headquarters boyne falls michigan key people john kircher president western operations stephen kircher president eastern operations number of employees 7 000 website boyneresorts.com boyne resorts is the second largest owner and operator of ski and golf resorts in the united states and is the longest running management team at nearly 60 years . 1 the company employs over 7 000 full time and seasonal staff . it operates 13 resort properties 10 ski resorts and 11 golf courses . the company based in boyne falls michigan owns and or operates properties in the u.s. states of michigan montana washington maine new hampshire tennessee and utah and the canadian province of british columbia . contents 1 history 2 properties 3 references 4 external links history edit boyne resorts was founded by everett kircher jim christianson and john norton in 1947 . they purchased a steep hill in northern michigan for 1 from former state senator pierson . then the co founders bought a single chairlift from sun valley and installed it at their northern michigan resort as its first lift . this chairlift was the first ever built . still in service today it has been upgraded several times . 2 in 1954 boyne built and opened the gatlinburg skylift in tennessee as a summer tourist attraction . in 1963 boyne highlands in northern michigan was added and by 1967 boyne mountain expanded to include additional lifts and a golf course . robert trent jones designed the first resort course in the region at boyne highlands in 1966 . chet huntley s big sky resort was purchased in 1976 only a few years after its opening in december 1973 . in 1986 boyne purchased brighton outside of salt lake city utah . in the 1990s boyne usa purchased golf courses in michigan and florida . 1997 brought along the company s fifth ski resort crystal mountain washington . in 2001 boyne added its first canadian resort cypress mountain outside vancouver british columbia . cypress mountain was the host to all the freestyle and snowboard events for the 2010 winter olympic games . in 2002 the company s founder and visionary everett kircher died however his legacy of staying as a privately held family company lives on under the leadership of his children . kircher had transferred ownership of the company to his children in 1976 . all had worked in the company for many years overseeing most of the operational aspects for almost a decade before his passing . john kircher oversees the brighton utah and crystal mountain seattle operations . stephen kircher oversees the eastern and midwest operations as well as western operations at big sky resort cypress mountain and the summit at snoqualmie . amy kircher is the chairperson of the board . 3 in 2007 boyne resorts entered into a sale and leaseback arrangement with cnl income properties on the gatlinburg skilift brighton and cypress mountain . the leases run for at least 40 years to boyne for operations and all have buy back provisions to boyne resorts . later in 2007 boyne purchased sunday river and sugarloaf in maine from the american skiing company and entered into a sale and leaseback arrangement with cnl income properties with similar 40 year leases . this gave boyne ski areas in each of the major north american markets . on september 19 2007 boyne announced their purchase of cnl income properties leases for the summit at snoqualmie washington and loon mountain new hampshire from booth creek resorts . both resorts continue to be owned by cnl income properties . this purchase made boyne the largest ski resort operator in north america in terms of number of resorts and second in number of skier visits at almost 3.8 million visitors . boyne resorts also holds or held numerous patents on snowmaking technologies and has unveiled its latest technology in the boyne low e fan gun throughout its eastern resorts . properties edit big sky resort montana brighton utah crystal mountain washington the summit at snoqualmie washington cypress mountain british columbia boyne mountain michigan the mountain grand lodge and spa at boyne mountain resort boyne falls michigan boyne highlands michigan the inn at bay harbor michigan crooked tree golf club michigan gatlinburg skylift tennessee loon mountain new hampshire sugarloaf maine sunday river maine references edit see cnl lifestyle properties reit and vail resorts pederson jay editor 2005 . boyne usa resorts . international directory of company histories vol . 71 . st. james press . retrieved 2008 01 17 . saxon wolfgang 2002 01 24 . everett kircher ski resort owner dies at 85 . the new york times . retrieved 2008 01 17 . http www.northernexpress.com michigan article 3808 ski empire boyne mountain celebrates its 60th anniversary.html https books.google.com books id jlvkdmba1ac & pg pa37 & lpg pa37 & dq jim christianson boyne & source bl & ots oolaokperx & sig 8 ll6ukltrjbnq l2ejh9tq4vdk & hl en & ei cyhpttyblsocgwfxkkgecq & sa x & oi book result & ct result & resnum 2 & ved 0ccwq6aewaq v onepage & q jim % 20christianson % 20boyne & f false external links edit boyne resorts official site boyne usa resorts newenglandskihistory.com retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title boyne resorts & oldid 738299380 categories resorts in michigancompanies based in michiganvisitor attractions in charlevoix county michiganskiing organisations navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 september 2016 at 03 05 . text is available under the creative commons 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