Some
Interesting, Unique, Or Just Weird, Facts About Midwest
Skiing
Some Interesting, Unique, Or Just Weird, Facts About Midwest Skiing
Artificial slope under Cessna Stadium at Wichita State University - Shocker Mountain
Skiing inside Soldier Field football stadium, home of the Chicago Bears
Fall skiing on straw at Lookout Hills Ski Park, Spruce MI - Picture goes " viral" in 1948
Ski both sides of a continental divide at Buena Vista Ski Area in Bemidji, and take the same charilift up each side .
Sitz Lift, ride up the hill on your skis while sitting down
Chairlifts that go down and up, up and over, or where you don't hang from a cable
Bump Jumping
at Petoskey Winter Sports Park
Skiing on
Plastic Snow, 1965, at Silverbell Village,
Lake Orion MI
Glen Plake's 1992
Honeymoon Tour of Midwest Ski Areas
Lift (tow)
Served Grass Skiing at Black Forest, MI
Year- Round skiing and tubing at Sleepy Hollow in Des Moines IA - Snowflex was installed in 2023
World's first chairlift still operating (sort of) at Boyne Mountain, MI
First reporded use of recreational skis in the US occurred in Beloit,WI
Upside down ski areas with lodge and parking at the top of the mountain
And then there is Mt. Bohemia in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Shocker
Mountain - skiing under Cessna Stadium at Wichita State
University
Shocker
Mountain was an
artificial slope served by a rope tow under
Cessna Stadium at Wichita State University,
Wichita, KS. It was open from 1977 to 1986 and
offered ski school lessons for beginners,
intermediates, and with keeping with the times,
freestyle ballet. They also had a separate area
for "chairlift instruction" so those new to
skiing would be prepared for their first trip
out west. They even had moguls that they "could
drag on, and off, the hill".
Skiing in
Soldier Field, Chicago
Called Winter
Wonderland, rope
tows and snow guns transformed Chicago's Soldier
Field football stadium, home of the NFL's
Chicago Bears, into a ski area for the 1957-1958
season. Initial plans were for from four to six
rope tows and a sixty foot vertical, along with
toboggan slides.
By putting hay bales between
the rows of seats and covering them with snow
from twelve snowguns, Winter Wonderland was
created and opened on Dec. 7, 1957 with two
slopes, two electric rope tows, and four
toboggan slides. Four ski instructors, including
Helmut
Teichner of
Switzerland, were hired to provide ski lessons.
Teichner was the ski school director atnearby
Wilmot Hills (Mountain) ski area [still open].
In 1983 he was inducted into the National Ski
Hall of Fame.
By mid-January, 1958, The
Daily Calumet newspaper reported "Thousands each
day and night are utilizing the many facilities
at the lake front stadium. . . . A ski shop,,
warming rooms, clubhouse and other facilities
have turned Soldier Field into a second Sun
Valley". The article adds that "Oscar Brotman
and Eli Loitz, who conceived the venture and put
it into telling effect, report that the fame of
the winter sports mecca has spread to all
corners of the nation and they are being asked
by other cities to consider them for similar
ventures next year" including Yankee Stadium in
New York City, and Philadelphia, Detroit,
Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.
Surprisingly, the Chicago
Tribune in its July 9 issue, 1958, reported
"Oscar Brotman, operator of Winter Wonderland at
Soldiers' Field last winter, declined to pick up
his $10,000 a year option to operate skiing and
tobogganing facilities at the field next winter.
Park officials attributed Brotman's cancellation
to Chicagoan's lack of interest in lake front
winter sports accommodations."
Chicago Tribune, Feb 21,
1958
Fall skiing on
straw at Lookout Hills Ski Park - Picture goes viral in
1948.
Called Winter Wonderland, rope tows and snow guns transformed Chicago's Soldier Field football stadium, home of the NFL's Chicago Bears, into a ski area for the 1957-1958 season. Initial plans were for from four to six rope tows and a sixty foot vertical, along with toboggan slides.
By putting hay bales between the rows of seats and covering them with snow from twelve snowguns, Winter Wonderland was created and opened on Dec. 7, 1957 with two slopes, two electric rope tows, and four toboggan slides. Four ski instructors, including Helmut Teichner of Switzerland, were hired to provide ski lessons. Teichner was the ski school director atnearby Wilmot Hills (Mountain) ski area [still open]. In 1983 he was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame.
By mid-January, 1958, The Daily Calumet newspaper reported "Thousands each day and night are utilizing the many facilities at the lake front stadium. . . . A ski shop,, warming rooms, clubhouse and other facilities have turned Soldier Field into a second Sun Valley". The article adds that "Oscar Brotman and Eli Loitz, who conceived the venture and put it into telling effect, report that the fame of the winter sports mecca has spread to all corners of the nation and they are being asked by other cities to consider them for similar ventures next year" including Yankee Stadium in New York City, and Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.
Surprisingly, the Chicago Tribune in its July 9 issue, 1958, reported "Oscar Brotman, operator of Winter Wonderland at Soldiers' Field last winter, declined to pick up his $10,000 a year option to operate skiing and tobogganing facilities at the field next winter. Park officials attributed Brotman's cancellation to Chicagoan's lack of interest in lake front winter sports accommodations."
Chicago Tribune, Feb 21, 1958
Over one hundred newspapers
across the country and into Canada ran a picture
of Edythe Moisan, skiing on straw at Lookout Hills Ski Park near Spruce, MI, in 1948. From
California to Maine and Texas to Manitoba, the
picture went viral, before viral was even a
thing. In 1948 Edythe Moisan was
photographed skiing on a straw covered hill at
Lookout Hills Ski Park. As found on newspapers.com, the picture was picked up by over
one hundred newspapers in the US and Canada. So
how was the skiing? The Escanaba Daily Press
(Escanaba, Michigan) reported "the straw
provides fast and tricky skiing amid a scene of
blazing autumn colors". The Escanaba Daily Press
(Escanaba, Michigan) · Sat, Nov 6, 1948
Bump Jumping at
Petoskey Winter Sport Park, Michigan
Skiing on Plastic Snow at Silverbell Village, Lake Orion, MI
