Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Rock Hill rose near the College of St. Scholastica, off Kenwood Avenue in Duluth, on land that became part of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe hill lies within the W. R. Bagley Nature Center on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus. (2025)1
Timeline
3 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Rock Hill, 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 Rock Hill
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 11 mi away · WisconsinA ski site 2 miles east of South Superior, where MWLSAP places an early-1940s ski jump and Skimap.org a Boy Scout camp's ski hill.
- 1940–1972 · 13.9 mi away · MinnesotaA Duluth Ski Club winter sports center at Fond du Lac with a large ski jump and a tow-served ski bowl, used from 1940 into the early 1970s.
- 1965–1975 · 19.1 mi away · WisconsinA small ski area south of Superior near Pattison State Park, opened in 1965 and closed by 1975 or, by another account, the early 1980s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Rock Hill rose near the College of St. Scholastica, off Kenwood Avenue in Duluth, on land that became part of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus. In the fall of 1945 a bulldozer cleared it for downhill and slalom skiing, and members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and Boy Scouts smoothed the slope by hand.1,2
By 1969 it was the university's own ski hill, built with a federal grant and run by students, who kept its rope tow turning for classmates and townspeople alike. The slope was a two-minute walk from the dormitories, and the UMD ski coach taught physical education classes on it. A newspaper column that year gave it a 225-foot drop; the Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project lists 124 feet. The project last finds the hill mentioned in the fall of 1976.1,3
TodayThe hill lies within the W. R. Bagley Nature Center on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus. (2025)1
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · University of Minnesota Duluth (Rock Hill) — Minnesota
- 2The Duluth News Tribune · How to get to Rock Hill ski slope (photo, caption and map)
- 3The Minneapolis Star · Ski Country (Ralph Thornton column)
Photos
No photographs of Rock Hill 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 Rock Hill, in their own words.
Facts
Location
46.8226° N · 92.0888° W · Minnesota
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1945 · 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