Lost ski areaCaliforniaSierra Nevada
Cottage Springs
Ran 1964–2007. A family ski area on Highway 4 in Calaveras County, the highway's first commercial ski area, run by the Miller family from 1964 and closed in 2007.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Roy and Beatrice Miller bought a 97-acre ranch at Cottage Springs, on Highway 4 in eastern Calaveras County, in 1954 and opened it to skiers in 1964. It was the first commercial ski area on the highway, and the state kept the road plowed to Cottage Springs until a realignment for Bear Valley in the 1960s.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayAll of the ski area's lifts have been removed. (2026)1
Timeline
6 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Cottage Springs, 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 Cottage Springs
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1971–1995 · 19.1 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area off Highway 88 near the Mormon Emigrant Trail that opened as Silver Basin in 1971 and ran on and off under four names until 1995.
- 1941–1963 · 31.4 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area on Highway 50 just above Twin Bridges, at today's Camp Sacramento, that opened as the Strawberry Ski Hut in 1941 and closed in 1963.
- Closed 1988 · 33.1 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area beside U.S. 50 at Echo Summit, California, first called Nebelhorn, that ran from the 1940s until 1988.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Roy and Beatrice Miller bought a 97-acre ranch at Cottage Springs, on Highway 4 in eastern Calaveras County, in 1954 and opened it to skiers in 1964. It was the first commercial ski area on the highway, and the state kept the road plowed to Cottage Springs until a realignment for Bear Valley in the 1960s. Three rope tows served the slopes; a tower lift followed in the 1970s, and by 1981 a chairlift reached the top of the hill.1,2,3
After her husband's death, Beatrice Miller, then in her 80s, sold the area. Its next owner, Jack Munari, who bought it in early 2007 by the Calaveras Enterprise's account, found it unprofitable, closed it that year and planned 13 home lots. The scenic byway's history gives 2006 for the sale and says every lift has since been removed. In 2014 Calaveras County reviewed a plan for a snow play and tubing hill on the old ski area.1,2,4
TodayAll of the ski area's lifts have been removed. (2026)1
Timeline
- 1954Roy and Beatrice Miller buy the 97-acre ranch1
- 1964Cottage Springs Ski Area opens to the public1
- c. 1970A tower lift joins the three rope tows1
- 1981A chairlift runs to the top of the mountain2
- 2007New owner closes the ski area for good, planning home lots2
- 2014County reviews a snow play and tubing hill for the site4
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway Association · Cottage Springs
- 2Calaveras Enterprise · Cottage Springs becomes just a memory (Colin Rigley, November 5, 2007)
- 3Calaveras Enterprise · Clearing the road across the summit (George Hoeper, June 29, 2023)
- 4California Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation · 2012-042 Cottage Springs Resort
Photos
No photographs of Cottage Springs 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 Cottage Springs, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.3541° N · 120.2122° W · California · Sierra Nevada
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1964–2007
Closed after the 2007 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