Ski lift at Sundance Mountain Resort. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
Sundance Institute’s corporate archives show that in 1961, Redford first encountered the canyon when he purchased two acres and built a cabin near Mount Timpanogos. Several years later, he acquired thousands of additional acres and, in August 1968, purchased the entire Timp Haven ski operation. Ski Utah’s history reported that in the late 1960s he acquired around 3,000 acres in an effort to prevent a proposed housing development of A-frame cabins on small parcels from being built in the canyon.
In the late 1960s, when Robert Redford turned his attention to Timp Haven, a small ski area in Utah’s Provo Canyon, the surrounding landscape was facing pressure from development. The next year, Redford renamed the property Sundance, the mountain resort and community named after his role in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . Redford’s decision to acquire the property was influenced by concerns about how the canyon could be developed.
The 865-acre conservation easement by the Redford family In 1997, the Redford family donated a permanent conservation easement covering 865 acres to Utah Open Lands . The permanent deed describes the Redford Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve as more than 860 acres of critical wildlife habitat, vital watershed and undisturbed alpine meadows protected in perpetuity. The conservation efforts by the Redford family continued for decades following the original 865-acre easement. In 2020, Utah Open Lands protected another 316.5 acres through the Redford Family Elk Meadows Preserve. The 1997 easement established permanent protection for one major block of habitat, while the later agreement added another area with important wetlands and wildlife habitat.
Therefore, his role was not to create skiing in the canyon from scratch, but to take over the existing operations and reshape its future. The Stewart family developed Timp Haven in the 1940s, and the operation expanded over the following years. By the time Redford purchased it, the resort already had lifts and other ski infrastructure. The property reportedly contains year-round moose habitat, important elk habitat, wetlands and areas used by black bears, cougars and coyotes. The latter protection highlights the continuity in the family’s approach to the landscape.
