Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Mt. Wawasee stood on Buzzard's Hill near New Paris in Elkhart County, the highest ground in northern Indiana.2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe old lodge still stands, run down but thought repairable. (2017)3
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Mt Wawasee, 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 Mt Wawasee
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1969–1986 · 37.5 mi away · IndianaA small rope-tow ski hill near New Carlisle, west of South Bend, that ran from 1969 to 1986.
- 1972–1989 · 39.2 mi away · MichiganA ski hill on Main Street Road north of Buchanan, in southwest Michigan, run as Royal Valley from 1972 and as Ski World until 1989.
- Years not yet collected · 53 mi away · IndianaA small upside-down ski area west of LaPorte, by the Indiana Toll Road, with rope tows and a T-bar; it closed around 1992.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Mt. Wawasee stood on Buzzard's Hill near New Paris in Elkhart County, the highest ground in northern Indiana. Three South Bend couples, the Clifford Hamiltons, the Loyal Wilson Jr.s and the Rev. Robert Haskins Jr.s, had skied in northern Michigan and wanted a hill nearer home. They picked this one for its north-facing slope and named it for Lake Wawasee, a few miles away.2,3
The partners leased 65 acres, built up the hilltop (by 20 feet in the 1962 account, 40 in a 2017 one), put up a Swiss chalet lodge and cut seven slopes, from a beginner area by the lodge to expert runs in the woods. A T-bar, electric rope tows, snowmaking and night lights were going in as it prepared to open in December 1962, billed as Indiana's first public ski area. By 1978 it ran eight rope tows, a T-bar and a handle tow on about 150 feet of vertical.1,2,3
It ran for 25 years, with a staff of 30 to 35 at its busiest, and closed in 1987. A Facebook campaign to bring it back began in 2015.1,3
TodayThe old lodge still stands, run down but thought repairable. (2017)3
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Indiana Lost Ski Areas
- 2The South Bend Tribune · Ski Resort Created Atop Elkhart County Hill (Louise Purvis, The South Bend Tribune, December 2, 1962; scan on MWLSAP)
- 3InkFreeNews · Mount Wawasee: A High Point For Many (InkFreeNews, January 31, 2017)
Photos
No photographs of Mt Wawasee 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 Mt Wawasee, in their own words.
Facts
Location
41.4678° N · 85.8196° W · Indiana
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1962–1987
Closed after the 1987 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain