Overview
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The ski hill in Potawatomi State Park, near Sturgeon Bay, was built with the Sturgeon Bay Winter Sports Club. Wikipedia and MWLSAP date it to 1941; a 2007 Door County Pulse history says a group of skiers created it in 1946.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe slope lies open in the state park with its lifts gone, while a local group works toward reopening it. (2024)2,4
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Potawatomi, 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 Potawatomi
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1960–1977 · 18.4 mi away · WisconsinA Door County ski hill south of Fish Creek, built in 1960 and later called the Omnibus, where skiing ended in the 1970s.
- 1965–1985 · 37 mi away · WisconsinA ski hill west of Coleman in northeastern Wisconsin, with 300 feet of vertical and rope tows, open from 1965 to 1985.
- Opened 1960 · 40.7 mi away · WisconsinA small rope-tow ski hill west of Crivitz that opened in 1960 or 1961 and closed sometime between 1985 and 1987.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The ski hill in Potawatomi State Park, near Sturgeon Bay, was built with the Sturgeon Bay Winter Sports Club. Wikipedia and MWLSAP date it to 1941; a 2007 Door County Pulse history says a group of skiers created it in 1946. Its winter sports area had downhill runs, ski jumps and toboggan slides, with tows for skiers and tobogganers.1,2,3
Volunteers ran it throughout, usually on weekends and Wednesday evenings. Keeping snow on the south-facing slope was a constant struggle: members first tried making snow in the early 1970s, pumping water from Sawyer Harbor, and a chairlift went in during the early 1980s. A nonprofit, the Potawatomi Ski Club, leased the hill from the state. After a run of mild winters and a shrinking volunteer base, the 1997-1998 season was the last, and the lifts were taken down.1,2
MWLSAP gives the hill 143 feet of vertical; a 2024 article puts its drop at 220 feet. That year a local group, Restore Potawatomi State Park Ski Hill, began meeting to reopen the slope, which the park's 2018 master plan lists for study; the park superintendent noted that all of its old infrastructure is gone. Skimap.org holds a 1988 trail map and a 2018 sketch of a possible reopening.3,4,5
TodayThe slope lies open in the state park with its lifts gone, while a local group works toward reopening it. (2024)2,4
Timeline
- 1941Ski facilities built with the Sturgeon Bay Winter Sports Club1,3
- 1946Skiers organize the hill and its volunteer program, by one account2
- c. 1970First try at snowmaking, with water pumped from Sawyer Harbor2
- c. 1980A chairlift is installed2
- 1998The 1997-1998 season is the hill's last1,2,3
- 2018Park master plan calls for studying the hill's redevelopment4
- 2024A local group begins meeting to reopen the ski hill4
Sources for this history (5)
- 1Wikipedia · Potawatomi State Park
- 2Door County Pulse · Door County's Old Ski Hills: Warm Memories of Cold Winter Fun (Karen Grota, November 15, 2007)
- 3Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Potawatomi State Park, Sturgeon Bay — Wisconsin
- 4Door County Pulse · Plans Forming to Reopen Potawatomi Ski Hill (February 22, 2024)
- 5Skimap.org · Potawatomi ski maps
Photos
No photographs of Potawatomi 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 Potawatomi, in their own words.
Facts
Location
44.8746° N · 87.4347° W · Wisconsin
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1941–1998
Closed after the 1998 season. 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