Sun Valley was Hemingway's last home, as it was here that he enjoyed life
Sun Valley. The valley golden by the sun, with more than 250 days of good weather per year, the first modern ski resort in the USA , the first chair lift in the world, skies without light pollution that have earned it the title of best spot for stargazing... the place where the famous and the powerful go to spend a few days unnoticed. And Hemingway's last home, for it was here that he enjoyed life...and he took it from him.
But first and foremost, Sun Valley is an invention. A chimera made in snow, created from scratch on a commercial whim. It is, like almost everything in the United States (everything that isn't the brutal nature of its bombastic national parks) a fiction imagined in the head of a tycoon that came true with lots of dollars and the best possible marketing: invitations to famous people crossed the threshold of the new ski resort in the country and made it known with their photographs in the main newspapers and magazines of the time.
Vintage print of Sun Valley at the Ketchum Hotel.
It was the 30's when William Averell Harriman, railway president UnionPacific, was able to see the growing interest in winter sports in his country, after the success of the Lake Placid Winter Games in 1932.
The infinite train tracks of his company crossed the most magical and exuberant landscapes of the west of the country. Trains that barely circulated, with almost no passengers, for places where he imagined creating his own St. Moritz (those tracks that he had enjoyed in his own flesh). This is America, baby! Why not give it a try? Why not save these roads?
Harriman commanded the search for an "alpine landscape" to the Austrian nobleman (and sportsman) Felix von Schaffgotsch , which he found in these mountains at the foot of Sawtooth National Forest the perfect place to build Harriman's dream. Some mountains that meet around Ketchum, a town eclipsed by the 'newcomer', but now knows how to reclaim his place with infinite charm and coquetry.
Sun Valley is the great star known to all, but Ketchum is the great secret
In truth, Sun Valley is the big star known to all, in which Reese Witherspoon takes photos of her during her vacation ... but Ketchum is the great secret, where you will find Demi Moore having a quiet dinner.
We drive through the capricious meanders of the Snake River that leave in our retinas images that make us travel to the Wild West movies. fragments of Clint Eastwood in The Pale Rider they are interspersed with real scenes, like that vulture feeding on the remains of a coyote on the side of the road. Not surprisingly, Eastwood rode through these landscapes during the filming of the film. Like they also wandered Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall on the set of How to Marry a Millionaire.
The brilliance of Hollywood stars blended and blended perfectly with this Valley of the Sun. But how? “Celebrities go to Aspen to see and be seen; but they come here when they want to go unnoticed. They are not in a gilt cage here." tell us Ray Gadd, director of marketing for Sun Valley and in love with the place.
see to Tom Hanks or Shaquille O'Neal has an explanation: Sun Valley Ketchum (it would be the correct name, being fair to both destinations) has been the refuge of Hollywood stars and great business tycoons since the opening of the ski resort in 1936.
Photograph of Hemingway with his sons Gregory, Jack and Patrick, his friend Toby Bruce and Martha Gellhorn, taken in 1940 by Lloyd Arnold
The way to publicize the destination was simple: invite the famous of the time to spend a few days or even a few months at Sun Valley Lodge, the great hotel of the ski resort.
And so Ernest Hemingway enters the equation, arriving at room 206 in the company of what would be his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, on September 20, 1939. The suite, with an impressive window overlooking the mountains, would be renamed by Hemingway himself as Glamor House. And, of course, he had a desk where he would write a third of his book For whom the bell tolls, the great testimony of the drama of the Spanish Civil War that he recounted with his eyes fixed on a picture that, he said, reminded him of Spain.
We learn this fact and many more in the Sun Valley Museum of History in Ketchum. Here we discover the love he professed for these landscapes from the first minute.
In this humble room, so small but so packed with information, we can see the photographs that Lloyd Arnold (better known as 'Pappy') captured with his camera of Ernest's leisure moments: bird hunting with his guide and friend Taylor Williams, the boat rides on Silver Creek with Robert Capa, those tennis matches with Martha facing off against Gary and Veronica 'Rocky' Cooper... and, of course, the nightly drinks at The Ram Bar and the Duchin Room.
Hemingway's Royal typewriter, at the Sun Valley Museum of History in Ketchum
Daily images of happiness and nature that served as an advertising brochure for promote the new destination beyond the snow season. And it worked, of course it worked.
The charms of the place were such that Hemingway stayed until the fall of 1939, when he returned to Cuba. But Sun Valley's call was inescapable. After a few more visits, during which he wrote the reports of The dangerous summer for Life magazine (converted into an essay on the constant fight in the bullring between Luis Miguel Dominguín and Antonio Ordóñez), he returned in fall 1960 accompanied by his fourth wife, Mary Welsh, not to go away again.
They bought a house in Big Wood River, outside of Ketchum, and everything started to go wrong. His physical and mental state was deteriorating by the minute. On the night of July 1, 1961, he dined with his wife at Michel's Christiania, his favorite restaurant. The next day he would end his life.
Today, the restaurant still serves his famous French cuisine, although the appearance has little to do with the place where Hemingway enjoyed between drinks. The Union Pacific train tracks have been transformed into a bike path, and the writer's home remains closed to the public. Of course, it opens for artistic residences.
Cristina Ceccatelli in front of her restaurant
Ketchum has changed a lot and the flirtatious has been able to with the dive bars; the success of the wonderful neighbor, Sun Valley, can be seen in the streets of the town, converted into a place for art galleries, local designer shops, meeting places where neighbors listen to live music (Forest Service Park) or the great theater and cultural epicenter, Argyros Performing Arts Center.
It is clear that, being a small place, the winter boom works wonders the rest of the year in the town. You know a lot about this Cristina Ceccatelli . Born in rural Tuscany, she came to the United States 30 years ago to visit a friend of hers. She fell in love with her brother and the rest is history.
Cristina began to sell breads "baked of the day, never seen here!". But what really made Ketchumians and Sun Valley stars fall in love was her tiramisu.
Word of mouth from her led him to start her own catering, whose boxes were always decorated with a green bow: "So they started to know me as the one with the green ribbon," she tells us she energetic. She now serves her traditional recipes at Cristina's, a salmon-colored house in the center of town. She has also written three cookbooks of "fresh, uncomplicated flavors that come from my childhood."
Cupboard full of honey in Cristina's restaurant
Cristina is pure character and the dissonant note in her own restaurant. In the idyllic backyard diners savor their rigatoni bolognese speaking almost out of the corner of his mouth, keeping an unnatural composure, too perfect in a movie set.
“There have always been very powerful people in this place. Past generations were givers, like those who built the Ketchum library with their private funds; but I would say that now there are only takers, and we see how, day by day, the land in the area is sold to big businessmen who don't even come here to take care of it or do something with it...”.
In Idaho she was happy and she is happy, but she looks to the future with some fear for what she can get if the real estate interests manage to overcome the neighborhood interests (cohesion that, until now, was assumed unbreakable).
We leave Cristina's looking for that library. On the way we met the Pray Wagon Museum, a facility where several wagons that transported minerals a century ago rest; with Maude's, a small cafe where you can try on vintage clothes; and with Gilman Contemporary, one of the art galleries in town.
We arrived to The Community Library, a non-profit neighborhood project where they dedicate a mini exhibition to Hemingway. Two boys study, far from each other, in the middle of this town of less than 3,000 inhabitants that is a patchwork of sensations.
Ketchum Hotel Ballroom, with fun designs of the state's potato sacks
Humble history mixes with anecdotes from Hollywood stars, clothing from the last century with works of contemporary art, the most beautiful Starbucks we've ever seen with Casino, the only dive bar left, and the first place Hemingway would go if he were resurrected ( or so the locals say).
“Part of the character of Sun Valley is having Hemingway buried and not having a plaque at the entrance that says so,” Cristina told us, alluding to the American custom of welcoming their towns with popular messages. But there is a plaque on one of the village memorials that begins with "Best of all I have loved the fall...", part of the elegy that Hemingway wrote to his friend Gene Van Guilder, killed in a hunting accident. Hemingway also preferred Sun Valley's autumns to winters. Hemingway also preferred the supposedly bland and everyday.
WHERE TO SLEEP
Hotel Ketchum (from €270)
Spacious and cozy rooms with large windows to enjoy the views of the forest, only interrupted by the swimming pools or the flocks of sheep that graze around. breakfast is a self service of absolute delights (watch out for their homemade bagels). The common areas, both the patio and the lounge, boast crafts from local makers and vintage decoration pieces.
Sun Valley Lodge (from €430)
The jewel in the crown is this wonderful lodge that maintains the architecture of the 30s. Now, after the redecoration of its interior, it comes back to life with more accommodation options than ever. That yes: we are left with the Celebrity Suite dedicated to Hemingway.
Hotel Ketchum Pools
WHERE TO EAT
The Covey (520 Washington Av, Ketchum)
One of the newcomers to the city and with the most interesting gastronomic offer: seasonal, kilometer zero products. Every week they prepare some kind of fresh pasta that cook with the protein of the moment market. His backyard and his big bonfire, our weakness.
Cristina's (520 E. Second St, Ketchum)
The breads with which he became known continue to be the great attraction. Also their pastries and homemade pasta. And remember: say yes to tiramisu.
Pioneer Saloon (320 N. Main St., Ketchum)
The place that remains unchanged over time. The menu? Great ribeyes and potatoes . You will see some memory of Hemingway and good taxidermy on its walls.
Michel's Christiania (303 Walnut Av., Ketchum)
Known among locals as 'The Christy', it has been serving French cuisine since 1959. It became a favorite of Hemingway, who still keeps his favorite table.
WHERE TO BUY
Old Alley (151 W Sun Valley Rd., Ketchum)
A wonderful chaos of antiques. Among the junk, absolute treasures, like those old potato sacks (so famous in Idaho) of infinite creativities, perfect for a unique souvenir.
The Covey Open Kitchen
Independent Goods (330 Walnut Av., Ketchum)
Prints, t-shirts, kitchen utensils, handmade jewelry, postcards... but always author's. Idaho artisans have their point of sale in this corner.
Silver Creek Outfitters (500 N Main St., Ketchum)
The paradise of fly fishing. Plus, you'll find those western belt buckles and cowboy boots you've been looking for.
WHERE TO END THE DAY
The skies of Ketchum
They are part of the first Dark Sky reserve in the United States, that is, It is the best sky in the country to observe the cosmos in all its splendor, no light pollution, certified by the International Dark-Sky Association.
Silver Creek Outfitters, the paradise of fly fishing