“Other people have analysis; I have Utah.”

In this single sentence, Robert Redford summarized the gist of The Land Report. Long before Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made the Santa Monica native a household name, he had fallen under the spell of a steep, European-like valley in the Wasatch Mountains. It happened while Redford was driving home from college along a meandering route through Ogden and Heber City, Utah.

Alpine Loop

“I found a little side road called the Alpine Loop and drove up the hill, which was the north fork draw of Provo Canyon, until the road ran out. It was so beautiful that I couldn’t pull myself away. The mountain, Timpanogos, was to me like Everest. It was Yosemite on a different scale. Spiritually, it was fascinating. When I left, I couldn’t shake it off. I lay in bed and thought about it. And whenever I had the chance to go back, I did,” he told Michael Feeney Callan, author of Robert Redford: The Biography.

In the 1960s, the up-and-coming actor forked over $500 for his first 2 acres. It was the first of countless deeds he acquired. Sydney Pollack told him he was crazy: “You want to work in the movies, and you want to live in the wilderness? How do you reconcile these two lifestyles?” the director demanded of his close friend.

With astonishing success, it turns out.

Box-Office Success

Redford became the No. 1 box-office star of the 1970s. His extraordinary career included countless classics, and he won every conceivable honor, including an Academy Award, multiple Golden Globes, a BAFTA Award, an honorary César, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Simultaneously, Redford strategically acquired thousands of acres in his isolated Utah valley. The jewel in the crown was a mom-and-pop ski resort called Timp Haven. Founded in the 1940s, it was about to be sold to developers when Redford snapped it up. In this steep-walled paradise, he established Sundance Mountain Resort, the Sundance Institute, the Sundance Catalog, and the renowned Sundance Film Festival.

Longlasting Legacy

In 2020, six decades after his first 2-acre purchase, Redford announced that he was selling his 2,600-acre resort to Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners. By then, most of his acreage was preserved through conservation easements and protective covenants. On September 16, Sundance’s founder died at his home at the foot of Mount Timpanogos.

“LIKE EVEREST”. Redford discovered Mount Timpanogos while driving home from the University of Colorado Boulder.