The 1960s

The Constam T-bar went up in the summer of 1963 — 4,150 feet, 1,050 feet of rise, about $58,000 — and its grand opening on Sunday 15 December 1963 is the best-attended day in this archive. A cold, dreary day brought close to a thousand people to Kings Hill. The Ski Patrol led a Parade of the Flags, the ski school demonstrated everything from a snowplough to parallel turns, the mayor of Great Falls stood in knee-deep snow and broke a bottle of champagne on the number one tower, and then Governor Tim Babcock and Dr. Earl Hall boarded the lift together to make the first ride to the top.

The Pomalift was not scrapped to make room for it. It was cut down and moved that same summer to open up the Mizpah, where it would go on running for decades — the longest-serving machine this mountain has ever had.

The rest of the decade filled in around the T-bar: a platter pull on the Meadows in 1962, a rope tow on the Mizpah, a Kinderhorn tow for first-timers and children, and another behind the lodge in the fall of 1964. By December 1965 the area was advertising ten slopes and four tows. Kings Hill hosted a Northern Division championship in 1964, and Jim Hasterlik's Ski Hut was renting and fitting skis at the bottom.