Sandia: A Mountain, a Family, and the Climate Crisis

Keywords: historical geography, environmental history, climate change, outdoor recreation
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

In this presentation, I use the Sandias, a small New Mexico mountain range, and Sandia Peak Ski Area to tell a larger story about the historical geography of recreation, climate politics, and global warming in the Southwest. The ski area was created during the Depression by Robert Nordhaus, a member of a prominent New Mexico family, and he expanded the ski area after he served with the 10th Mountain Division during the Second World War. His two sons, Bob Nordhaus and William Nordhaus, learned to ski there. In their careers, the two men played pivotal roles in crafting America’s response to climate change through policy and economics. Meanwhile, the ski area their father founded has suffered due to a two decade-long megadrought—worsened by climate change—and seems destined to close for good in the next few years.

This presentation is small-scale, place-based account of this storied mountain range and ski area and the involvement of the Nordhauses, who perhaps have done more than any other American family to shape the country’s response to climate change. I am influenced by other place-based histories that attempt to tell larger stories about the country through small-scale projects: Thomas Andrews’, Coyote Valley; William deBuys’, Salt Dreams; and William Bunge’s, Fitzgerald. While the policy proposals the Nordhaus sons advocated to address global warming could seem quite abstract and bureaucratic, the mountain and ski area that played such a pivotal role in their development has been battered by climate change.