Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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View Ridge was the second hill of Mo-Ski-Tow, a nonprofit formed to develop skiing in Outagamie County. Since 1956 the club had run a downhill area on Mosquito Hill, a former ski-jumping hill, but wind kept snow off its upper slopes.1,2,3,4,5
Read the whole historyTodayThe 36 acres of the old ski area are now a state natural area, just north of Mosquito Hill Nature Center.1
Timeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied View 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 View Ridge
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1950–1996 · 26.3 mi away · WisconsinA rope-tow ski hill in Calumet County Park near Stockbridge, once called Calumet Hills, that ran from 1950 to 1996.
- Opened 1964 · 32.5 mi away · WisconsinA small hill near De Pere, just south of Green Bay, that ran as the Pink Panther, then Snowburst, and last as Bear Valley.
- Opened 1949 · 39 mi away · WisconsinA volunteer-run rope-tow hill in Ripon's Kiwanis Park, first skied from 1949 and revived from 1978 into the 1980s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
View Ridge was the second hill of Mo-Ski-Tow, a nonprofit formed to develop skiing in Outagamie County. Since 1956 the club had run a downhill area on Mosquito Hill, a former ski-jumping hill, but wind kept snow off its upper slopes. In March 1963 members began moving the tows across the road to a 40-acre wooded hill on Alcan Road, and that May more than 50 volunteers started clearing runs and tow lines.1,2,3,4,5
Sources differ on the first season: New London's local history site says View Ridge opened in the 1961–62 winter, while MWLSAP and the 1963 newspaper reports point to 1963. It had four rope tows, two side by side for the intermediate and expert runs and two for the novice runs, along with lights and a phone system. Its vertical is given as 150 feet by the history site and 200 by MWLSAP.1,3,5
After years of argument about adding T-bars, chairlifts or snowmaking, the area closed after the 1978–79 season. A buyer seemed ready to reopen it in the early 1980s, but the sale never happened. Some of the novice tow equipment is still in the woods.1,5
TodayThe 36 acres of the old ski area are now a state natural area, just north of Mosquito Hill Nature Center.1
Sources for this history (5)
- 1NLHHS (New London, Wisconsin history site) · Ski Hill: View Ridge Ski Hill / Mo-Ski-Tow Hill
- 2The Post-Crescent (via Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project) · Mo-Ski-Tow Hill Facilities To be Moved This Weekend — The Post-Crescent, Appleton, March 12, 1963 (clipping on MWLSAP)
- 3The Post-Crescent (via Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project) · Volunteers Start Work On 40-Acre Ski Area — The Post-Crescent, Appleton, May 6, 1963 (clipping on MWLSAP)
- 4Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Mo-Ski-Tow Hill (Mosquito Hill) — Wisconsin
- 5Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · View Ridge Ski Hill (also called Ski View Ridge) — Wisconsin
Photos
No photographs of View 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 View Ridge, in their own words.
Facts
Location
44.3889° N · 88.6879° W · Wisconsin
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1963–1979
Closed after the 1979 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