By the middle of the last century, the slow decline of the silver-mining industry—which famously boomed here in the 1800s—had whittled Park City’s population to just a few hundred stubborn souls, qualifying the once teeming burg for unofficial status as a ghost town. Then in 1968, a Salt Lake City attorney secured a depressed-areas grant from the federal government to open Park City Ski Area. But the construction of a few ski lifts hardly signaled an immediate end to Park City’s post-mining-era funk. It took the motivation and vision of both locals and transplants to transform this almost-forgotten outpost into the glitzy destination Park City has become. As Park City Magazine marks its 40th year in print in 2017, we reflect on 40 of the people who not only loved the town for what it once was, but also believed in and helped it become what they knew it could be.