in many of the chapters of his book. The valley's mining boom was short lived and by 1863–64 the valley had lost almost all of its inhabitants to the Comstock lode in Virginia City. By 1942, Wayne Poulsen, a former star skier from the University of Nevada, had acquired in the 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 the 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 the valley. In 1954, Cushing began lobbying the International Olympic Committee to host the 1960 Olympic Winter games after he saw an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that detailed a bid by Reno, Nevada to host the games. Innsbruck, Austria, was Squaw Valley's primary competitor in the running for the 1960 Winter Games, and the valley won the right to host the games by a vote of 32–30 on the second ballot. As the Placer County community began to receive international attention, residents and officials from Squaw Valley in Fresno County contested its use of the same name before the United States Board on Geographic Names. The games resulted in major infrastructure improvements to the area. The Placer County Sheriff's Office and a medical group opened local facilities. In September 1958, the United States Post Office Department began a mail service to the valley via the Tahoe City Post Office. Mail was postmarked "Squaw Village" to avoid confusion with the Fresno County community, where the department was studying reopening a post office. On December 1, 1959, a branch office opened at the Olympic Village to serve the Olympic Organizing Committee and California Olympic Commission. At the behest of Representative B. F. Sisk of Fresno County, it was named Olympic Valley. It was the first post office to