Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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In December 1965 the Estherville Daily News reported plans for a ski area the following year, and Holiday Mountain Inc. opened it in 1966. It sat on the bluffs of the West Branch of the Des Moines River, a mile southwest of Estherville on Iowa 4.1
Read the whole historyTimeline
6 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Riverside Hills, 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 Riverside Hills
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1959–1998 · 56.2 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 1982 · 56.3 mi away · IowaA small ski area on old Iowa 3 just east of Cherokee, with 145 feet of vertical, recorded from 1982 to 1992.
- Years not yet collected · 70.4 mi away · MinnesotaA family-run campground and rope-tow ski and tubing area north of Sleepy Eye in southwest Minnesota, active in the 1970s and 1980s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
In December 1965 the Estherville Daily News reported plans for a ski area the following year, and Holiday Mountain Inc. opened it in 1966. It sat on the bluffs of the West Branch of the Des Moines River, a mile southwest of Estherville on Iowa 4. Like several Midwest hills it was upside down, with the lodge at the top, and it had 190 feet of vertical.1
In 1978 it ran three rope tows and a T-bar, and in 1980 two of each. A 1980 trail map still carries the Holiday Mountain name; by a 1991 map it was Riverside Hills. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project's last mention of it is from November 2008.1,2
Sources for this history (2)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Iowa
- 2Skimap.org · Riverside Hills
Photos
No photographs of Riverside Hills 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 Riverside Hills, in their own words.
Facts
Location
43.3867° N · 94.8351° W · Iowa
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1966 · 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