Jim and Dorothy both grew up in Pocatello, Idaho. In 1938 they married and moved to Salt Lake City where Jim was a partner and operations manager for Garrett Freight Lines. Within the first year of their marriage, they took up skiing and attended the Grand Opening of Alta Ski Resort in January of 1939.
Over the next half century, Jim and Dorothy spent winters skiing at Alta and in many circles were considered pioneers of the sport. They loved the outdoors and much of their waking hours were spent skiing, boating, hiking, fishing, and hosting parties for their active outdoor friends and family. Their children, Susan Shafer Rowland and Jim Shafer, grew up on the mountain and both skied for the University of Utah.
Dorothy, known at Alta as "Tomato", and Jim, known as "Big Jim", introduced skiing to countless families in the Salt Lake Valley and helped pioneer family skiing. They promoted and supported ski racing in the intermountain area.
For over 20 years, Jim and Dorothy were members of the Salt Lake City Ski Club. Jim served as president and oversaw the gatekeeping and timing systems at countless intermountain ski races while Dorothy oversaw the registrations, handing out numbers, and posting race times on the official boards.
In those early days at Alta, Jim and Dorothy were found every winter weekend skiing with well-known friends like Bill and Carolyn Harris, Chick and Maxine Morton, Dick Durrance, Jack Reddish and Suzy and Billy Rytting. They relished those friendships, being outdoors, and skiing the powder.
A ski day at Alta always featured a picnic lunch with many friends at the old Watson Shelter with the highlight of one of Dorothy's tomato soup cakes. Drinks and dinner at the Alta Lodge followed.
Jim and Dorothy skied well into their 80's until Jim's knees finally gave out. Despite their passing, their love of skiing and the outdoors inspired countless families to follow in their footsteps and embrace a lifestyle centered on skiing.
Biographical note provided by the Shafer family.
Collection arranged chronologically.
Audio-visual materials can be fragile and require specialized equipment to play back. For this reason, access to audio-visual materials is provided through digital copies, and it might take longer to provide access to items that are not yet digitized. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law, condition of the material, or by donor.
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library's
Collection Name, Collection Number, Item Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Donated by Suzanne Shafer Rowland and Jim A. Shafer in 2018 and 2023.
Processed by Special Collections staff.
Forms part of the Ski and Snow Sports Archives (S.J. Quinney Outdoor Recreation Archives).
The Jim and Dorothy Shafer home movie collection consists of 8mm films ranging from the 1940s to the 1960s with recordings of family gatherings and outings, vacations, skiing, and other outdoor recreation. Includes footage in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon, some national parks and monuments such as Arches, Monument Valley, Lake Powell, Yellowstone, Timpanogos, and Grand Canyon, and outdoor activities such as skiing, swimming, horseback riding, archery, camping, hiking, and fishing.
Original title: "Skiing - Alta, Mount Superior, Watson Shelter, 1940 Archival Object."
Original film label: "Alpine Rose Lodge, Brighton and Sun Valley, Trail Creek Lodge".
Original film label: "Skiing - Aspen and Sun Valley."
Original film label: "Children".
Includes footage of Christmas, Halloween, kite flying, sledding, birthday party, rose bushes, dogs, snow, lawn mower, and Thanksgiving.
Original film label: "Children Part II".
Original film label: "Vacation, Portland - Farm". Includes footage of Bryce Canyon, horseback riding, Brighton store and chair lift, camping, fireworks, cooking outside, playing on a farm, Horsetail Falls (Mount Hood), Multnomah Falls (Oregon), Wahkeena Falls, and beach.
Original film label: "Local". Includes footage of the Salt Lake City Airport, downtown Salt Lake, This Is The Place Monument, a parade, Lagoon, a copper mine, deer, hiking, camping, fishing, archery, costumes, dancing, Mesa Verde National Park, and Double Arch at Arches National Park.
Original film label: "Vacations - Hidden Lake, Elk Lake, Vegas". Includes footage of fishing (17 minutes), Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Squaretop Mountain (Wyoming), swimming, beach and boats, and a submarine diving bell.
Original film label: "Frisco, Farmington trip, cherry blossom, Timpanogos climb, Dance, Allen family, Colorado Springs, Yellowstone". Includes footage of the Donner Pass, San Francisco, Capitol building, grilling food, airplane, mountain top, Garrett Freightlines Inc, Lurline ship, beach, cherry blossoms, hiking, Halloween, camping, Kenworth trucks, swimming, horseback riding, waterfalls, bears, and Old Faithful (Yellowstone). Date was determined by film edge code.
Includes footage of swimming, horseback riding, Rae Lynn arriving home, dancing performance, water skiing, camping and hiking, SLC Airport with Lufthansa Boeing 707, Stardust Las Vegas, mountain range, and a cabin.
Includes footage of Monument Valley, kayaks on the lake, plane landing on water, Dam with hydro power station, mowing grass, pink cadillac, junior baseball game, swimming, hiking in the mountains, water skiing, Utah Park Company bus, boy scouts camping, dog and puppies, school graduation. Date determined by film edge code.
Original film label: "Frisco, Jackson, Elk, Bottom Grand, Motor Tony, Sue cousin, Lake Powell, Jim". Includes footage of the SLC Airport, San Francisco, a cabin, Christmas, winter hiking, horseback riding, Grand Canyon, swimming, skiing, National Junior Ski Championship 1965, Mount Bachelor (Oregon), graduation party, water skiing, fishing, arches near water (possibly Rainbow Bridge), and a soccer game.
Includes footage of skiing, San Francisco, cruise ship, Hawaii, hula dancing, a cemetery, a mountain range, beach, zoo, and graduation from the University of Utah.
Original film label: "Jim racing, Park City, Sun Valley, Brighton, Jackson, Alta, Bend (Oregon)".