Memories and memorabilia from the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley might become more elaborate in the future.
Placer County supervisors are providing early support for a non-profit’s plans to locate a 1960 Olympics and winter sports museum at the county’s Squaw Valley Park in Lake Tahoe. The only signs of the 1960 Olympics are located in the High Camp region of Squaw Valley ski resort.
The non-profit Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation has expressed a preference to locate the facility at the Squaw Valley Park. The board’s support is positive news for the Museum Foundation, according to board president Bill Clark.
“It’s a step forward,” Clark told the Auburn Journal. “But a lot of things still have to be accomplished.”
The alternative site considered Tuesday for the 1960 Olympic museum is the so-called Gateway Property on the north side of Squaw Valley Road. But the site has constraints, including a location near a power substation and power lines and lack of sewer service. A positive would have been its adjacency to the historic Olympic rings monument.
Proponents of the 1960 Olympic museum favored the Squaw Valley Park location for aesthetic reasons, most notably the existing power lines and nearby substation.”
The county park, located on the southern corner of Squaw Valley Road, includes playgrounds, a soccer field, parking and a staging area for the Western States Trail. Constraints at Squaw Valley park include existing zoning, access and lack of sewer service.
If Tuesday’s board direction ultimately leads to a project application by the museum foundation, then the 1960 1960 Olympic museum applicants would be responsible for any environmental review, she said.
Completion of the new museum would signal the transfer of many of the displays at the Museum of Sierra Ski History and the 1960 Olympics, located at Boreal Ski Area, creating a museum of California ski history at the new site.
Jeffrey Weidel can be reached at skiweidel@gmail.com. Thanks for visiting his website at www.tahoeskiworld.com
