Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Rainbow Basin stood about two miles southwest of Kirksville. Three partners, among them Jeff Turner, put an estimated $750,000 into it and opened early in 1982 with a cedar chalet, snowmaking and three lifts, two of them handle tows the owners built themselves.1,2,3
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Memories
Skied Rainbow Basin, 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 Rainbow Basin
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Opened 1969 · 96.8 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 1971 · 128.3 mi away · IowaA small ski area two miles north of Dexter, also called Dexfield Sports Area and Deer Run, with its lodge at the top, that ran from 1971 to about 1986.
- 1971–1974 · 140.4 mi away · IllinoisA short-lived ski area on Highway 100 near Grafton, east of Pere Marquette State Park's lodge, that ran from the 1971–72 winter to 1974.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Rainbow Basin stood about two miles southwest of Kirksville. Three partners, among them Jeff Turner, put an estimated $750,000 into it and opened early in 1982 with a cedar chalet, snowmaking and three lifts, two of them handle tows the owners built themselves. The main slope faced north, with 150 feet of vertical and a 1,500-foot run. Around 1,000 skiers came the first weekend, and a Columbia paper called it Missouri's first true ski resort.1,2,3
The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project gives 1991 as the year it closed, with a question mark over 1989. The pages read do not say why it closed or what became of the hill.2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1St. Joseph News-Press/Gazette · It's not Vail, but Kirksville has own ski slope (Allen Seifert) — St. Joseph News-Press/Gazette, February 18, 1982, p. 6 (clipping hosted by MWLSAP)
- 2Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Rainbow Basin — Missouri
- 3Columbia Daily Tribune · Ski Missouri
Photos
No photographs of Rainbow Basin 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 Rainbow Basin, in their own words.
Facts
Location
40.1645° N · 92.6108° W · Missouri
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1982–1991
Closed after the 1991 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