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
Chailifts that go down and up, up and over, or where you don't hang from a cable
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 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".
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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 |
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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
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Year- Round skiing and tubing at county owned Sleepy Hollow Sports Park in Des Moines IA - Snowflex was installed in 2023 Snowflex for year-round skiing Largest Snowflex slope in the US 50,000 sq. ft. and 600 ft long Mt.Tremblant installed Neveplast in 2023 Sept. 2009 Liberty Mountain at Liberty University opened with 40,000 square foot Snowflex slope Buck Hill 2018 Neveplast didn't perform well snowboards were overheating. https://localfreshies.com/sleepy-hollow-summer-skiing/ opening 2024
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Buena Vista Ski Area [still
open] in Bemidji, Minnesota, sits astride a continental
divide. In the spring, melting snow on the back side (east
facing) eventually will end up in the Gulf of Mexico. Snow
melting on the front side (west facing) drains into the
Hudson Bay in Canada. There are several ski areas in the
United states where there is lift served skiing on one side
of a continental divide (Loveland, CO). There are also ski
areas that have lift served skiing on one side of a divide
and back country skiing on the other side like Monarch
Mountain, CO. But, I believe Buena Vista is the only ski
area in the country with lift served skiing on both sides of
a continental divide although Monarch
is scheduled to add a chairlift
on their back side by the 2025-2026 season. Furthermore, at Buena Vista one, up
and over, three-person chairlift serves both sides of the
divide. So, you are able to ski both sides of a continental
divide and take the same chairlift back up both sides to the
top - see CHAIRLIFTS
below.
Sitz Lift, ride up the hill on
your skis while sitting down The first Sitzlift ski lift was
installed at Ski-Tonka
Ski Area in Minnetonka,
Minnesota in 1968. This was followed by installations at six
other Midwest ski areas (two more in Minnesota at
Lutsen
[still open] and Buffalo
Valley; three in Wisconsin at
Devils
Head [still open] ,
Trollhaugen
[still open] , and Snowcrest;
and one at Mt.
Holly [still open] ,
Michigan). What is a Sitzlift? It might be most
analogous to today's conveyor lifts, except the skier would
sit on a bicycle-type seat rather than stand. It had two
elevated tracks for your skis, but only the seat would move
as your skis would slide along these tracks. The tracks were
elevated so that the seats could return to the bottom of the
hill underneath the contraption. To load, "a bike seat
emerges from an opening in the 'floor' and idles while you,
with your skis on, straddle it. You pull a lever and the
seat takes you topside." (from Minnesota's
Winter Resorts: Skiing Plus -
Chicago Tribune · Sun, Dec 21, 1969 ) The Sitz Lift did not appear to catch
on as these are the only intallations that could be found
and it appears as though none operated long. No information
could be found as to how the skier would unload. Hopefully,
the bike seat did not just drop under the track as it began
its trip to the bottom. If so, Warren Miller could have had
a heyday.
Chailifts that go down one side and up the other; or up a hill, over the top, and down the other side; and where the chairs do not hang from a cable but follow a track.
We all envision ski area chairlifts as
starting in a valley and ascending one side of a hill or
mountain. But what if the ski area has runs on both sides of
a valley? Couldn't one chairlift simply be extended to
service both sides? Four ski areas in the Midwest thought
so. Snowcrest
in Somerset, WI, Birch
Park in Houlton, WI,
Ski
World (later called Royal
Valley) in Buchanan, MI, and Mt.
Brighton [still open]
in Brighton, MI each had "down and up" chairlifts with one
chairlift serving both sides of a valley. For more information, pictures, and
trail maps Down and up lift at Snowcrest Ski
Area, Somerset, WI
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https://www.mwlsap.org/uniquelifts/uniquelifts.htm#chairlifts
If a ski area has runs on both sides
of a hill why not have one chair lift go "up and over". Four
of these are still in operation in the midwest (as of 2024)
with two at Little
Switzerland in Swinger, WI
(that's a total of four lifts hauling skiers but only two
drive motors)., one at Buena
Vista Ski Area in Bemidji, MN
straddling a contiental divide, and one at Whitecap
Mountains in Upson, WI. One
was also installed at the Lansing
Ski Club in East Lansing, MI,
now lost. The lift at Whitecap actually goes up
to one peak, then across a valley to another peak, then down
the other side. But, skiers are no longer allowed to ride
across the gap as the significant height of the chairs makes
emergency evacuations difficult. https://www.mwlsap.org/uniquelifts/uniquelifts.htm#chairlifts Two unloading stations at th top of
Buena Vista Ski Area from one lift.. This part of the lift
no one rides (photo from Liftblog.com)
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Chain-Drive
or Tracked Chairlifts Chairlifts with no hanging cables were
installed at Caberfae
Peaks Ski Resort [still
open] , MI and Chestnut
Mountain [still open],
IL, Caberfae's first chairlift was a
"tracked" or "chain-drive" chairlift where instead of
hanging from a cable, the chairs were attached to a chain
conveyor. Such a lift was also installed at Chestnut
Mountain, IL. Caberfae bought its chain-drive lift
from Mt. Snow, VT, where I believe they were developed. Mt.
Snow had three chain-drive, or "conveyor", lifts. Apparently they were very slow, noisy,
and the chains dripped grease on the riders, necessitating
the inclusion of a small roof above the riders.
For these reasons and others Caberfae's
"conveyor" lift only lasted one year (1959-90) before it was
removed. Little information could be found concerning the
Chestnut Mountain chain-drive lift. For more pictures of the chain-drive
chairlifts at Mt. Snow, VT see: https://www.mwlsap.org/stories/weird/chaindrive.htm
Caberfae Peaks Ski Resort,
MI
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World's first chairlift still operating at Boyne Mountain, MI Invented by Omaha NE resident Boyne installed 1948 began operating Jan. 9, 1949 (Hemlock Chair, single, changed to double in 1951, moved from Sun Valley, ID) Was world's first chairlift when installed at Sun Valley, Dec. 1936 First chairlift in the Midwest https://www.midwestskiers.com/post/5-unique-historic-interesting-ski-lifts-in-the-midwest http://mwlsap.org/michigan/mi.htm#boyne https://liftblog.com/hemlock-boyne-mountain-mi/ https://pocketsights.com/tours/place/Historic-Hemlock-chairlift-68617:7333 Everett Kircher bought the world’s first chairlift, a single, from Sun Valley in 1948 and installed it at Boyne, Michigan, in 1949. In 1951 the lift was changed to a double chair, becoming the fifth double in the US. Triple, Quad, 6-Seat Chairs: A Mini-History - skiinghistory.org http://mwlsap.org/firstchairlift.htm Boyne Resort had many firsts including the installation of the world's first triple chairlift in 1964 at The Highlands Resort, and the world's first four-person chairlift, installed in 1964 at Boyne Mountain. In 1990 Kircher installed Michigan's first high-speed detachable quad chairlift at The Highlands Resort. And in 1992, Boyne Mountain unveiled America's first six-seat high-speed chairlift. For more information |
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In 1841 miners from Beloit,
Wisconsin became the first to people to be documented
to ski recreationally in the US. Fast
Facts - Recreational Skiing In The US Started In The
Midwest?! - Matthew Zabranksi,
Midwest Skiers.com Skiers
and Snowboarders of the Midwest Facebook
Group History
of Skiing - The Story with Great
Photos -
freethepowder.com A
Brief, Incomplete, Semi-Accurate History of
Skiing -
mmsdragon.org The
History of Skiing - Kendall Springob
- 1800s
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UPSIDE
DOWN SKI AREAS OF THE MIDWEST Thirty-two lost, and fourteen still open, ski areas in the Midwest were, or are, "upside down" with the lodge and parking at the top of the mountain. LOST (33) :
STILL OPEN (14) :
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Mt.
Bohemia [still open],
MI No grooming, no snow making, and no
beginners. True double and triple black diamond
skiing in the Midwest. Mt. Bohemia is truly
unique. $109 season pass (yes, you read that
correctly, $109) and a $1299 lifetime pass passholder only Saturdays no cash for many years and poor
wifi busses named one of the country's best by USA
Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards in top 5 for 5
years in a row or more https://www.snowindustrynews.com/articles/2021/december/mount-bohemia-named-one-of-usas-best-ski-hills/ North Pole Bar voted the best ski bar
in the country by me. Located in a yurt (round, canvas,
tent) with poor cell reception and all payments must be
through an app.
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