Walking into Utah Olympic Park is like re-experiencing the excitement of the Olympics all over again. It offers two free museums that showcase thousands of archives. The Alf Engen Ski Museum highlights the history of all skiing disciplines in the Intermountain West, and the Eccles Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museum features memorabilia from the historic event.
The idea for a regional ski museum originated well before the 2002 Games. In 1989, the Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation was established to create a modest ski museum honoring Alf Engen, a Norwegian-American ski jumper who contributed to the founding of Alta, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole and about 25 other ski areas in the western United States. He was the director of Alta Ski School for 40 years.
By 1993, the nonprofit housed its tribute to Engen in an A-frame at Alta.
Two years later, Salt Lake City was selected as the 2002 Winter Games host, and “all the cards fell into place for the Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation,” said Annie Bommer, executive director of Alf Engen Ski Museum.
The foundation’s vision expanded to include an Olympic gallery, and a significant donation from the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation funded a 29,000-square-foot facility. It was named the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center, with the Alf Engen Ski Museum acting as the cornerstone of the building. In July 2002, it opened in the lower level, which previously had served as a media subcenter during the 2002 Games.
Its ski history exhibits include the Alf & Alan Engen ski trophies that applaud young athletes for their sportsmanship and leadership; the Engen Bell that Engen rang to start ski-school sessions at Alta for 24 years; photos dating back to the 1930s by Ray Atkeson, who is known as the Ansel Adams of ski photography; 30 years of ski fashion from ski fashion editor Barbara Alley Simon; tributes to cross-country skiing, snowboarding and freestyle skiing; the history of the 10th Mountain Division; topo maps of Utah resorts; and much more.
The museum also offers interactive elements like an Avalanche Maker Game, a Mountain Sport Simulator to feel the rush of bobsledding, mountain biking, powder skiing, and a ski jump simulator.
“The museum tells the story of how skiing was brought into Utah through the eyes of Alf, and how he and Joe Quinney worked together,” Bommer said. “It also focuses on the science of snow and why we are known for the greatest snow on earth.”
On June 9, 2005, UOP’s second museum, the 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museum, was dedicated to convey the story of the Olympic and Paralympic games from bid to closing ceremonies. It includes everything from interactive elements and videos to actual medals from the Games and historical Olympic medals throughout the decades. Figure skating, speed skating, hockey, curling, freestyle skiing, racing, snowboarding, biatholon, cross-country skiing, bobsled, luge and skeleton all take center stage.
Its ski jumping exhibits pay special tribute to Deedee Corradini, who helped make women’s ski jumping an Olympic event in 2014. The museum also contains a plethora of inspiring Olympic-tradition trading pins and special exhibitions on volunteers, the torch relay and the opening ceremonies.
Part of the museum is undergoing a remodel, which began July 8 and is planned to be completed in mid-August. It includes expanding the entrance of the Hall of Fame, which longtime, former Deer Valley President Bob Wheaton, along with Ski Utah Vice President of Marketing Raelene Davis and former Executive Director and Coach of Snowbird Sports Education Foundation Steve Bounous, will be inducted into in August. The extra space will allow for about 57 more plaques to be showcased within the next 10 to 15 years.
Renovations also include installing climate-controlled cases to preserve Simon’s ski fashion because, after all, she is known as the First Lady of Fashion, Bommer said. The large exhibit, which features fashions from 1968 to 1998, rotates to accommodate the vast collection.
A one-hour guided tour is one of the best ways to get a behind-the-scenes look of UOP as a whole. A shuttle takes guests to the top of the world’s highest ski jump and to one of the fastest sliding (bobsled) tracks in the world. It includes information like how ice sheets are made, a bit of history and an introduction to the pool and to the athletes.
“It takes you places you can’t go by yourself,” said Kole Nordmann, UOP marketing manager, adding that guests also get a peek at what it was like during the 2002 Games.