glamor and glitz of the other famous Idaho lodge in Sun Valley. It was turned into a private club in 1999, then it re-opened to the public in 2008. One of Shore Lodge's first summer employees was University of Idaho student John Ascuaga of Notus, who worked as a bellhop learning the business from the bottom up and was to go on to found the Nugget hotel, convention center, and casino in Sparks, Nevada, one of the largest and most successful in the Reno, Nevada area. In 1965, a peninsula outside of McCall became Ponderosa State Park, home to large old-growth trees. Alpine skiing McCall's Little Ski Hill, formerly the "Payette Lakes Ski Area," is west of town on Highway 55, just over the county line in Adams County. Opened in 1937 as a diversion for local forest workers, its were donated by Carl Brown. The Little Ski Hill was the second ski area in Idaho, after Sun Valley, which opened a year earlier. It currently operates a T-bar surface lift and has a vertical drop of , with a summit of above sea level, and its slopes face north and west. The aging Nordic ski jump on the lower north slope, overlooking the bend in Highway 55, was removed in the 1990s. Brundage Mountain, northwest of McCall, opened in November 1961. With the addition of two new lifts in summer 2007, it currently has five chairlifts. Brundage has a summit elevation of above sea level, and a vertical drop of . The slopes on Brundage Mountain are primarily west-facing and the mountain's average snowfall exceeds . The resort operates a backcountry snowcat skiing operation which provides guided access to of untracked powder in the Payette National Forest north of the ski area. Brundage is a family-owned resort, operated by the DeBoer family, descendants of early McCall pioneers. Until April 2006, it was co-owned by J. R. Simplot. Tamarack Resort (2004–09) is southwest of McCall, on the west side of Cascade Reservoir. Originally conceived as "Valbois" in the early 1980s, the project was revived as "WestRock" in the late 1990s and ultimately renamed "Tamarack" in 2002. Tamarack opened for lift-served skiing on December 15, 2004, with a summit elevation of on West Mountain, up Rock Creek. Its vertical drop was over ; it used five chairlifts and a poma lift. The slopes on Tamarack faced east, overlooking the Cascade Reservoir