Big Sky, MT – In 1968, the famous NBC newscaster, Chet Huntley, conceptualized Big Sky, the same year the phrase “we’ve come a long way, baby” was marketed. Big Sky Resort has indeed come a long way in the 40 years since the first chairlift turned on opening day, December 15, 1973.

Such a historical mile marker bodes a big weekend celebration December 13-15, 2013. Daily lift tickets will be reduced to $40 all weekend. Playing at Whiskey Jack’s on December 14th is Milton Menasco, whose music has been described as a cross between “a juke joint and a Jamaican beach bar with fiery guitar playing and gritty vocals blend.” Lone Peak Brewery has prepared a special beer, “Retro Red Ale,” available in cans throughout the resort’s establishments and on tap at select locations for the occasion and all winter. Birthday cake, ice cream, and the best 70-style ski costumes since, well, the 70s, round out the celebration.

Only three years after Big Sky’s debut, Boyne USA bought the Montana ski resort in 1976. The Michigan-based company brought state-of-the-art snowmaking systems to Big Sky and built more chairlifts, lodging, and the Yellowstone Conference Center. Big Sky Resort took on the massive endeavor of installing the Lone Peak Tram in 1995, giving the ski area the distinction of the highest vertical drop in the country and then in 2005, Big Sky Resort and Moonlight Basin partnered through the interconnect to boost the resort’s skiable acreage to the largest in the U.S.

Big Sky Resort formally acquired Moonlight Basin’s terrain and facilities last month, along with Spanish Peak’s Spirit Mountain terrain in July. Together as one resort, under one name, Big Sky Resort is 5,750 acres, 4,350 vertical drop, 23 chairlifts, seven surface lifts and the Lone Peak Tram to 11,166 feet in elevation.