Big Ojibway Mountain/Fond Du Lac Ojibway Bowl
Ran 1940–1972. A Duluth Ski Club winter sports center at Fond du Lac with a large ski jump and a tow-served ski bowl, used from 1940 into the early 1970s.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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In 1940 the Duluth Ski Club, with WPA support, built a winter sports center at Fond du Lac on Mission Creek. Its main feature was a 60-meter ski jump on the hill called Big Ojibway Mountain or the Ojibway Bowl, with alpine slopes, cross-country trails, a toboggan run, a skating rink and a ski cabin around it.1
Read the whole historyTimeline
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Memories
Skied Big Ojibway Mountain/Fond Du Lac Ojibway Bowl, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Big Ojibway Mountain/Fond Du Lac Ojibway Bowl
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 10.2 mi away · WisconsinA ski site 2 miles east of South Superior, where MWLSAP places an early-1940s ski jump and Skimap.org a Boy Scout camp's ski hill.
- 1965–1975 · 10.5 mi away · WisconsinA small ski area south of Superior near Pattison State Park, opened in 1965 and closed by 1975 or, by another account, the early 1980s.
- Opened 1945 · 13.9 mi away · MinnesotaA small ski hill in Duluth, later on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus, cleared for skiing in 1945 and run by students with a rope tow.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
In 1940 the Duluth Ski Club, with WPA support, built a winter sports center at Fond du Lac on Mission Creek. Its main feature was a 60-meter ski jump on the hill called Big Ojibway Mountain or the Ojibway Bowl, with alpine slopes, cross-country trails, a toboggan run, a skating rink and a ski cabin around it. The first meet, in February 1941, drew 5,000 spectators, and the 1942 national championships drew 12,000.1
In mid-January 1949 the Ojibway Ski Bowl and its tow were dedicated before more than 3,000 people; the city owned the bowl and its park department ran it, while the ski club owned and ran the tow. The jump was enlarged to a 70-meter hill in 1964, its record reached 244 feet in 1965, and the club still held its annual championships there in February 1970. MWLSAP finds no mention of the tow by 1973. A spring flood badly damaged the jump in 1972, and it was taken down in 1975, after which Duluth's jumping returned to Chester Bowl.1,2,3,4
Timeline
- 1940Duluth Ski Club builds the Fond du Lac winter sports center1
- 1941The first jumping meet draws 5,000 spectators1
- 1942National championships on the new hill draw 12,0001
- 1949Ojibway Ski Bowl and its tow dedicated before 3,000 people2,3
- 1964The ski jump is enlarged to a 70-meter hill1
- 1970The club's 65th annual jumping championships held on Big Ojibway4
- 1972A spring flood badly damages the jump, ending its use1
- 1975The ski jump is taken down1
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Skisprungschanzen.com · Fond du Lac Ski Jump / Ojibway Bowl, Duluth
- 2Duluth Herald · Colorful Ceremonies Open Ojibway Ski Bowl (Duluth Herald, January 17, 1949), clipping on MWLSAP
- 3Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Ojibway Ski Bowl (Big Ojibway Mountain, Fond du Lac Winter Sports Center)
- 4Duluth News-Tribune · Duluth Ski Club 65th Annual Ski Jumping Championships, advertisement (Duluth News-Tribune, January 25, 1970), clipping on MWLSAP
Photos
No photographs of Big Ojibway Mountain/Fond Du Lac Ojibway Bowl we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Big Ojibway Mountain/Fond Du Lac Ojibway Bowl, in their own words.
Facts
Location
46.6667° N · 92.2759° W · Minnesota
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1940–1972
Closed after the 1972 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
No figures from its operating years are collected yet.
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain