Lost ski areaColoradoFlat TopsRocky Mountains
Capitol Hill
A free town ski hill in Oak Creek with a self-service rope tow, used from about 1960 to 1966.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Capitol Hill was a free ski slope on city land in Oak Creek, seen from Highway 131 near the south edge of town. It appears to have been one of Gordon L.1
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Memories
Skied Capitol Hill, 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 Capitol Hill
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1985 · 0.7 mi away · ColoradoA free rope-tow hill on a ranch just north of Oak Creek, run for the town from the mid-1960s until March 1985.
- 1950–1953 · 20 mi away · ColoradoA family-built rope-tow ski area on Baker Mountain at Muddy Pass, on the east side of Rabbit Ears Pass, that ran from 1950 to 1953.
- 2020–2023 · 23.7 mi away · ColoradoA ski area with no lifts on Bear Mountain between Kremmling and Steamboat Springs, where skiers climbed under their own power, open for three winters from 2020 to 2023.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 1 page below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Capitol Hill was a free ski slope on city land in Oak Creek, seen from Highway 131 near the south edge of town. It appears to have been one of Gordon L. Wren's efforts to give young people cheap or free skiing. Wren obtained a rope tow from a closed ski hill in Tabernash; it was about 600 feet long, with an electric drive at the top. Skiers started the tow themselves when they arrived and shut it off when they left, and no one paid to ski. The hill ran from about 1960 to 1966. The tow then went to Cowboy Peak on the Sweetland Ranch just north of town, where it ran until 1985.1
Sources for this history (1)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Capitol Hill Ski Area (Bill Fetcher)
Photos
No photographs of Capitol Hill 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 Capitol Hill, in their own words.
Facts
Location
40.2712° N · 106.9546° W · Colorado · Flat Tops
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
not yet collected
Closed for good; the year it closed is not yet collected. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 1all 1, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain