Holiday Hills Resort

Holiday Hills was built on Carlson Hill, on the west side of what is now the city of Liberty Lake. Spokane Valley businessman Chuck Williams developed it, and it opened in 1971 with one Riblet chairlift, night lighting on the slopes, a half-mile oval for snowmobile races and trails for rented snow machines. Its lodge held two restaurants, a rental shop, a day-care center and rooms for overnight guests.^1,2,3

Snow seldom cooperated. The resort bought two snowmaking machines and built a reservoir to chill water for them, but it was rarely cold enough for them to work well. The hill ran off and on until the mid-1970s, and by 1977 the resort had shut down; that year Williams sold the 880-acre site. Lost Ski Areas of Washington dates it from the early 1970s to 1980 and says money troubles forced it to close.^1,4

The empty lodge drew vandals for years and was destroyed by an arson fire on February 25, 1998, soon after a developer bought it with the surrounding land for a subdivision. Lost Ski Areas of Washington instead puts the lodge fire in the mid-1980s. The resort's name stuck: the whole range of hills around it is now called the Holiday Hills.^1,2,4