Overview
Look around
Loading the ground…
Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
The area stood two miles north of Dexter on Dexfield Road in central Iowa and went by three names: Dexfield Sports Area, Raccoon River and Deer Run. It was laid out upside down, with the lodge at the top, and had 200 feet of vertical.1
Read the whole historyTimeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Raccoon River, 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 Raccoon River
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1959–1998 · 81.9 mi away · IowaA small ski area east of Humboldt, known over the years as Winter World, Humboldt Winter Playground and Winter Playland, that ran from 1959 to 1998.
- Opened 1969 · 85.6 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.
- Opened 1982 · 105.5 mi away · IowaA small ski area on old Iowa 3 just east of Cherokee, with 145 feet of vertical, recorded from 1982 to 1992.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The area stood two miles north of Dexter on Dexfield Road in central Iowa and went by three names: Dexfield Sports Area, Raccoon River and Deer Run. It was laid out upside down, with the lodge at the top, and had 200 feet of vertical. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project dates its start to 1971, counting back from a mention of its third season. In 1978 it ran three rope tows.1
Trail maps from 1975, under the Dexfield name, and 1982 survive. The project's last mention of the area is from 1986; it appears on a 1986 map but not the 1987 one.1,2
Sources for this history (2)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Iowa
- 2Skimap.org · Raccoon River
Photos
No photographs of Raccoon River 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 Raccoon River, in their own words.
Facts
Location
41.5612° N · 94.2288° 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