Sky Tavern opened in December ’45 with a 21-room hotel, coffee shop, and bar. There was no electricity and no telephone. The resort ran on a gasoline-operated generator. The ski lift was a couple of rope tows and a T-bar lift. You wrapped one leg around an upside-down metal “T” attached to a moving cable and let it pull you up the slope. To groom the slopes, a group of skiers took the T-bar to the top of the mountain in the morning and sideslipped down to pack the slope.

While the Flying M E guests hit the slopes, I ran errands in Reno for Edie, the Flying M E cook, and Emmy, the “M E” proprietor. Then I stopped in at The Christmas Tree Inn for a hot toddy and a chat with Alice Ross. The Christmas Tree was a bar and restaurant on the Mount Rose Highway close to Sky Tavern. Alice was the widow of the cowboy artist and author Will James. When Will passed away in ’42 at age 50, Alice married Johnny Ross and they opened The Christmas Tree as a bar in ’46.

The Christmas Tree looked like a Swiss chalet and was lit up year-round… like a Christmas Tree. Inside was a big stone fireplace, dancing, gambling, and great views of Washoe Valley. When the restaurant was added in ’47, The Christmas Tree became known for “the best mahogany-broiled steaks—anywhere.”
_______
– Excerpted from the new paperback and ebook edition of The DIVORCE SEEKERS – The Intimate True Story of a Nevada Divorce Ranch Wrangler by William McGee with Sandra McGee. On Amazon. (Photo from the McGee Collection, 2003)