Lost ski areaVirginiaBlue Ridge MountainsMid-Atlantic
Ski Cherokee
A short-lived ski area at Linden in Warren County, near Interstate 66, that opened in the 1990–91 winter and lasted two or three seasons.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Ski Cherokee was built on High Knob Mountain at Linden in Warren County, close to Interstate 66. Developer Gene Adkins bought 1,100 acres from the heirs of John Marshall in 1988 for $2 million and spent $6 million in all, clearing two slopes, putting up two quad chairlifts, buying snowmaking machines and building a lodge.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe old ski area has been divided into lots for mountain homes, and the lodge belongs to a church.2
Timeline
3 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Ski Cherokee, 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 Ski Cherokee
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1974 · 12.6 mi away · VirginiaA ski area near the town of Washington, Virginia, begun as a private club perhaps in the 1950s and closed after the 1973–74 season.
- Years not yet collected · 28.2 mi away · VirginiaA short-lived ski area at Moreland Gap east of Mount Jackson, part of a planned resort community, that ran about two seasons around 1970.
- 1962–1980 · 48.4 mi away · MarylandA small ski area with a T-bar and a rope tow at Braddock Heights, a few miles west of Frederick, that ran from the 1960s to about 1980.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Ski Cherokee was built on High Knob Mountain at Linden in Warren County, close to Interstate 66. Developer Gene Adkins bought 1,100 acres from the heirs of John Marshall in 1988 for $2 million and spent $6 million in all, clearing two slopes, putting up two quad chairlifts, buying snowmaking machines and building a lodge. Skiing began in the winter of 1990–91. DCSki describes about 1,000 feet of vertical, a gentle upper hill and harder lower terrain, with the lodge midway up the mountain; a former worker recalled three Riblet chairs, two quads and a triple, installed in 1989. The top was only 2,200 feet high, so snow was made regularly, and the area was designed to carry 4,000 people an hour.1,2
It did not last: Virginia Places says three years, DCSki two seasons. A year after it opened, Whitetail opened in Pennsylvania only 30 minutes farther away, and warm, rainy winters, thin cash flow and snowmaking held back by too little water all worked against Cherokee. The land was later sold in lots for mountain homes, Mosby Mountain Estates and Mosby's Overlook, the lodge was sold to a church, and the Riblet chairlifts went to Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire.1,2,3
TodayThe old ski area has been divided into lots for mountain homes, and the lodge belongs to a church.2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Virginia Places · Former Ski Resorts in Virginia
- 2DCSki · Ski Cherokee
- 3New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Crotched Mountain New Lifts
Photos
No photographs of Ski Cherokee 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 Ski Cherokee, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.8982° N · 78.1028° W · Virginia · Blue Ridge Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1990 · 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 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain