Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Sky Valley was Georgia's only ski area. It sat in Mud Creek Valley on the northwest side of Rabun Bald, in Rabun County at the North Carolina line.1,2,3,4
Read the whole historyTodayThe former lodge houses a church, condos stand on the slope that held the five runs, and Sky Valley is a golf resort community. (2026)1,3
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Sky Valley Resort, 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 Sky Valley Resort
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 2004 · 2.8 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.
- Years not yet collected · 101.5 mi away · GeorgiaA dry ski slope in Vinings, just northwest of Atlanta, where people skied on synthetic turf and plastic pellets for a few years in the 1970s.
- 1969–1978 · 107.2 mi away · TennesseeA ski area on Renegade Mountain, off the Crab Orchard exit of Interstate 40 east of Crossville, that ran from 1969 to 1978.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Sky Valley was Georgia's only ski area. It sat in Mud Creek Valley on the northwest side of Rabun Bald, in Rabun County at the North Carolina line. Larry McClure, a Rabun County native, and his partner Dr. Miles Mason Jr. bought the 400-acre Square D cattle ranch there in 1968 and first tried skiing as an experiment. Sources differ on the year: 1969 or 1970. By 1972 a full resort was running.1,2,3,4
The hill was small: five runs on about 15 acres, with roughly 210 feet of vertical. One chairlift served four of the runs, and a rope tow served Pokey, the beginner slope. The cold days a feasibility study had predicted never came, so snowmaking kept a base on the slopes from mid-December to mid-March. The resort added golf and vacation homes because skiing alone would not make money.1,2,4
A recession in 1975 hit the resort hard. Mason filed for bankruptcy in 1987, and the banks later sold the property. The investors who bought it ended skiing to save money, in 2004 by most accounts; one account places the decision after the 2004–05 season. The lift house and rental shop were torn down in January 2007. Condos now stand on the old slope, and the former lodge houses a church.1,2,3,4
TodayThe former lodge houses a church, condos stand on the slope that held the five runs, and Sky Valley is a golf resort community. (2026)1,3
Timeline
- 1968McClure and Mason buy the 400-acre Square D Ranch4
- 1969First skiing, as an experiment; one source says 19701,3,4
- 1972The full ski resort is up and running4
- 1978Sky Valley incorporated as a city3,4
- 1987Mason files for bankruptcy; the resort runs under bankruptcy protection4
- 2004New owners end skiing to save money1,4
- 2007Lift house and rental shop demolished in January1,2
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Wikipedia · Sky Valley, Georgia
- 2SkiSoutheast · Remembering Sky Valley Ski Area
- 3Rabun County Historical Society · Sky Valley
- 4Rabun County Historical Society · Creative Bulldozing, Snow Machines and Foreclosures: The Story of Sky Valley
Photos
No photographs of Sky Valley Resort 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 Sky Valley Resort, in their own words.
Facts
Location
34.9836° N · 83.3224° W · Georgia · Blue Ridge Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1969–2004
Closed after the 2004 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain