Listen and subscribe through your favorite podcasting platform
There are many unique things about Utah’s Beaver Mountain, the longest-running family-owned ski area in America. But nothing compares to the experience of meeting Marge. Since marrying into the Seeholzer family in 1964, Marge has spent most of those 60 ski seasons at her window in the ticket booth next to the lodge, a few steps from the Harry’s Dream lift. Now 82, Marge Seeholzer remains a fixture at this classic resort, which just celebrated its 85th birthday in the 2024-25 winter season.
While Marge didn’t come from a skiing family, on her honeymoon in Las Vegas in November 1964, she learned quickly what marrying into a skiing family meant. New husband Ted was watching the weather and saw snow on its way to northern Utah. They quickly packed up and headed home to get the ski area ready for an early opening.
Such is the life of a ski area family!
She wanted to clarify that doing a podcast interview isn’t actually much fun for her. “It’s not my favorite,” she says, only somewhat laughing. “But I love sitting and chatting with you.” And we love chatting with you, Marge!
Marge is now a two-time guest on Last Chair, the Ski Utah podcast. In 2021, she shared the microphone with son Travis. But today, she’s earned top billing herself.
No doubt, things are a little different at Beaver Mountain. It’s a different pace. The snow surface (and there’s plenty of it) is all natural. The lifts run at a pace that allows you to have a real conversation. Up on the mountain, manager Travis knows the customers by name.
In the ticket booth, it’s much the same. Marge greets skiers by name, asking about their families. She’s long lost track of the family celebrations she’s participated in over the years. It’s been a special part of her life.
“He loves winters – they both do,” said Marge about her in-laws, Ted and Luella. “They just started out wanting a place for their kids to go to have winter fun and keep them out of trouble. He wanted a place for them to ski.”
It was a pretty remote place back in the ‘30s – and still is today! But US89 makes it a quick, scenic drive up from Logan. And it’s only a short distance to Bear Lake by Garden City – about two hours from Park City.
Life in the ticket booth began for Marge working with her mother-in-law, Luella. “We were a team. The two of us worked together, and I loved that because she was just a lovely person.”
That personal feeling of the ski area watching after kids was strong in the ‘60s. Marge feels it continues today. “I think we have that feel today that the parents knew if their little kids had a problem, or lost their mother, or lost their ticket, or something like that, to always come to the ticket office and we would take care of them. And I think we still let people know that – that they can always come to us for help.”
Walk into the ticket office today, and you are instantly struck by that feeling of family.
At Beaver Mountain there are no RFID ticket cards. Each day skier gets a sticky ticket and a wicket. If you don’t know how it works, Marge has an instructional poster in the ticket office.
While not growing up as a skier, Marge makes it clear that she has skied. She loves to ski Gentle Ben, and underlying her outward embarrassment at having a lift named after her (Marge’s Triple), you can definitely sense a large amount of pride.
“That was my husband’s doing – that name,” she says with a deadpan face. “That was really awkward and embarrassing for me. But it touches me now.”
What really excites Marge is her interaction with people. “I’ve been here long enough that it’s three generations now – I see the parents bringing the kids, then you see those kids grown up and bringing their kids. I love that – it’s just so fun."
“We are blessed to meet many people and special friends.”
If you love skiing, take 30 minutes to listen to this conversation with Marge. This episode of Last Chair exudes what the lifestyle of skiing is about. It’s something you simply don’t find in other sports. It’s a special place in Utah with some mighty fine skiing and riding, and the most celebrated ticket manager in the state: Marge! If your still not convince to travel North to pay Beaver Mountain a visit, here are more reasons to fall in love with this wholesome resort.
Transcript
|00:00:00| Tom Kelly: It is a beautiful day up here at Beaver Mountain. I'm Tom Kelly, your host today. And with me, Marge, Seeholzer and Marge. Welcome. Thanks. And I have to say, this is your second appearance on the podcast, isn't it?
|00:00:10| Marge Seeholzer: I guess it is. Yep.
|00:00:12| Tom Kelly: And you love doing these, right?
|00:00:14| Marge Seeholzer: Uh, it's not my favorite, but I love sitting and chatting with you.
|00:00:18| Tom Kelly: Well, you know, you really are the spirit of this great place. We were up here, I think, four years ago in season two of last year, and we had Travis Seeholzer and yourself on. It was just a wonderful day. Had a chance to get up in the mountain. I hope to do that again this afternoon. For those who aren't familiar with Marge, Marge is the ticket manager and the, shall I say, the former owner. You've now passed that on to the family.
|00:00:43| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, no.
|00:00:44| Tom Kelly: You still are the owner.
|00:00:45| Marge Seeholzer: I write the checks.
|00:00:46| Tom Kelly: Okay, so she's important. She'll sell you your ticket, and she'll write the checks. And one of the things in coming here, I had to refresh my memory as to how to put the sticky ticket on the wicket. Do you have some suggestions on how to do that, Marge?
|00:01:01| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, we tell everybody every day, and they always say, oh, I'll figure it out. When they say that, you know, they're in trouble, and they don't know how they'll pick it up and slap it on their coat like that or some silly way. But yeah, we have they all say, oh yeah, that's old school. We like the old school.
|00:01:17| Tom Kelly: I love it. If you go to the ticket office, go inside, get your ticket, and take a look on the back wall. And they've got some examples of how to put that ticket on and how not to. Let's talk a little bit about the history of this amazing place, Beaver Mountain, located near Logan, Utah – between Logan and Garden City. And just to translate that for folks, Garden City is where Bear Lake is – a beautiful drive up here today. I took the Wyoming route to get up here today, but you can just as easily get up here from the Salt Lake metro area, just taking I15 north and making your way to Logan and then up highway 89 through Logan Canyon. But just a little bit of history. First of all, of yourself. Marge, give us a little sense of your background growing up as a young girl.
|00:02:01| Marge Seeholzer: I was not in a skiing family at all. In fact, I hardly knew anything about skiing. And I met Ted, my husband, and of course, his family had skied forever. All of them have raced and were beautiful skiers, and that's how I first got into it.
|00:02:22| Tom Kelly: How did you guys meet?
|00:02:24| Marge Seeholzer: We met at our work. We both worked at Thiokol, which is no longer, but we both work there.
|00:02:31| Tom Kelly: And he did have a lot of history. And maybe if you could go back in time before you came onto the scene in the 60s, but a little bit of the history of this place. Beaver Mountain?
|00:02:40| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah. His parents, his father loved the outdoors, and he loved Logan Canyon. But back then, there wasn't even a highway in Logan Canyon. And sometimes he would get calls from the wives of these trappers, and they would come up Logan Canyon, and they'd say, well, I'll be gone for a couple of days. And there was no communication, of course. And those days had gone by. And then the wives would contact Harold, Ted's dad, and say, could you go up and check my husband to see if he's okay? So he would either go on skis or snowshoes and go up the canyon and check on the trappers.
|00:03:15| Tom Kelly: And how would they do that? They didn't just get in their cars or their jeeps or their off-road vehicles. They just hiked up. Right?
|00:03:22| Marge Seeholzer: They did. And he loved winters. They both did. And they just kind of started out wanting a place for their kids to go have winter fun, to keep them off the streets, he would say, and keep them out of trouble, and where they'd be tired at night. And so he wanted a place for him to go ski, and he checked out a few different places in Logan Canyon. They went to the sinks farther up first and determined to come to Beaver Mountain. And I swear through all the years he was inspired because many times we can get right to the turn off, driving all the way up the canyon in rain, and it will change to snow when you turn off to Beaver Mountain, and it's as you know, it's good exposure. And he picked the right place.
|00:04:10| Tom Kelly: It really is a magical place. You get up in this mountain, all you see is wilderness in every direction. It's just such a great feeling. Marge, I know you don't ski, but I do hope you get up on the mountain once in a while.
|00:04:23| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, yes. And I love the drive except when it's really stormy. Yeah, but I do love the drive. Logan Canyon is so beautiful, and it's so beautiful. When we turn off and you see our place, to me that … it always touches my heart.
|00:04:38| Tom Kelly: So you and Ted met at Thiokol, which is down in the valley. Do you remember the first time that he brought you up to Beaver Mountain?
|00:04:46| Marge Seeholzer: No, not exactly, but I remember that, his family, they were lovely and kind to me. But I was so intimidated by them because they expected me to be a skier and I wasn't, so that was difficult to marry into a skiing family as they were because all the kids raced and they'd grown up skiing. But yeah, it was. It's a lovely family to be married into.
|00:05:12| Tom Kelly: As you got into this family, you weren't a skier. How did you kind of acclimate and make your way in? I imagine that you did share with them a great passion for the outdoors.
|00:05:27| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah. And, you know, when we were married, it was November, and that was the all-time early opening of Beaver Mountain. And he was watching, keeping track of the weather at home, and he found out it had snowed. And we he decided that we had to come home. And he we came home and we went right to work.
|00:05:51| Tom Kelly: From your honeymoon.
|00:05:53| Marge Seeholzer: I was brand new to everything.
|00:05:55| Tom Kelly: And where was your honeymoon?
|00:05:57| Marge Seeholzer: Las Vegas.
|00:05:58| Tom Kelly: So you immediately got back in the car and got back up here to Logan.
|00:06:02| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah. He was so devoted. And he knew his dad would be worrying that he wasn't there. And at that time, his mom and dad were running the operation and running the ticket office. And we were voted in to manage the food service. So that's what we did the first two years of our marriage. Then his dad got sick. He had cancer and was taken very early. So when his dad got sick, then they decided that Ted needed to take over that job. And then that's when I moved into the ticket office. So Beaver is 85 years old, and I've only been here for 60 of those years.
|00:06:40| Tom Kelly: Only 60. Do you have memories of that first couple of seasons in the ticket booth?
|00:06:47| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah, I, I do. At that time, his mother still worked there. So we were a team. The two of us worked together. And I love that because she was just a lovely person and just a kind, good mother-in-law and a good mother to everyone. And back then I still remember, and I think we have that feel today that the parents knew if their little kids had a problem, or lost their mother, or lost their ticket or something like that, always come to the ticket office and we would take care of them. And I think we still let people know that, that they can always come to us for help.
|00:07:21| Tom Kelly: When you look back to that period of the 60s and into the 70s, early in your tenure here at Beaver Mountain, what was life like here? What were some of the what was the ski area like?
|00:07:32| Marge Seeholzer: And it was lots different. You know, people, when they see the large corporate areas, we're probably way behind what they are in high-speed lifts and the fancy lodges and the nightlife. But, we've come a long way because when I came, there was no power, no phones. We ran the electricity with generators. You turn them off at night. Turn them back on in the morning. And we had a bad fire in the middle of the night. The groomers were here, thank goodness, and called us. Our generator houses were on fire, so we lost everything. We lost power. And it was during ski season. It was January 29th, my husband's birthday.
|00:08:17| Tom Kelly: What year?
|00:08:18| Marge Seeholzer: 1970. I forget exactly.
|00:08:25| Tom Kelly: But in the 70s. So yeah, the 70s.
|00:08:27| Marge Seeholzer: And my dad was a retired contractor, and he was working up here part-time just for a fun job. And so he sort of took the reins as well as our patrollers in rebuilding that generator house. And we had lots of help from the community, and we were back in operation, I think, in about a week. And that kind of spurred us on to pursue power. We had always backed off from that because it was so terribly expensive. And we finally decided when we lost all the generators, maybe it was time to look into it. So the next year was when we got power at the mountain, and that was huge for us. We still did not have phones. We had two-way radios. I had it in my car. Ted had it in his truck. We had one in the bedroom right by our bed, so that if they needed to get hold of us, we weren't there. There was the two-way radio in the middle of the night or whenever it was.
|00:09:24| Tom Kelly: And you lived in Logan.
|00:09:25| Marge Seeholzer: In Smithfield.
|00:09:26| Tom Kelly: In Smithfield.
|00:09:26| Marge Seeholzer: Which is north of Logan. Just a ways.
|00:09:28| Tom Kelly: So how far was it from Smithfield here to Beaver?
|00:09:32| Marge Seeholzer: About 35 miles.
|00:09:34| Tom Kelly: So in the wintertime, that was a … that was a commitment, huh?
|00:09:39| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah. And I still live there and drive up here.
|00:09:42| Tom Kelly: Did you. … So you had a two-way radio that worked from Smithfield to here. So if the groomers had an issue, they could get hold of you on the two-way radio.
|00:09:52| Marge Seeholzer: Exactly.
|00:09:52| Tom Kelly: Now, today we have these mobile phones. It's much different, isn't it?
|00:09:55| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so much different. But back then, that's what we had, and we were grateful for it.
|00:10:01| Tom Kelly: How did you communicate along the mountain, for example, from the bottom of the lift to the top of the lift?
|00:10:06| Marge Seeholzer: Well, we have all the radios that we, we still use for our ski patrol and their, um, Ted Travis could tell you more about what they are exactly, but they're just the the specialty radios that our ski patrol uses.
