MARYSVILLE — After shredding the slopes at Great Divide Ski Area you have probably found yourself enjoying a drink with good company at the bar, but you may not have realized that a local man, Roger Bisson, crafted the conversation starter by hand three decades ago.
Bisson says, “Each time we found one it got so expensive so I finally said 'Well I will just build one.'”
It took Roger three months from start to finish to build the bar because he had to have it ready for lawmakers coming to visit in the 1980s.
Roger did have a little help from a carpenter in Bozeman with the rail and molding, and his son's wood carvings that adorn the top portion.
“Other than that I did it all and it is built in three sections so that we could move it up here,” Bisson says.
But Roger’s role in Great Divide’s hospitality goes beyond the bar.
Roger learned to ski at Belmont, which is now Great Divide, and became a partner of Kevin Taylor to get the hill up and running with more modern lifts.
Bisson says, “But it worked out good we finally got snow and people started coming here.”
Roger had not visited the bar in nearly twenty years until we met there on Thursday, but one of his friends who still skis has let him know that skiers and snowboarders enjoy drinks on his woodwork all the time.
“He says I am keeping an eye on that bar you built anyway it has held up pretty well,” Bisson says. And as for the future the 93-year-old says, “Well I hope it just keeps progressing.”
