Can anyone tell me what year the Thunderbird Lodge was shut down? Just looked at the food prices still posted inside and wondering.
Thanks,
Bergschlawiner in North Bend

I want to say early 80's.

The Pass PR person guesses around 1990-1991

interesting...

Hamburger $2.50
Cheeseburger $2.75
ThunderBurger $3.75
Peanut Butter and Jelly $1.95
Jumbo Hot Dog $11.95
Sodas 75 cents

12 bucks for a hot dog - and twenty years ago???

That thing must've been as long as a ski. Anyone ever have/see one?

If I remember correctly, someone said they didn't have running water up there? Was this stuff heated and then brought up? No water with that menu is possible, but it just seems odd.

yea, they used to have outhouses sitting outside below the building. I don't see why running water would be required for a building to be open, if not just for warming up, or maybe eating a sack lunch. If someone needed running water they could just ski down to the lodge. One good thing is the Tbird lodge is in Kittitas county where restrictions are less and permits are faster to come by.

Hyak Ski and Snowboard Adventure
On the World-Wide-Web since 1997

The county line actually goe right through the middle of the building. Half in Kittitas and half in King. The reason it was closed is because of the Health Department. They required running water for sanitary reasons. The place was a goldmine. Interesting poit is with all the electronics in the building there are NO rodents. We used to have a lot of them before when the building was quasi empty.

Boy, does this thread bring back memories!

I worked at the T-Bird for part of a season back in the late 80's. Might have been '87.

Part of my job was filling 10 to 12 5-gallon foodservice buckets with water and getting them up the lift, one per seat. The upper lift operator would kindly unload them for me and I'd haul them down and into the restaurant. I'm sure the lower operator did a lot of loading them on for me as well, the crew was quite accommodating. Freight went up the same way and we brought the trash down the lift also.

There is a cistern beneath the restaurant that catches rainwater that we could use for dishes and yes, there were outhouses outside until too many folks whined about the odor and they got rid of it.

The restaurant sits on solid rock. Digging/drilling/blasting a trench for a water line would be nearly impossible. There was a bathroom with a toilet downstairs but it was not used. Not sure where the waste water ended up!!!

A door under the building opens to the cistern. Rumors of bear habitation abounded. Never saw one myself.

"T-Bird" Tom would set up a telescope in the dining room on clear days. The Granite Mountain Lookout was pretty cool to look at. We had a Baked Potato Bar on the menu: buy a baked potato and load it up with bacon bits, grated cheese, taco meat, etc. from the potato bar. We sold canned soft drinks plus beer and wine. I don't remember the name of the event, but in the spring we would occasionally have a traditionally dressed (yes, lederhosen) accordion player ride up and play on the deck.

Thanks for the posting!! I hope Boyne will figure out a way to utilize that building for other purposes besides being a radio tower.

Hyak Ski and Snowboard Adventure
On the World-Wide-Web since 1997

Should be:
Jumbo Hot Dog $1.95

Well, that old building. I think it was constructed for postcards. All the food was brought up on the lift. The burgers were dry and wrapped in foil and they sold beer too. In fact in the mid 70's a fella I knew would get free beer. On weekday evenings one could ski under the structure and access the building thru the wood collection area. Crawl up and in to the building and get free beer ! I only witnessed this occurance one time (but it was all Budwiser). And in a related story

Ok, all this talk brings back memories of my old hanson ski boots.



Anyone have pictures of the thunderbird lodge itself?

I had hiked up to the lodge the summer they tore down the Tbird lift and took some extensive photo's of the outside, inside, ect. Problem is, I don't know what I did with those photos....what PC they were stored or whatever. Hopefully I'll stumble across them because I also had nice photo's of the Tbird lift and so forth before it was cremated.

Hyak Ski and Snowboard Adventure
On the World-Wide-Web since 1997

One keen thing we used to do from the T-Bird Lodge is ski over to Ski Acres via the Mounteers rope tow. I know it's normal to go over the top as it were, but back then you had to use their rope tow. Grabbing that rope tow from 3/4 from the top was death defing as the rope tow back then seemed to be going at 50mph and would (almost) pull your arms right out of the scokets. We would seal one ride on the single chair at Ski Acres and go back to the summit. We just did that only in the late 60's and early 70's. Back in the day staying at Conifer Lodge with Greg Kiola, ski boot inventer.

You wouldn't happen to have any photo's of the old Conifer Lodge would you?



Hyak Ski and Snowboard Adventure
On the World-Wide-Web since 1997

Jack: Sadly no - cja

Took some pictures a week or so ago of the inside of t-Bird. Could post here is figured out but try this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/KD7EER/Thunderbird
Copy and paste in your browser and there will be photos in a picasa album.

Doesnt look as trashed as I would have thought. I was up there about a year ago in the summer and there was some horrendous stink coming from the area around the door. I didnt investigate but I assumed there was some sort of rotting carcass inside or around the base. It looks to me it wouldnt be to hard to re-hab that place.

Great pics. Just as I remembered. Bowl of Stag Chili..to go please

Thanks for the inside photos of the old T-Bird lodge ! What memories !
cja

If they ever did reopen the lodge it would be harder than ever to get the food up by chairlift, due to T-bird being gone. I guess they could use and snowmobile or cat.