Tamarack Entertainment raising funds to buy Spout Springs Ski Area
WESTON — Rumors of Spout Springs Ski Area reopening may prove true as soon as 2020, as part of a bigger plan to bring more recreation amenities to the Tollgate area.
Rendal Williams, Tamarack Entertainment Group chief executive officer, said getting the downhill ski area operating is part of a bigger plan of “bringing the whole mountain back to life.”
Two years ago, Williams said he bought the Alpine Outpost on the Tollgate Highway between Weston and Elgin — a store, bakery, cafe and bed-and-breakfast — and has a vision of supported year-round recreation from sledding, skiing and snowmobiling in the winter to mountain biking in the summer. In the short term, he said he’s raising money to get at least part of Spout Springs operational soon.
“We’re hoping we’ll be able to get the funding in place in order to offer some sledding and tubing and open a restaurant and a bar this winter,” Williams said.
By the first of the year, Williams said he will have snowmobiles to rent.
In time, besides getting Spout Springs open, Williams said he’d like to have a skating rink and host concerts. He said he is getting a positive response from people about the endeavor to make the Tollgate area more of a destination resort — possibly modeled on Leavenworth, Washington.
Williams said he is in negotiations with Spout Springs’ current owner John Murray of Portland, who was reported in the East Oregonian as having the ski area for sale for $1.25 million in 2017.
Williams said he was looking into raising the money primarily through private investors. According to information found on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s database, Tamarack Entertainment in June filed a Form D, an SEC form used to file a notice of an exempt offering of securities.
Spout Springs Ski Area is located on Highway 204 between Weston and Elgin. The resort's owners announced last winter that it would reopen after a two-year hiatus, but later said it would remain closed.
According to the ski area’s website, the ski resort first opened in the late 1920s. Since then it has played host to competitions hosted by the Blue Mountain Ski Club, served as the Nordic training center for the United State Olympic team and Norwegian jump team in the 1950s and 1960s, and provided a place for the U.S. Forest Service to hold a ski school.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Spout Springs was not open last winter.
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