Just west of Red River, generations of beginners learned to ski on a small, friendly hill with a name that promised no intimidation: Powder Puff Mountain. It was never the biggest ski area in the Enchanted Circle, and that was exactly the point. Powder Puff specialized in first-timers, children and families, and for nearly two decades it gave Red River a second, gentler front door to winter.
It began in 1962, when Lester and Jan Lewis built the E-Z Ski Area. Instead of conventional skis alone, they rented E-Z skis, described by the Red River Historical Society as a big ski in the middle with two skis on the sides, a seat and a handle you steered by leaning side to side. They also rented inner tubes, called whirly-birds, whose riders were hauled up the mountain in small freight cars on tracks, looking, the Society says, like cattle.
In 1964 Lester built a chairlift and changed the name to Powder Puff Mountain. True to Red River's make-do tradition, he constructed the lift from parts salvaged from oil derricks and oil wells, and from trailers that had been used to haul bombs during World War II. The lift towers were originally natural gas pipelines. On another slope he added a POMA platter lift, a spring-loaded bar with a saucer at the end that riders placed between their legs while their skis glided along the snow.
Snow was never guaranteed, and Lester remembered a rivalry in the winter of 1970, when Powder Puff and the Red River Ski Area raced to find snow to shovel and haul in by pickup. He shoveled from all over town. Once, he recalled, David Stultz at the Ponderosa had a pile of snow out front and put up a sign that read, Property of Lester Lewis.
In 1970 John and Judy Miller, together with Gary and Fran Starbuck, bought Powder Puff from Lester, the year after a disastrous snow year. The hill had three rope tows and few runs, including one called Expert that was so short, the Historical Society notes, you could go straight down without making a turn before hitting flat terrain. Lift tickets were 6 dollars for adults and 4.50 dollars for children, lessons were 5 dollars, and beginners learned on 100-centimeter skis using Cliff Taylor's Graduated Length Method.
Powder Puff also helped pioneer snowmaking. When the Millers and Starbucks bought it, the area already had a compressed-air and water snowmaking system, and the Historical Society calls it one of the first western ski areas to take that step. A brochure showed a snow gun under the proud caption, We make snow! One year the little hill opened on October 29, tying Loveland in Colorado for first in the nation.
In 1979 Powder Puff was sold to the Red River Ski Area, and it closed a few years later. Its rope tows and chairlifts are gone, its buildings were dismantled, and its slopes are now dotted with houses. Its spirit lived on, though, in John Miller's next venture: after years teaching cross-country skiing in the backcountry, he opened Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area atop Bobcat Pass in the winter of 1985-86, carrying Powder Puff's welcoming, teach-everyone idea into a new generation.
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