, Cushing had the political connections and access to the capital necessary to create a ski resort. In June 1948, the two founded the Squaw Valley Development Company and Cushing replaced Poulsen as president of the Squaw Valley Development Corporation by October 1949.Squaw Valley Ski Resort opened on Thanksgiving Day 1949. The resort was constructed with $400,000 raised by Cushing, including $150,000 of his own money. The creation of the Squaw Valley Development Corporation and Squaw Valley Ski Resort mark the modern era of Squaw Valley.
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