Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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In the 1960s a group of businessmen turned a farmstead on Cary-Algonquin Road into a ski area with runs, rope tows, lights and snowmaking. It had about 135 feet of vertical, and the lodge stood at the top of the hill rather than the bottom.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe site lies within the Fox Bluff Conservation Area, entered at Cary-Algonquin and Cold Springs roads.2
Timeline
2 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Fox Trails, 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 Fox Trails
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1967–1986 · 12.8 mi away · IllinoisA ski hill at Ingleside, two miles south of Fox Lake, that ran from 1967 to 1986 with a chairlift, rope tows and night skiing.
- 1974–1980 · 16.5 mi away · IllinoisA ski area on U.S. 12 north of Fox Lake, opened as Hidden Valley in 1974 and renamed Lost Valley in 1976, that closed in 1980.
- 1976–1983 · 17.3 mi away · IllinoisA small ski slope on the grounds of the Marriott resort in Lincolnshire that ran from 1976 to 1983.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
In the 1960s a group of businessmen turned a farmstead on Cary-Algonquin Road into a ski area with runs, rope tows, lights and snowmaking. It had about 135 feet of vertical, and the lodge stood at the top of the hill rather than the bottom. A Swiss-style chalet beside the old barn held a ski shop, the ski school, a restaurant and a lounge, and the property later added the Fox Trails Country Club.1,2,3
Sources differ on its years and lifts: the Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project gives 1962 to 1974 and two rope tows, while Colorado Ski History's 1998 list gives about 1964 to 1976, nine rope tows and night skiing, and notes a 1973 highway map that called it Norge Ski Slide. Skiing ended in the mid-1970s, and the chalet was remodeled into Harry Hope's, a music venue. The land is now part of the McHenry County Conservation District's Fox Bluff Conservation Area.1,2,3
TodayThe site lies within the Fox Bluff Conservation Area, entered at Cary-Algonquin and Cold Springs roads.2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Fox Trails Sports Area
- 2McHenry County Conservation District · Fox Bluff Conservation Area
- 3Colorado Ski History · Lost Areas #26 (The Lost Ski Areas of Illinois), The Colorado Skier, July 30, 1998
Photos
No photographs of Fox Trails 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 Fox Trails, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.1975° N · 88.2624° W · Illinois
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1962–1974
Closed after the 1974 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain