Lost ski areaMontanaFlint Creek RangeRocky Mountains
Wraith Hill
The Anaconda Ski Club's hill up Lagger Gulch, about 15 miles west of Anaconda, opened in 1936 and known for early ski jumping, night skiing and a chairlift.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Wraith Hill, also called Silver Lake and Cable Mountain, sat up Lagger Gulch about 15 miles west of Anaconda. In 1935 the Olympic ski jumper Casper Oimoen, Bill Wraith of the Anaconda Company and Swen Ramsey picked the site for a new ski area and jump.1,2,3,4
Read the whole historyTodayThe T-bar still stands but would need work to run, and hikers and backcountry skiers climb the old runs. (2023)1,16
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Wraith Hill, 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 Wraith Hill
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 19 mi away · MontanaA small ski area with a T-bar off Highway 274, about 43 miles southwest of Butte near Wise River, listed in guides and plans from 1967 to 1988.
- Opened 1939 · 32.8 mi away · MontanaThe Butte Ski Club's volunteer-built ski area on a ridge southwest of Butte, opened in 1939 and closed in the late 1980s after snowless winters.
- Opened 1959 · 45.1 mi away · MontanaThe Wilson family's ski area east of Pipestone Pass, 16 miles southeast of Butte, which opened in 1959 or 1961 and ran until dry winters made it unprofitable.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 16 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Wraith Hill, also called Silver Lake and Cable Mountain, sat up Lagger Gulch about 15 miles west of Anaconda. In 1935 the Olympic ski jumper Casper Oimoen, Bill Wraith of the Anaconda Company and Swen Ramsey picked the site for a new ski area and jump. It opened in 1936, and work on a lodge, with a stone fireplace Oimoen built, began that April.1,2,3,4
It had a rope tow and night skiing by the 1938–39 winter. The Anaconda Company supplied material for a 700-foot chairlift with eight chairs, the Toonerville Trolly; sources date it from 1938 to the 1939–40 season, and the state's 1983 recreation plan says it was made from salvaged mining equipment and did not last many years. On March 4–5, 1939, the hill held Montana's first ski-jumping tournament under floodlights.1,3,4,5,6,7
The Anaconda Ski Club ran it on the Deerlodge National Forest, with three rope tows in 1963 and four on 23 acres of runs in 1973. A Doppelmayr T-bar came in 1976. A 2023 magazine history says it closed for good in 1983, as snow dwindled, upkeep outgrew the club and Discovery Basin drew skiers away, and a 2009 forum post gives the same year; yet state winter guides for 1985–86 and 1986–87 and a 1988 regional profile still listed it.1,2,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
TodayThe T-bar still stands but would need work to run, and hikers and backcountry skiers climb the old runs. (2023)1,16
Timeline
- 1936Hill opens up Lagger Gulch; work on the lodge begins in April1,3
- 1938Chairlift built from salvaged mining equipment; other sources date it 19391,5,6
- 1939Montana's first ski-jumping tournament under floodlights held March 4–53,4
- 1963Anaconda Ski Club runs three rope tows on Cable Mountain's east slope2,8
- 1976Doppelmayr T-bar installed10,11
- 1983Closes for good, by a 2023 magazine history and a 2009 forum post1,11
- 1986State winter guide still lists a T-bar and a beginners' rope tow13
- 2023The 160-acre property is offered for sale as a private ski hill15,16
Sources for this history (16)
- 1Outside Bozeman · First Tracks (Jamie Rankin), Outside Bozeman, Winter 2023-24 (Wayback Machine copy, May 18, 2026)
- 2U.S. Forest Service, Northern Region · Ski guide, Northern Region, June 1963: Cable Mountain (full text, Internet Archive)
- 3Anaconda-Deer Lodge County · Montana Winter Sports Carnival and Wraith Hill: talk by Dave McKernan, February 9, 2023 (PDF on the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County site)
- 4skisprungschanzen.com · Wraith Hill, