12/03/2009 - Dakota County Tribune Business Weekly

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Foss Swim School moves operation 7A Ellis Photography grows in Rosemount 9A Minnesota Vikings seek stadium deal 12A

DERRICK WILLIAMS JESSICA HARPER TIM HENNAGIR

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DATE ##, 2009 DECEMBER 3, 2009

VOLUME 30, NUMBER # VOLUME 30, NUMBER 40

Dakota County Tribune Since 1884

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It’s all downhill from here

SPOTLIGHT

KERRY SINGH

by John Gessner Photo by Jeff Achen

The Magic Carpet lift, billed as the longest such lift in the nation, is one of the recent attractions at Buck Hill.

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olis, when they signed a lease on the property on Sept. 1, 1954. Chuck, then 23, was working for his father’s machine tool company after graduating from Dartmouth. Nancy, 22, had graduated from the University of Minnesota and was working for an employment agency. “A good friend got us a blind date because he knew we both loved to ski,� said Nancy, the president of Buck Hill Inc., who still skis there two to three times a week. “There weren’t that many skiers in those days.� One day over lunch, as they reminisced about a ski junket out West, Chuck said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to own a ski area?� Through library research, he learned that the Burnsville hill west of what was then Highway 65 (today Interstate 35) was the highest point within a 200-mile radius. One skiing entrepreneur, Fred Pabst, had tried to make it a commercial ski area in the 1930s, but the decade’s persistent drought doomed the business. Other investors had also eyed the property for a commercial ski area when Chuck and Nancy signed their deal with Buck Hill’s then-owner, Grace Whittier, the daughter of a Northfield banker. With partners Sumner Young and Glen Stanley (Chuck’s old skiing coach at Breck

DANE SMITH

Minnesotans should be thankful for taxes that secure and improve the quality of life we enjoy. 4A

BUSINESS 101

Microbusinesses with only a handful of employees will help us emerge from the economic downturn. 6A

LISA BAH

CAPITOL COMMERCE

Photo by John Gessner

Buck Hill general manager Don McClure and president Nancy Stone were still waiting for snowmaking weather on a balmy November day. School and a 10th Mountain Division soldier in World War II), Chuck and Nancy went to work cutting trees and improving the crude trails that had been maintained over the years by a handful of local skiers. Stanley, a carpenter, led construction of a small chalet. Chuck and Nancy cemented their partnership when he proposed to her on Buck Hill in February 1955. “In ’55, we took in $6,119.50,� Nancy said, reading from a list of old figures. “And in ’56, we took in $6,544.57. ’57, $785. There just

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Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has f iled another lawsuit against a Lakeville chiropractor. 10A

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See Buck Hill, Page 44A

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Lakeville Trophy takes the prize for helping countless organizations and businesses create unique awards for their honorees. 2A

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Since 1954 Buck Hill has survived, thrived and always been on the lookout for something new

Snowmaking equipment revolutionized the ski business for Buck Hill in Burnsville, but nature hasn’t relinquished its grip on the fundamentals. Relaxing at a table in the chalet on yet another balmy November day, longtime General Manager Don McClure noted that Buck Hill’s 20 computer-operated snowmaking machines don’t run by magic. “You still need it to be below freezing, and in those marginal temperatures in the 20s, you need a dry humidity,� McClure said. Snowmaking and Buck Hill’s enviable suburban location have sustained the business for a half century. But Buck Hill Inc. has continued to diversify and tinker with its operation, always seeking new ways to raise money in the off-season and pad the bottom line in preparation for the inevitable down years on the slopes. “We fear a bad weather pattern much more than we fear a bad economy,� said McClure, a Buck Hill Inc. shareholder. Buck Hill’s most recent nonskiing ventures are the Frightmares Halloween attraction, which debuted this fall, and an arrangement with local car dealers to temporarily store autos in its parking lot. But skiing was the only thing on the minds of the late Chuck Stone and his future wife, Nancy, both skiing enthusiasts from Minneap-

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