|00:10:21| Tom Kelly: I know this is going to take you a little bit out of your expertise in ticketing, but since you are the one that writes the checks, uh, how have things evolved in the operation of the resort, like snowmaking lifts and other things? The big things that make it such a great skiing experience.
|00:10:37| Marge Seeholzer: We do not make snow, and we're probably the only ones left around that do not make snow. Sometimes that gets a little frustrating, but when we get the snow, it's better snow because it's right from heaven. And as you know, that snow is better than man-made snow. So sometimes we have to wait till a little bit later in the season to get started to get coverage, but it's better. And oh, we've the lodge we're sitting in now. It was built in about 1965, and I think we have added three wings onto it since then. We have added, uh, two magic carpets. We have rebuilt Little Beaver to a triple and extended it longer, and we've put out a put a lodge or, I'm sorry, a lift out north, which opens 600 acres, which is a triple chairlift.
|00:11:34| Tom Kelly: Is that Marge's triple? Yes. That's your triple, right.
|00:11:37| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah. And that was my husband's doing that name. That was really awkward and embarrassing for me.
|00:11:41| Tom Kelly: Did he tell you at any point or you just walked in one day and there it was.
|00:11:44| Marge Seeholzer: Was kind of said, this is what we're doing, and it touches me now, but it was embarrassing.
|00:11:51| Tom Kelly: I could, I could I can totally see that. But. Well, we're going to we're going to talk more about that later. I think when you look at things like, like snow grooming and other things, you know, how is the mountain modernized over time to, to take care of the natural snowfall that you have here?
|00:12:07| Marge Seeholzer: Grooming is a key thing. And my son, Travis, he reminds me of it often because, snowcats. To groom snow are not cheap. And I'm always the one that watches the money and worries about overspending. And those snowcats are very, very expensive. And he'll say, well, mom, we need a new snow cat. And I'll kind of grumble a little bit. But then, when you see the miracles that they can do on the snow, day after day, night after night, they're worth it. Uh, we have people call them. They'll say, well, did you groom anything today? We groom many runs every day and every night.
|00:12:45| Tom Kelly: And it's an all-night operation, I would imagine. Have you ridden in a groomer before? Yep. What's that like?
|00:12:51| Marge Seeholzer: It's fun. Uh, I remember when our kids were little. Ted would take them for rides in the snowcats. And they thought that was the coolest thing ever. In fact, I think Travis, my son that's now running the operation, he was driving a snow cap, probably. Maybe when he was 15 or so. Yeah. Our kids from the time they were this high, they've worked at Beaver Mountain. They just knew that was something they did.
|00:13:18| Tom Kelly: Did your husband, Ted, let you put your hand on the tiller and actually maneuver the snowcat?
|00:13:23| Marge Seeholzer: Nope. I never did that.
|00:13:25| Tom Kelly: Never did that. Okay. It's kind of like going as a co-pilot in an airplane. You know? You're along for the ride.
|00:13:30| Marge Seeholzer: Right?
|00:13:31| Tom Kelly: It is a great experience, though. Did you do it at night?
|00:13:34| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah, I've done it day and night. Yeah.
|00:13:36| Tom Kelly: It is just so mystical. You go out there at night, and there's nothing out there.
|00:13:40| Marge Seeholzer: And, you know, Travis is a good photographer. When he'll be grooming. He still grooms as well as everything else he does. He'll be at the top of that mountain just pre-sunrise. Some of the most beautiful pictures that we've ever seen are the ones he gets from the groomer in the morning.
|00:13:55| Tom Kelly: Yeah, it's nice to be up there. I, you know, every once in a while I'll have the occasion to be up on a mountain at sunrise. And that is just a magical time, isn't it?
|00:14:03| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah.
|00:14:04| Tom Kelly: One of the things that you've experienced, I'm sure, as being in your ticket window every day, you have met a lot of people, and I imagine you have some great stories of the people that you've met.
|00:14:17| Marge Seeholzer: Oh so many. And I always say this is one of the most favorite parts of my job is meeting all the people. And I've been here long enough that it's third generations now. I see the parents bringing the kids, and then you see those kids grown up and bringing their kids, and then they move away, and they always come back when they're in Utah again. And I love that. That's just so fun. And we are blessed to meet many, many people and very special friends.
|00:14:47| Tom Kelly: Are you pretty good with the names still?
|00:14:49| Marge Seeholzer: Not as good as I used to be, but I usually will remember their faces. And sometimes the name will come midway through the conversation, but. Oh, that's. That's such an important part.
|00:15:01| Tom Kelly: And do you get kids that were here when they were really little and they grow up a little bit and they come to the window and they say, hi, Marge, how are you doing? Yeah.
|00:15:08| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah, absolutely. All the time. I love it.
|00:15:10| Tom Kelly: When I was here four years ago, I went out and skied with Travis. And I've told this story so many times to friends. I was at the ski area, skiing for 2.5 hours, and we only made, I think, four runs because we were talking to so many people and Travis knew everyone on the mountain. He'd stand there by the lift. He'd greet people by name as they got off the lift. But I found that that's kind of the spirit that skiing is about. I know you're not a skier, but you really have absorbed that spirit and culture that the sport's about.
|00:15:39| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, we feel like our regular customers are like. Well, they think it's their resort. They have ownership in it because they're here all the time. And we try and listen to what they're saying, and they are important to us. And it is a first-name basis because we're friends.
|00:15:59| Tom Kelly: Yeah. It's something that folks, if you're listening to this and you have not been up to Beaver Mountain and there's a number of resorts like this in Utah, but this one is really pretty special. It is really very personal. I imagine over time that you've probably been to weddings and other family engagements of people that you've met here at the resort, right?
|00:16:18| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, yes. Many times. And, you know, you talk about our tickets with the wicket. So I, I have the, the lucky job of being able to put a word or a name on the ticket each day. And many, many times through the years we have honored people with this name. Uh, for example, when someone has passed away and their family maybe is planning a ski date to do a celebration of life or a reunion or something they will call.
|00:16:49| Tom Kelly: They'll request that that's just wonderful.
|00:16:52| Marge Seeholzer: And they ask that their person be on the ticket.
|00:16:56| Tom Kelly: Yeah. Today's word is star.
|00:16:59| Marge Seeholzer: And that is. That's just the part of a name of a school. Star Valley, Wyoming. Kids are here today.
|00:17:05| Tom Kelly: Are they here? I saw the buses when we came in. Do you get a lot of school groups that come here?
|00:17:10| Marge Seeholzer: Yes we do. We get quite a few. We offer them a very special, inexpensive package deal. And, yeah, we have school groups almost every day through the season. Weekdays.
|00:17:20| Tom Kelly: Pretty good deal for a school kid to get the day off and come to ski here at Beaver.
|00:17:24| Marge Seeholzer: And we try and keep it very inexpensive so they can have the opportunity to learn, and includes a rental package and a beginner lesson and a ticket.
|00:17:33| Tom Kelly: We're going to take a short break here on Last Chair. We're with Marge Seeholzer, the legendary ticket sales person here at Beaver Mountain. We'll be right back on Last Chair.
|00:17:45| Tom Kelly: We're back on Last Chair, and it is a beautiful day up here at Beaver Mountain. The sun is starting to pop in. We're doing this in the afternoon, and I am motivated to get up there for a couple of runs before I head back home. Um, Marge, thank you for joining us again. I want to explore the evolution of ski tickets again. I think many of us are accustomed now to the little RFID cards that we put in our pocket. We never pay attention. We simply walk through the turnstile a little bit more homespun here. We've been talking about the sticky wickets and things, but have you evolved that ticket process over the years?
|00:18:29| Marge Seeholzer: Uh, it is evolving, and I have to say that my son Travis and his wife, Kristy, they really run this place and we have a great staff of supervisors. But Travis and Kristy, they run the place and they're both very smart. And Christie is a computer genius, and she is incorporating RFID. We've incorporated that into our season passes. This is the fifth year, and I think in the near future, probably our day passes will go to that. And I have kind of mixed feelings about that because I have such special experiences with day tickets that mean a lot to a lot of people, but they have. They're amazing. I am so blessed to have them to run this place because I'm very proud of them, and they do a great job.
|00:19:16| Tom Kelly: Well, they really do. Um, I would imagine. And I'm going to I didn't start skiing until 18, so I can't go back to my childhood. But I know that when I was in college in Wisconsin and I was skiing all the time, that it was a badge of honor to have all of these wickets hung onto your jacket. Do you still get that? You get kids coming in with 20 wickets.
