Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The hill rose off Irving Road about three quarters of a mile east of M-37 at Middleville, beside a reservoir. As Eskar Hills it was readied for a New Year's Day opening at the start of 1961, and a 1966 guide listed six slopes, four tows, night skiing and snowmaking.1,3
Read the whole historyTimeline
6 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Middleville, 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 Middleville
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1960–2015 · 25.8 mi away · MichiganA rope-tow ski hill outside Rockford, near Grand Rapids, that ran from 1960 until March 2015 and opened its slopes early to snowboarders.
- Opened 1963 · 38.2 mi away · MichiganA ski area in the Lake Michigan dunes on Holland's south side, opened in 1963 with a chairlift, T-bar and J-bar, and closed in the 1970s.
- 1956–1983 · 49.1 mi away · MichiganA family-built ski hill off M-46 between Amble and Lakeview, opened in 1956, run as Winterskol for a time, that closed after the 1982–83 season.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The hill rose off Irving Road about three quarters of a mile east of M-37 at Middleville, beside a reservoir. As Eskar Hills it was readied for a New Year's Day opening at the start of 1961, and a 1966 guide listed six slopes, four tows, night skiing and snowmaking. MWLSAP gives its vertical as 225 feet. Skiers from the early 1960s remember rope tows, a long one up the main slope, and a lodge and parking at the top of the hill. MWLSAP records Eskar Hills closing in 1969 after a fire.1,3
The hill reopened as Middleville Ski Area in 1978. It opened its 1980–81 season on December 13, 1980, with three ski patrollers on duty, and it advertised season passes in the Grand Rapids Press in October 1981. Newspapers do not mention it after the 1981–82 season. A reader recalls mountain bike races on the old hill in the mid-1990s.2,4
Timeline
- 1961Eskar Hills readied to open on New Year's Day1
- 1966Guide lists six slopes, four tows, night skiing and snowmaking3
- 1969Eskar Hills closes after a fire1
- 1978Reopens as Middleville Ski Area1,2
- 1980Season opens December 13 with three ski patrollers4
- 1982Newspapers stop mentioning it after the 1981–82 season2
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Michigan lost ski areas: Eskar Hills (reopened as Middleville Ski Area)
- 2Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Michigan lost ski areas: Middleville Ski Area
- 3Michigan Lost Ski Areas Project · Eskar Hills Ski Area – Middleville
- 4Michigan Lost Ski Areas Project · Middleville Ski Resort – Middleville
Photos
No photographs of Middleville 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 Middleville, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.7104° N · 85.4492° W · Michigan
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1961 · 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 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain