Ski Area Drops 'Nipple' From Mountain Name

POSTED: 3:06 p.m. MST March 12, 2003

ALTA, Wyo. -- Pressure from uncomfortable skiers and other tourists prompted the Grand Targhee Ski and Summer Resort to blank out the second half of the name of one of its ski mountains. Mary's Nipple is now just Mary's. 'Nipple' has been covered with tape until new signs arrive in about two weeks.


'If things offend our guests, we try to redeem that,' marketing director Susie Barnett-Bushong said. 'Management was never compelled to take it away until more and more people expressed they were uncomfortable with the signs.'

But the sanitized signs have rankled some local skiers, who feel a bit of their history has been lost.

'If the name changed, it wouldn't be the same,' said Mark Franklin of Driggs, Idaho, who has skied the mountain for 26 years without feeling offended. 'It's always been Mary's Nipple to me, and probably 99.9 percent of the people around here will agree with me.'

The name dates back three decades to a story about a redheaded waitress named Mary, who was working at Targhee's Trap Bar and streaked through it and the resort one night. The bartender compared her bare breast to a peak he had skied earlier that day and then attached the name 'Mary's Nipple' to the mountain as a joke.

The U.S. Forest Service has never acknowledged it officially.

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