Lost ski areaCaliforniaSierra Nevada
Iron Mountain
Ran 1971–1995. A ski area off Highway 88 near the Mormon Emigrant Trail that opened as Silver Basin in 1971 and ran on and off under four names until 1995.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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John Allen opened Silver Basin in 1971 on a north-facing slope by Highway 88, near its junction with the Mormon Emigrant Trail. It started with a double chair and a Poma, added a second double, and closed by 1974.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe remaining lifts and buildings stand on the slope and keep deteriorating. (2026)2
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Iron Mountain, 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 Iron Mountain
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1941–1963 · 12.9 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area on Highway 50 just above Twin Bridges, at today's Camp Sacramento, that opened as the Strawberry Ski Hut in 1941 and closed in 1963.
- Closed 1988 · 15.8 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area beside U.S. 50 at Echo Summit, California, first called Nebelhorn, that ran from the 1940s until 1988.
- 1964–2007 · 19.1 mi away · CaliforniaA family ski area on Highway 4 in Calaveras County, the highway's first commercial ski area, run by the Miller family from 1964 and closed in 2007.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
John Allen opened Silver Basin in 1971 on a north-facing slope by Highway 88, near its junction with the Mormon Emigrant Trail. It started with a double chair and a Poma, added a second double, and closed by 1974. The area came back as Ski Sundown in 1978 with two new Riblet triples, but shut again by 1980.1,2,3
Renamed Iron Mountain in 1983 to take on Kirkwood, it soon had five chairlifts and about 1,200 feet of vertical, but it sat roughly 1,000 feet lower than Kirkwood and its slopes were often bare. Rising insurance closed it in 1986. New owners restarted the lifts in 1989 until the owner's arrest for illegal logging in 1991. Investors reopened it as Carson Ski Area in 1994, and the operator went bankrupt after that one season.1,2,3
The Forest Service revoked its operating permit in 1998 and confirmed the delisting in 2000. The roughly 65-acre private parcel went up for sale in 2025.1,2,3
TodayThe remaining lifts and buildings stand on the slope and keep deteriorating. (2026)2
Timeline
- 1971John Allen opens Silver Basin1,2,3
- 1974Silver Basin shuts its lifts1,3
- 1978Reopens as Ski Sundown with two new triple chairs1,2
- 1983Reopens as Iron Mountain; five chairlifts installed1,3
- 1986Closes, citing rising insurance rates1,3
- 1994Investors reopen it as Carson Ski Area1,2
- 1995Operator goes bankrupt after one season; the lifts stop for good1,2
- 1998Forest Service revokes the special use permit2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Tahoe Daily Tribune · A history of empty slopes: Old Iron Mountain Ski Resort hits the market (Petra Molina, October 15, 2025)
- 2Skier 72 · Iron Mountain
- 3SFGATE · Troubled California ski resort for sale for $5.8 million (Andrew Chamings, SFGATE, October 7, 2025; via Yahoo News)
Photos
No photographs of Iron Mountain 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 Iron Mountain, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.6305° N · 120.2118° W · California · Sierra Nevada
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1971–1995
Closed after the 1995 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain