Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Tan-Tar-A, 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 Tan-Tar-A
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1988–2000 · 60.4 mi away · MissouriA small ski area on bluffs above the Sac River near Brighton, north of Springfield, built by a local couple and open from 1988 to 2000.
- 1983–1984 · 118.5 mi away · MissouriA ski area on Shepherd Mountain above Ironton in southeast Missouri that ran on man-made snow for a single season, 1983–84.
- 1971–1974 · 134.2 mi away · IllinoisA short-lived ski area on Highway 100 near Grafton, east of Pere Marquette State Park's lodge, that ran from the 1971–72 winter to 1974.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Tan-Tar-A, a resort at Osage Beach on the Lake of the Ozarks, added skiing in 1964 to draw winter visitors. Its owner and developer, St. Louis contractor Burton Duenke, hired Toni Krasovic, an Austrian who came from New York's Windham Ski Area, to manage the ski lodge. That November four slopes for beginner to intermediate skiers were being finished, with pipes for man-made snow; three rope tows and a 1,700-foot T-bar were still to be installed, and skiing was to start in December if the weather allowed.1,2,3
A Columbia newspaper later described it as a converted driving range and Missouri's only ski area before Rainbow Basin opened in 1982. In 1975 it had one rope tow and one T-bar. In February 1981 Marriott's Tan-Tar-A Resort had two lighted slopes served by lifts, a ski school and cross-country skiing. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project finds skiing last advertised in 1981, possibly 1982. The resort itself took the name Margaritaville Lake Resort in 2019.2,3,4,5
TodayThe Tan-Tar-A resort operates as Margaritaville Lake Resort, renamed in 2019. (2019)2,3
Sources for this history (5)
- 1Springfield Leader and Press · Lake of the Ozarks Resort Areas Move to Attract Winter Tourists
- 2Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Tan-Tar-A (Marriott's Tan-Tar-A) — Missouri
- 3LakeExpo · Margaritaville In May! Here's A Look Back At Tan-Tar-A's History At Lake Of The Ozarks
- 4Columbia Daily Tribune · Ski Missouri
- 5The Miller County Autogram-Sentinel · Ski slopes open at Tan-Tar-A — The Miller County Autogram-Sentinel (Tuscumbia, Mo.), February 5, 1981, p. 4 (clipping hosted by MWLSAP)
Photos
No photographs of Tan-Tar-A 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 Tan-Tar-A, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.1290° N · 92.7013° W · Missouri
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1964 · 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 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain