Lost ski areaCaliforniaSierra Nevada
Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl
The Plumas Ski Club's small ski hill above Johnsville in Plumas-Eureka State Park, run since the 1950s, its old Poma lifts now out of service.
Overview
Look around
Loading the ground…
Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
Miners on Gold Mountain, now Eureka Peak, above Johnsville raced on long skis in the 1800s, and Wikipedia counts these among the first organized ski races in North America. The Plumas Ski Club, formed in 1950 by skiers from Blairsden, Portola and Quincy, put in a rope tow near today's museum, moved it to the Eureka Bowl in 1955, and ran the ski bowl at its present site from the 1957–58 season.1,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe club still holds longboard races on the hill each winter and is raising money for a new lift to reopen the bowl. (2026)2,6
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl, 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 Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1957–1986 · 48.1 mi away · CaliforniaA small ski area at the foot of Alpine Meadows Road off Highway 89, opened as Powder Bowl in 1957 and run as Deer Park from 1980 to 1986.
- Opened 1964 · 53.2 mi away · NevadaA one-lift ski area on the Mount Rose Highway near Galena, between the Christmas Tree restaurant and Rosemount Lodge, that opened in the 1960s and closed around 1981.
- Closed 1994 · 64.6 mi away · CaliforniaThe ski area inside Lassen Volcanic National Park, near the southwest entrance and Sulphur Works, which grew from 1930s rope tows to a triple chair and closed in 1994.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 6 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Miners on Gold Mountain, now Eureka Peak, above Johnsville raced on long skis in the 1800s, and Wikipedia counts these among the first organized ski races in North America. The Plumas Ski Club, formed in 1950 by skiers from Blairsden, Portola and Quincy, put in a rope tow near today's museum, moved it to the Eureka Bowl in 1955, and ran the ski bowl at its present site from the 1957–58 season.1,3
A Poma bought from Squaw Valley went in in 1965, and a second from Rainbow Lodge in 1975, when all but one rope tow were retired. The club revived longboard racing in 1993. Mechanical failures forced it to shut the hill in February 1997, but both lifts were running again by March 1998. Skimap.org holds trail maps up to 2010.1,3,4
By 2020 the club was raising money to reopen the bowl, its biggest project a new lift, with State Parks' backing. In 2023 it called the old lifts obsolete and planned a simple surface lift.2,5
TodayThe club still holds longboard races on the hill each winter and is raising money for a new lift to reopen the bowl. (2026)2,6
Timeline
- 1950Plumas Ski Club forms; a rope tow goes in near the museum1
- 1955The rope tow moves to the present ski bowl site1
- 1957Club begins running the ski bowl in the 1957–58 season1
- 1965A Poma lift bought from Squaw Valley is installed1
- 1975Second Poma added; all but one rope tow retired1
- 1993Club holds its first longboard revival race1,3
- 1997Mechanical failures force the hill to close in February1
- 1998Both lifts running again by March1
Sources for this history (6)
- 1Plumas Ski Club · Ski Hill History
- 2Plumas News · New surface lift in the future for the Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl (February 14, 2023)
- 3Wikipedia · Plumas-Eureka State Park
- 4Skimap.org · Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl
- 5Plumas News · Volunteers in long-running club support community skiing in Plumas County (Ingrid Burke, February 12, 2020)
- 6Plumas Ski Club · Plumas Ski Club
Photos
No photographs of Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl 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 Plumas Eureka Ski Bowl, in their own words.
Facts
Location
39.7663° N · 120.7001° W · California · Sierra Nevada
OpenStreetMap still maps 2 lifts here; OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1955 · 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.
No figures from its operating years are collected yet.
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain