Lost ski areaOregonCascade RangePacific Northwest
Crater Lake Ski Bowl
A ski bowl just south of Crater Lake Lodge where clubs and a concessioner ran portable lifts and rope tows from 1938–39 into the late 1940s.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The ski bowl lay just south of Crater Lake Lodge in Crater Lake National Park. The Park Service did not then provide or encourage special winter facilities, but in the winter of 1938–39 it let the Chiloquin Ski Club run a portable electric lift on the bowl's lower slopes as an experiment.1,2
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Memories
Skied Crater Lake Ski 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 Crater Lake Ski Bowl
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 31.8 mi away · OregonA small, low-elevation ski hill on Tomahawk Mountain near Rocky Point in Klamath County, whose slopes now carry a zipline course.
- 1958–1978 · 106.8 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area on Mount Shasta's south side, at the end of the Everitt Memorial Highway, that opened in 1958–59 and ended when an avalanche wrecked its chair in 1978.
- Years not yet collected · 162.4 mi away · CaliforniaHumboldt County's rope-tow ski hill on Horse Mountain, near Berry Summit on Highway 299, used from the late 1930s until it shut in the early 1980s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The ski bowl lay just south of Crater Lake Lodge in Crater Lake National Park. The Park Service did not then provide or encourage special winter facilities, but in the winter of 1938–39 it let the Chiloquin Ski Club run a portable electric lift on the bowl's lower slopes as an experiment. The lift proved popular and seemed to leave the park unharmed, so Superintendent Leavitt asked that it run again the next winter. In 1940 and 1941 the new Crater Lake Ski Club ran a portable lift and two small gasoline lifts on most weekends, and winter visits rose by nearly half. A park record of February 1942 still noted visitors using the ski bowl.1,2
From November 1942 the park closed every winter after budget and staff cuts. For 1946–47 the park's concessioner subcontracted a Klamath Falls operator to run a rope tow on the bowl below the lodge, with ski rentals and lessons, and a gasoline rope tow was set up there on weekends that February. With studies of possible downhill areas showing marginal results, local skiers around 1948 made do with a weekend rope tow at Rim Village. In the 1950s the Rogue Snowmen Ski Club still set up a portable rope tow at Crater Lake on weekends, burying its motor in the snow between visits.1,2,3,4
Timeline
- 1938Chiloquin Ski Club runs an experimental portable electric lift in the bowl1
- 1940New Crater Lake Ski Club runs a portable lift and two gasoline lifts1
- 1942Park begins closing each year from mid-November to late June1
- 1946Concession subcontract brings a rope tow, rentals and lessons to the bowl1
- 1947Gasoline rope tow set up on weekends in the bowl south of the lodge2
- 1948Crater Lake becomes an all-year park to encourage winter recreation3
- c. 1950Rogue Snowmen Ski Club sets up a portable rope tow on weekends4
Sources for this history (4)
- 1National Park Service · Administrative History: Crater Lake National Park, Oregon — Chapter Fifteen: Visitation and Concessions Operations, 1916–Present (Harlan D. Unrau, 1987)
- 2National Park Service · Rehabilitation of Historic Crater Lake Lodge: Comprehensive Design Program, Historic Character / Documentation
- 3National Park Service · Administrative History: Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
- 4Jefferson Public Radio · As It Was: Skiers Install Portable Rope Tow at Crater Lake (Luana (Loffer) Corbin, November 14, 2017)
Photos
No photographs of Crater Lake Ski 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 Crater Lake Ski Bowl, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.9068° N · 122.1421° W · Oregon · Cascade Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1938 · the year it closed is 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