Overview
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Renegade's slopes stood off the Crab Orchard exit of Interstate 40, ten miles east of Crossville. Colorado Ski History's 1994 list of lost areas gives its years as 1969 to 1978, with 425 feet of vertical above a 2,700-foot base, served by a chairlift, a J-bar and two rope tows.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe mountain is a private housing development, where the chairlift's rusted posts, a water tower and an overgrown golf course remain. (2018)2,4
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Renegade Mountain, 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 Renegade Mountain
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 2004 · 106.5 mi away · North CarolinaA small family-run ski hill in Scaly Mountain, western North Carolina, that ended downhill skiing after 2003–04 and turned to snow tubing.
- 1969–2004 · 107.2 mi away · GeorgiaGeorgia's only ski area: five runs and a chairlift at the Sky Valley resort in Rabun County, from about 1969 until 2004 or 2005.
- Opened 1972 · 130.9 mi away · KentuckyA small ski area on Big Black Mountain near Lynch in eastern Kentucky that, by one account, opened in 1972 and closed around 1982.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Renegade's slopes stood off the Crab Orchard exit of Interstate 40, ten miles east of Crossville. Colorado Ski History's 1994 list of lost areas gives its years as 1969 to 1978, with 425 feet of vertical above a 2,700-foot base, served by a chairlift, a J-bar and two rope tows. A 2018 local history blog names Millard Oakley and a physician, Richard Evans, as the men behind the resort, and says the chairlift was running as early as the winter of 1962; it also gives the main slope a length of 3,200 feet, one of four slopes in the 1970 season.1,2
The same blog traces a string of owners: American Recreational Services took over in 1971, owners from Hamburg, Germany in 1983, and by 1990 a Frankfurt bank held the property, renamed Cumberland Gardens in 1986. It blames warm winters and poor management for the end of skiing. The large lodge was destroyed by arson in 2001. The mountain's community club recalls the ski resort and a golf course, undone by mismanagement and several bankruptcies.2,3
TodayThe mountain is a private housing development, where the chairlift's rusted posts, a water tower and an overgrown golf course remain. (2018)2,4
Timeline
- 1962Chairlift running this winter, according to a 2018 local history blog2
- 1969Skiing begins, per Colorado Ski History's lost-area list1
- 1971American Recreational Services takes over the property2
- 1978Last year of operation in Colorado Ski History's list1
- 1983Owners from Hamburg, Germany, take over2
- 1986Property renamed Cumberland Gardens2
- 2001The resort's lodge is destroyed by fire2
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Colorado Ski History · The Colorado Skier Newsletters: Lost Areas #14 - Published 24 March 1994
- 2Historic Archaeology (blog) · Renegade Mountain Ski Resort (Michael Cutali, December 26, 2018)
- 3Renegade Mountain Community Club · Why Live on Renegade Mountain?
- 4Cumberland Gal (blog) · Cumberland Gal: Renegade Mountain and Dogwood (Dana Koogler, July 27, 2018)
Photos
No photographs of Renegade Mountain 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 Renegade Mountain, in their own words.
Facts
Location
35.8919° N · 84.8671° W · Tennessee · Walden Ridge
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1969–1978
Closed after the 1978 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain