Overview
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Terrapin Ridge was a small ski area in Jo Daviess County, in the northwest corner of Illinois. It sat on a north-facing slope above Rush Creek, on Derinda Road about five miles from U.S.1
Read the whole historyTimeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Terrapin Ridge, 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 Terrapin Ridge
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1964–1982 · 53.6 mi away · IowaA small ski hill, also called Mount Duck, in Davenport's Duck Creek Park, with its lodge at the top, that ran from 1964 to 1982.
- 1977–1989 · 56.9 mi away · IllinoisA small ski hill with a rope tow and a T-bar at Walt Williamson's Wagon Wheel Resort south of Rockton, run from 1977 until the resort closed in 1989.
- 1969–1991 · 60.9 mi away · WisconsinA ski hill overlooking the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway near Spring Green that opened in December 1969 and closed in 1991; its land is now a nature preserve.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Terrapin Ridge was a small ski area in Jo Daviess County, in the northwest corner of Illinois. It sat on a north-facing slope above Rush Creek, on Derinda Road about five miles from U.S. 20 near Elizabeth, some 35 miles east of Dubuque.1
Newspapers reported plans for a ski jump there in July 1964, and by September it was nearly built. The area opened to the public on January 16, 1965. A newspaper account from December 1964, quoted by the Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project, described six slopes of 1,200 to 2,000 feet, a vertical drop of 280 feet, four tows and room for 750 to 1,000 skiers a day. The area also made snow. A jumping tournament there in February 1965 drew 2,000 spectators, according to a headline of the time.1
Newspaper items about it run into January 1966. The project's last mention of the area is from 1969, and no source found says when it closed. A ski-jump archive puts the jump's critical point at about 45 meters and lists it as destroyed.1,2
Sources for this history (2)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Terrapin Ridge Ski Area
- 2skisprungschanzen.com · Derinda
Photos
No photographs of Terrapin Ridge 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 Terrapin Ridge, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.2711° N · 90.1674° W · Illinois
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1965 · 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