Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Viking Valley sat at the east end of Jolly Ann Lake, about eight miles north of Ashby in Otter Tail County. Luverne and Janice Hellickson of Hopkins opened it on pasture land on their farm in the winter of 1969–70, after a struggle to find someone to splice the tow rope, an electrician to wire the lift poles, and their rental skis.1,2
Read the whole historyTimeline
4 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Viking Valley, 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 Viking Valley
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 18.2 mi away · MinnesotaA free, city-run rope-tow hill in Fergus Falls, built on the town's old dump, mentioned as a ski hill from 1960 to 1987.
- Closed 1973 · 29 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.
- 1968–1990 · 56.2 mi away · MinnesotaA family-run rope-tow ski area between Grey Eagle and Upsala in central Minnesota that offered downhill skiing from 1968 to 1990, then snow tubing.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Viking Valley sat at the east end of Jolly Ann Lake, about eight miles north of Ashby in Otter Tail County. Luverne and Janice Hellickson of Hopkins opened it on pasture land on their farm in the winter of 1969–70, after a struggle to find someone to splice the tow rope, an electrician to wire the lift poles, and their rental skis. They began with two lighted runs, two tows and a small chalet, with ski patrol and instructors.1,2
Les and Betty Bensch bought the area from Hellickson. By February 1979, their fourth season, they had doubled it with new runs and tows: six rope tows and nine runs, two of them for tubing, with snowmaking fed from the lake. In 1982 the Bensches were adding more snowmaking after a poor winter. A 1987 statewide guide listed six lifts and a 180-foot vertical drop, the last mention the Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project has found.2,3,4,5
Sources for this history (5)
- 1The Daily Journal · Two Slopes Down … and They're Off! and Running (Cale Dickey)
- 2Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Viking Valley — Minnesota
- 3Star Tribune · Ski Minnesota
- 4Star Tribune · Viking Valley ski area improved (Ben Kern)
- 5Star Tribune · Skiing (season review)
Photos
No photographs of Viking Valley 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 Viking Valley, in their own words.
Facts
Location
46.1613° N · 95.7371° W · Minnesota
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1969 · 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