Lost ski areaOregonWallowa MountainsPacific Northwest
Eagle Cap
Ran 1948–1983. The Eagle Cap Ski Club's rope-tow hill on the west side of Wallowa Lake, at the end of today's Ski Run Road, used from 1948 until 1983.
Overview
Look around
Loading the ground…
Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
The Eagle Cap Ski Club built its first permanent rope tow in 1939 on Stanley Hill, about two miles south of Joseph, driven by a Model A Ford engine. In 1948 the tow moved to a slope at the end of what is now Ski Run Road, the club's site on the west side of Wallowa Lake.1,2
Read the whole historyTimeline
4 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Eagle Cap, 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 Eagle Cap
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1985 · 49.1 mi away · IdahoA one-T-bar ski area below Hitt Mountain, outside Cambridge in western Idaho, that closed in 1985.
- Closed 2018 · 50.5 mi away · OregonA ski area in the Blue Mountains near Tollgate, in the Umatilla National Forest, with two double chairs; it has not run since the 2017–18 season.
- Years not yet collected · 52.9 mi away · OregonThe Blue Mountain Ski Club's early rope-tow hill on Lookingglass Creek, about half a mile from Tollgate, used in the years before the club moved to Spout Springs.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The Eagle Cap Ski Club built its first permanent rope tow in 1939 on Stanley Hill, about two miles south of Joseph, driven by a Model A Ford engine. In 1948 the tow moved to a slope at the end of what is now Ski Run Road, the club's site on the west side of Wallowa Lake. In 1950 the Model A gave way to a Plymouth motor and rope drive bought from Anthony Lake.1,2
By the 1970s the site had the rope tow, a small warming hut, a ticket shack, a cook shack and an old snowmobile. It had little room to grow without reaching onto neighbors' land, complaints about the skiing had begun, and cabins were going up along the slope. In the fall of 1983 the tow and buildings were moved to Ferguson Ridge, where the 1983–84 winter was the first season.1,2
Sources for this history (2)
- 1Eagle Cap Ski Club (Ferguson Ridge Ski Area) · The History of Fergi (Gardner Locke's recollections, 1993)
- 2Wallowa County Chieftain · Eagle Cap Ski Club
Photos
No photographs of Eagle Cap 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 Eagle Cap, in their own words.
Facts
Location
45.3083° N · 117.2240° W · Oregon · Wallowa Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1948–1983
Closed after the 1983 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