|00:19:36| Marge Seeholzer: We do. And I'll say, can I cut these off for you so the liftie can see which ticket is today? No, please don't cut him off. We need to keep him.
|00:19:44| Tom Kelly: And you probably have to train your lifties to just be patient with that, right? Yeah.
|00:19:48| Marge Seeholzer: And another thing. Before we had the RFID season passes, they had their picture, uh, on their season pass card, and then the the liftie would check it each day. Well, so many families have kept those pictures when their children were very started skiing clear up through all the years. So every year you'd see their pictures, and they'll either do wall hangings, framed pictures, or use them for Christmas ornaments. And they keep them all through the years. So I miss that. I feel bad we don't have that now.
|00:20:20| Tom Kelly: Yeah, well, you know, I'll put in a vote fir keeping the sticky wickets if you can. I want to talk more about family. You've touched on it a number of times in our conversation, going back to the early formation of this place. It was about families. It was about providing those opportunities for families to get out here. The Seeholzer family is now greatly expanded. I'm curious how many how many grandkids do you have now?
|00:20:47| Marge Seeholzer: Well, I have a lot. I have 14 grandkids and I have more great-grandkids than grandkids. And I have, um. Well, our daughter and son-in-law used to be in the business and they retired and left the company. But we had their kids and their grandkids here, and their kids all worked at Beaver from when they were young. And our kids obviously have and our grandkids too. And I have two granddaughters that are still working here, and that is so fun for me, and I'm so proud of them and they do a good job.
|00:21:20| Tom Kelly: How old are your great grands?
|00:21:22| Marge Seeholzer: Well, they're different ages. Um, I have some that are grown. When I married Ted, he had three young children that I raised.
|00:21:32| Tom Kelly: Yeah, we, I actually, I have ten grandkids, but I only have one great-grand. But I do have one right now. She's four. Uh, I've been trying to teach her to ski, and I'm rapidly learning that that's not a good idea. That's what ski schools are for, right?
|00:21:46| Marge Seeholzer: That's exactly right.
|00:21:47| Tom Kelly: So what happened in the Seeholzer family? Did the kids get into ski school?
|00:21:52| Marge Seeholzer: Huh? Yeah. They did. And we started them all very early. And of course, you know, when I worked and, uh, when my kids were young, before they were in school, I'd bring them to work with me. And so we'd we'd get them going. And it was usually one of our instructors or our ski school director at that time took them out and kind of showed them the ropes and got them started.
|00:22:14| Tom Kelly: Yeah, it's just so much fun. I do love taking her out, but I can see that I am not making progress, so I'm going to have to look at a different route.
|00:22:23| Marge Seeholzer: They listen to an instructor better than they do family.
|00:22:25| Tom Kelly: That's what I'm thinking. Plus, it also gets them in a class with some of their peer group. And that's that's a good thing too. So given that this was kind of the epicenter of the family, I imagine that holidays like Christmas and so forth, they kind of centered a little bit around the ski area, didn't they?
|00:22:40| Marge Seeholzer: Yes they do. And we do something that's probably very unusual. I, I'm guessing we're probably one of the few resorts that we do not open Christmas Day. I say we are still closing on Christmas Day as long as I have anything to say about it. We're open the day before and all the days after. And of course they're very busy days. But Christmas Day is still a family day for us.
|00:23:04| Tom Kelly: That's really good. That's really impressive that you are doing that. And so that's a time of just gathering in someone's home in Logan or Smithfield and just celebrating family.
|00:23:16| Marge Seeholzer: Right. Yeah.
|00:23:16| Tom Kelly: And then the next day it's off to work.
|00:23:18| Marge Seeholzer: That's exactly right.
|00:23:19| Tom Kelly: And you're there in the ticket window?
|00:23:20| Marge Seeholzer: Yes, I am.
|00:23:22| Tom Kelly: Let's talk about that, Marge. Uh, do you mind sharing your age?
|00:23:26| Marge Seeholzer: I'm 82.
|00:23:29| Tom Kelly: 82?
|00:23:29| Marge Seeholzer: Hard to say that out loud. I just can't believe it. I am so blessed. I am so blessed because I can still do this. And, my health is still good and I've had a few issues, but some of my kids are retiring and I think, what is that about? That's silly.
|00:23:47| Tom Kelly: Isn't that crazy?
|00:23:48| Marge Seeholzer: I mean, I love what I do and I'm blessed that I can still do it. Not as long, not as long of hours as I used to, but I still do it.
|00:23:56| Tom Kelly: My wife is 82 as well, and we go through kind of that, that same discussion as we watch our kids get a little bit older. So given that you're that age, what motivates you to be in that ticket booth every day?
|00:24:09| Marge Seeholzer: It's my life. It's been my life for 60 years, and I've been pondering this a lot the last year. As I get older and it's a little more of a project. I think, what would I do when I'm not here on my days off? We have all these cameras. I'm looking at those cameras all day long to see what's going on up here without me.
|00:24:29| Tom Kelly: Don't do that, by the way.
|00:24:30| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, I have to. I can't not. It's FOMO, I guess, is what the kids call it.
|00:24:35| Tom Kelly: That is really crazy. Well, I want to wrap this up with a section we call Fresh Tracks. So I've got just a few other final questions for you. I know that you don't ski, and I could ask you what your favorite run is at Beaver Mountain, but you probably wouldn't have one. But what is the run that people talk about the most here at Beaver Mountain?
|00:24:55| Marge Seeholzer: You know one thing, before you get to that, I did ski. I didn't ski when I met Ted. So I was the beginner skier, and I, I kind of let it go by the wayside because it seemed like I'd get out there skiing, and then they'd need something here and I'd come back in. But that's one of the big regrets I have in my life that I quit skiing. Because you should never let that happen.
|00:25:17| Tom Kelly: Yeah, my wife tried. One time. We worked at a ski area together. She was my first employee at this little ski area, 370-foot vertical in Wisconsin called Telemark. And I did get her out there one time. That was it. But she now tells me she may not ski, but I don't knit, so that's an even deal. So. Okay. So then I will ask you what is your favorite run here at Beaver Mountain.
|00:25:42| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, I don't know. It depends on what you're looking for. Um, Gentle Ben is a great run because it's a beginner run and it's off the dream lift, so it goes to the top. But it's it's a nice beginner run. It's just a lot longer than our beginner areas on Little Beaver, and it's over two miles long. But there are so many for so many different reasons. And with the adding of Marge's triple lift and increasing the length of Little Beaver lift, we've added a lot of new runs to both of those areas, which people have really appreciated.
|00:26:16| Tom Kelly: So here's one that I don't know if you can actually even calculate, but do you know what is the most days that anyone has ever skied in one season at Beaver Mountain? It's hard to keep track of that with wickets, but do you have any idea?
|00:26:29| Marge Seeholzer: Well, we have a lot of season passes and Kristy, my daughter-in-law, manages that and it's amazing the things that she can pull up from those programs and those statistics. I don't know exactly, but I know there are some of these people that I joke with. And I said, well, you probably owe me a lot of money for all these days you're skiing past the point of paying for your pass. But we have some that ski all about five days a week and maybe sometimes six days a week. And I don't know, total numbers, but.
|00:26:59| Tom Kelly: Well, that's a lot of skiing. Yeah, I know that. Working a ticket window, you hear a lot of stories from people, but what's the craziest line that a skier has ever used to get a free lift ticket?
|00:27:13| Marge Seeholzer: Oh, I don't know. Uh, oftentimes they'll they'll put their ticket on wrong with their ticket and they'll come back and you wonder if if they, you know, if they really lost it or if they never had one to begin with and they're just going to see how far they could push you. I don't know. That's there are lots of funny things you hear.
|00:27:37| Tom Kelly: You can probably see through some of those, huh?
|00:27:39| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah. You learn through the years.
|00:27:41| Tom Kelly: You do learn through the years. Okay. Last question. Marge, this is always a tough one for people in just one word. What is your life meant to you here at Beaver Mountain? One word.
|00:27:58| Marge Seeholzer: Special.
|00:28:00| Tom Kelly: It's pretty special, isn't it?
|00:28:02| Marge Seeholzer: Yeah.
|00:28:03| Tom Kelly: What makes this a special place to you?
|00:28:06| Marge Seeholzer: Uh, all of the hundreds and thousands of people that we've met and had. Friends that were our friends with. And the family part is wonderful. The scenery is great. Our employees are good. I don't know, it's all.
|00:28:22| Tom Kelly: It's all special.
|00:28:23| Marge Seeholzer: Very special. Yeah.
|00:28:25| Tom Kelly: Marge, thank you so much for joining us once again. Second appearance on Last Chair. I'm going to go up and make a few turns.
|00:28:31| Marge Seeholzer: Good. Thank you.
