Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Val Chatel stood on Deep Lake about 15 miles north of Park Rapids, on County Road 4 in Hubbard County. The Peterson family opened it in 1953 and ran a hotel, apartments and a restaurant there along with the slopes.1,2,3,4
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4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Val Chatel, 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 Val Chatel
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1963–1988 · 61.3 mi away · MinnesotaA community-financed ski area south of Grand Rapids, designed by Sel Hannah, that opened in the 1962–63 winter and ran until 1988, per MWLSAP.
- Closed 1973 · 62.8 mi away · MinnesotaA club-founded ski hill on South Lake Lida near Pelican Rapids, on land now in Maplewood State Park, that ran from the early 1950s into the early 1970s.
- 1963–1998 · 66.1 mi away · MinnesotaA ski hill and lodge resort on Quadna Mountain near Hill City, Minnesota, that opened in 1963 or 1964 and ended downhill skiing in 1998.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 6 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Val Chatel stood on Deep Lake about 15 miles north of Park Rapids, on County Road 4 in Hubbard County. The Peterson family opened it in 1953 and ran a hotel, apartments and a restaurant there along with the slopes. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project counts its single chair as the second chairlift in Minnesota; that lift had closed by 1978, when the area ran six rope tows on a 270-foot vertical.1,2,3,4
In 1982 Val Chatel stayed open all year as a restaurant and hotel. In February 1987 all its slopes were open, along with more than 14 kilometres of groomed cross-country trails, and it billed itself as the home of the Epic Viking Theatre. That December the 360-acre resort, with two lakes, its lodge, three rope tows, a chairlift and snowmaking, was advertised for sale at $750,000. The project gives 1987 as its last year of skiing.1,4,5,6
Sources for this history (6)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Val Chatel — Minnesota
- 2Adam Kooyer · Viking at Val Chatel: A Minnesota Legend
- 3Ren Holland · Park Rapids, MN, Deep Lake, Val Chatel Ski Lodge, ca 1960 (postcard)
- 4Park Rapids Enterprise · Val Chatel Ski Lodge Resort (for sale)
- 5Star Tribune · Skiing (season review)
- 6Park Rapids Enterprise · Val Chatel advertisement
Photos
No photographs of Val Chatel 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 Val Chatel, in their own words.
Facts
Location
47.1339° N · 94.9754° W · Minnesota
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1953–1987
Closed after the 1987 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain