Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Developers drawn by the steady trade at Gaylord-area ski resorts opened The Pinnacles in the mid-1960s on Sawyer Road near Lake Nineteen, northeast of Sparr. In November 1965 the Detroit Free Press said the resort northeast of Gaylord would open for its first full season, carrying skiers to its summit on a chairlift; MILSAP notes that the chamber of commerce history pictures skiers riding a double chair there.1,2,3,4
Read the whole historyTimeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Tyrolean, 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 Tyrolean
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1948–1997 · 15.4 mi away · MichiganA ski area seven miles northeast of Lewiston in northeast Michigan that ran from 1948 until it shut down in 1997.
- Opened 1957 · 18.6 mi away · MichiganA ski area a few miles from Boyne Mountain, opened in 1957 by Joe and Donna Behse with backer Dee Adgate, later owned by Boyne and now abandoned.
- 1956–1998 · 34.2 mi away · MichiganA rope-tow ski area on the southwest edge of Mio, above the Au Sable River valley, that Charles Budesky opened in 1956 and that last ran in January 1998.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 6 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Developers drawn by the steady trade at Gaylord-area ski resorts opened The Pinnacles in the mid-1960s on Sawyer Road near Lake Nineteen, northeast of Sparr. In November 1965 the Detroit Free Press said the resort northeast of Gaylord would open for its first full season, carrying skiers to its summit on a chairlift; MILSAP notes that the chamber of commerce history pictures skiers riding a double chair there. A reader says his parents and other investors bought the property in 1968.1,2,3,4
The area became Tyrolean Hills: MWLSAP dates the new name to 1972, while the Otsego chamber of commerce history MILSAP quotes says the mid- or late 1970s. A November 1974 report listed Tyrolean Hills near Gaylord among Michigan ski areas that had closed, yet a 1981 trail map survives on Skimap.org. The chamber history says it ceased operating in 1988, and a reader who worked there in the 1987–88 winter recalled it as the last season; MWLSAP also notes a 1989–90 map and offers 1990. MWLSAP lists its vertical as 235 or 290 feet.1,3,4,5,6
Timeline
- 1965The Pinnacles readies its chairlift for its first full season2,4
- 1968An investor group buys the Pinnacles property, a reader recalls3
- 1972Renamed Tyrolean Hills, by MWLSAP's date4
- 1974Listed among Michigan ski areas that have closed5
- 1988Tyrolean Hills ceases operation, per the chamber history1,3
Sources for this history (6)
- 1Michigan Lost Ski Areas Project (MILSAP) · The Pinnacles – Gaylord
- 2Detroit Free Press · 4 New Ski Resorts Open (Detroit Free Press, November 5, 1965; scan on MWLSAP)
- 3Michigan Lost Ski Areas Project (MILSAP) · Tyrollean Hills – Gaylord
- 4Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project (MWLSAP) · Tyrolean (Tyrolean Hills; previously called Pinnacles Ski Resort)
- 5Jackson Citizen Patriot · Ski areas down in state (Jackson Citizen Patriot, November 14, 1974; scan on MWLSAP)
- 6Skimap.org · Tyrolean
Photos
No photographs of Tyrolean 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 Tyrolean, in their own words.
Facts
Location
45.0847° N · 84.4680° W · Michigan
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1965–1988
Closed after the 1988 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 1all 1, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain