Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Ski Villa opened in 1971 north of Waverly, just past the north end of the Stockwell Bridge; the Waterloo Courier reported its opening that February. In 1978 it ran six rope tows.1
Read the whole historyTimeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Oak Highlands, 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 Oak Highlands
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 34.2 mi away · IowaA ski club's rope tow slope about 13 miles south of Waterloo, with 190 feet of vertical, recorded in newspapers from 1971 to 1977.
- Opened 1960 · 51.2 mi away · IowaA city-owned ski area on U.S. 52 north of Decorah, with 250 feet of vertical, that opened in 1960 and faded out in the 2000s.
- Opened 1969 · 82.1 mi away · IowaA ski area outside Montezuma in south central Iowa that grew from rope tows to two chairlifts and ran from 1969 until about 2007.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 1 page below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Ski Villa opened in 1971 north of Waverly, just past the north end of the Stockwell Bridge; the Waterloo Courier reported its opening that February. In 1978 it ran six rope tows. It became Oak Highlands in 1981 and added a chairlift in 1982, beside two rope tows, a Poma and a T-bar, with a waterslide for summer. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project gives 250 feet of vertical for Ski Villa and 150 feet for Oak Highlands.1
Warm weather kept the hill closed for the 1986–87 season. It did not open for 1988–89, and its last newspaper mention is from January 1989.1
Sources for this history (1)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Iowa
Photos
No photographs of Oak Highlands 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 Oak Highlands, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.7512° N · 92.4774° W · Iowa
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1971 · 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 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain