The story of PowderPeak

Powder Mountain is a ski area in the western United States, located east of Eden, Utah, between Weber and Cache counties in the Wasatch Range. With an area of 8,464 acres (13.2 square miles or 34.3 km²), Powder Mountain is the largest ski area in the USA in terms of skiable terrain. The resort has 154 slopes, nine lifts and two terrain parks. 

The story of Powder Mountain began humbly with a family of sheep ranchers from the early 1900s. Frederick James Cobabe, who found himself an orphan at the age of 15, looked after a camp for a local shepherd named Charley Schmaltz, who paid him in sheep. Frederick gradually built up a small flock and started his own business. In the decades between 1902 and the 1940s, he acquired land for summer feeding grounds for his flocks around Eden, Utah. Frederick understood how cattle could destroy the landscape by causing erosion and damaging the watershed. He worked tirelessly to rehabilitate the land that had been devastated by the reckless grazing practices of the past. His efforts helped make the area around Powder Mountain one of the highest quality watersheds in the Wasatch Range. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Frederick's son, Alvin F. Cobabe, bought his father's cattle business in 1948 along with 8,000 acres of land around Eden. Frederick was tragically killed in an automobile accident just a few months later. To create a reservoir for his ranch, Alvin bought heavy machinery and went into the earthmoving business to cover his operating costs.