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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The Finland Air Force Station was a Cold War radar base on Lookout Mountain, about 2.8 miles north of Finland in Lake County, a mountaintop town of about 350 service members with its own homes and barracks. Its diversions included a pool hall, a movie theater, a bowling alley, an underground curling rink and a ski tow.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe station stands largely abandoned; its 27 remaining homes and 101 acres were for sale in 2025. (2025)1,3
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Finland Air base, 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 Finland Air base
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1965–1972 · 9.7 mi away · MinnesotaA small rope-tow ski area near Silver Bay in northeast Minnesota, opened by Frank Moschet in 1965 and closed after the 1971–72 season.
- Opened 1960 · 41.2 mi away · MinnesotaA community-built rope-tow ski area just east of Ely that opened in December 1960 and was last mentioned in 1979.
- Opened 1948 · 46.6 mi away · MinnesotaA community-built ski hill on Sawtooth Mountain above Grand Marais, opened in 1948 with rope tows and idle by the early 1960s despite later revival plans.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The Finland Air Force Station was a Cold War radar base on Lookout Mountain, about 2.8 miles north of Finland in Lake County, a mountaintop town of about 350 service members with its own homes and barracks. Its diversions included a pool hall, a movie theater, a bowling alley, an underground curling rink and a ski tow. MWLSAP lists the ski hill with a vertical of 190 feet, probably laid out with its lodge at the top, and dates it from 1950, the year Wikipedia gives for the station's construction; Racket says the base was built in 1951. No source read dates the tow's last season. The station closed in 1980.1,2,3
TodayThe station stands largely abandoned; its 27 remaining homes and 101 acres were for sale in 2025. (2025)1,3
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Racket · Wanna Buy a Mountaintop Ghost Town on the North Shore? (Jay Boller, Racket, January 24, 2022, updated January 12, 2025)
- 2Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Finland Air Base
- 3Wikipedia · Finland Air Force Station
Photos
No photographs of Finland Air base 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 Finland Air base, in their own words.
Facts
Location
47.4561° N · 91.2321° W · Minnesota
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1950 · 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