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How Texans of great and not-so-great means have bought a piece of ski country.
Vail, Snowbird, Steamboat Springs, Loveland Basin. They are among the most progressive ski resorts in the world, each one board­ing and feeding thousands of skiers, moving them up and across slopes and peaks on automated trams with their rented skis and their ski-school diplo­mas all day until night comes and the après-ski nightlife begins. Not Vail, Snowbird, Steamboat Springs, nor Loveland Basin would exist as they do today without big Texas money.
The Snowbird story is typical. Ex-skiing instructor and lodge manager Ted Johnson located almost 100 min­ing claims in the Wasatch Range-Cot­tonwood Canyon area and then slowly purchased the small parcels of land. Johnson couldn’t find financial sup­port among Utah’s bankers or its tax-paying community; his backing came from Richard D. Bass, a Dallas oilman and rancher, who skied and who had a financial interest in other resorts. Johnson a ....

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