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Tamarack Resort

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Template:Otheruses2 Tamarack Resort is a new four-season destination resort in the Payette River mountains of west central Idaho. It is located on the west shore of Lake Cascade (Cascade Reservoir), southwest of Donnelly in Valley County, about 90 miles north of Boise.

Tamarack is the first new ski resort to be built in North America in 23 years; Beaver Creek in Colorado and Deer Valley in Utah opened within days of each other in 1981. (Deer Valley was not wholly new, as it was built at the former ski area of "Snow Park," which operated from 1946-1969.)

Location of Donnelly, Idaho
Location of Donnelly, Idaho

Tamarack was first conceived as Valbois in the early 1980s, but unsuccessfully struggled to overcome federal regulatory hurdles and folded in 1995. Three years later a new group of investors revived the project with modifications and called it WestRock. The name was changed to Tamarack in December 2002, after the tamarack larch, a deciduous coniferous tree.

The Tamarack Resort's ski area opened in December 2004, with a summit elevation of 7700 feet (2347 m) above sea level on West Mountain and a vertical drop of 2800 feet (853 m). There are currently five quad chairlifts on the east-facing slopes, with two more proposed. The summit of Tamarack receives 300 inches (762 cm) of snowfall and snowmaking is available on the lower runs. The terrain is rated at 15% novice, 56% intermediate, and 29% advanced.

For the cross country skier there are over 30 km (18.6 miles) of Nordic trails.

Osprey Meadows, a Robert Trent Jones II signature 18-hole golf course opened in May 2006, with the addition of the back nine holes. The front nine holes opened for play in September 2005. The course is just southeast of the village and base of the ski area, at an elevation of 4850 feet (1478 m). The back tees play at 7319 yards (6692 m), with 100 bunkers distributed on the course. Instruction at the golf course is provided by the Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf.

When ultimately completed in 10-15 years, Tamarack will be a $1.5 billion destination resort with 62 ski runs, 7 chairlifts, two golf courses, and plentiful mountain biking trails.

Since January 2004, the resort has sold 531 properties for $359.3 million. This includes an additional nine lots than were originally planned for these phases that netted $42.7 million, they were captured by re-engineering the original plot design.

In August 2005, President George W. Bush vacationed at the resort for two nights, a guest of Dirk Kempthorne, then the governor of Idaho. Kempthorne became the U.S. Secretary of Interior in May 2006.

In September 2006, recently retired tennis star Andre Agassi and wife Steffi Graf announced (through their development company) that they have finalized an agreement to develop a luxury mountain project at Tamarack, with completion expected in 2009. This is their first lifestyle development project.

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