Old Smokey Hill Ski Park

Old Smoky was a municipal ski hill in the southwest part of Fergus Falls. It was the city's old dump, which had stopped smoking and been shaped into a sliding hill about 30 years before 1977. That spring SKI Magazine described two rope tows, one fast and one slow, two runs named Fast and Slow to match, 80 feet of vertical, grooming, a warming house with an oil burner and a ski patrol, all free. The park and recreation department ran it mainly for local youngsters, opening after school, on weekend afternoons and every evening.¹

In February 1973 the city kept the tow shut after two riders were hurt in its mechanism within a year, and its insurer withheld coverage until the tow was made safe; it was running again by 1977. MWLSAP lists two rope tows in 1978, a vertical of 115 feet, or 80, and mentions of the hill from 1960 to 1987. Skimap.org holds a 1977 trail map.^1,2,3,4