Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The area opened in 1974 as Hidden Valley on a north-facing hill near Spring Grove, about three and a half miles north of Fox Lake on U.S. 12.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe former ski hill is a housing development.1
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Lost Valley, 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 Lost Valley
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1958–1973 · 4.5 mi away · IllinoisA ski area on the Illinois side of the Wisconsin line, right beside Wilmot Mountain, that ran from 1958 to 1973 with its lodge at the top.
- 1967–1986 · 5.8 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.
- Years not yet collected · 15.4 mi away · WisconsinA private ski hill with a ski jump near Burlington, in southeastern Wisconsin, skied from about 1952 and last mentioned in 1980.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The area opened in 1974 as Hidden Valley on a north-facing hill near Spring Grove, about three and a half miles north of Fox Lake on U.S. 12. Its lodge stood at the top. Renamed Lost Valley, it held a grand opening on January 10, 1976, advertising two double chairlifts, three rope tows, a lodge said to have cost a million dollars, and a restaurant. The vertical was about 120 feet by one count and 200 by another, and it ran night skiing.1,2,3
It did not open in 1977–78, and it closed in 1980. The hill is now a housing development.1
TodayThe former ski hill is a housing development.1
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Lost Valley (originally Hidden Valley)
- 2Chicago Tribune · Discover Lost Valley during the Grand Opening (advertisement, Chicago Tribune, January 9, 1976), copy on the Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project
- 3Colorado Ski History · Lost Areas #26 (The Lost Ski Areas of Illinois), The Colorado Skier, July 30, 1998
Photos
No photographs of Lost Valley 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 Lost Valley, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.4351° N · 88.2268° W · Illinois
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1974–1980
Closed after the 1980 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