Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The Wagon Wheel Resort began in 1936 as Walt Williamson's filling station and hamburger stand outside Rockton and grew into a 314-acre resort with a hotel, restaurants, an airstrip, a golf course, a theater and ice rinks. A ski hill was among its attractions.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe resort's main buildings are gone; its former junior lodge became a restaurant and parts of the golf course remain.2
Timeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Wagon Wheel Resort, 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 Wagon Wheel Resort
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1957–1988 · 29.8 mi away · WisconsinA ski area on the south shore of Geneva Lake near Fontana, opened in 1957 on a former chicken farm and closed after its chalet burned in 1988.
- 1973–1986 · 30.8 mi away · WisconsinA small ski hill at the Interlaken Resort near Lake Geneva, open from 1973 to 1986, with 100 feet of vertical.
- 1960–1970 · 35.6 mi away · WisconsinA ski hill north of Lake Geneva that Ed Meltzer ran from 1960 to 1970 with 12 runs; its slopes are now part of Hawk's View Golf Club.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The Wagon Wheel Resort began in 1936 as Walt Williamson's filling station and hamburger stand outside Rockton and grew into a 314-acre resort with a hotel, restaurants, an airstrip, a golf course, a theater and ice rinks. A ski hill was among its attractions. It opened in 1977, about a mile and a half south of Rockton near Route 75, with roughly 80 feet of vertical served by a rope tow and a T-bar.1,2,3
After Williamson died in 1975 the property changed hands several times. The resort announced its closing in March 1989, and skiing ended with it. Fires struck the empty buildings in 1993, the main lodge and hotel burned in 1999, and what was left came down in 2004.1,2
TodayThe resort's main buildings are gone; its former junior lodge became a restaurant and parts of the golf course remain.2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project · Wagon Wheel Resort
- 2Wikipedia · Wagon Wheel Resort
- 3Rockton-Roscoe News · The Wagon Wheel Resort (event notice, Michael McGinnis, May 30, 2024)
Photos
No photographs of Wagon Wheel Resort 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 Wagon Wheel Resort, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.4389° N · 89.0767° W · Illinois
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1977–1989
Closed after the 1989 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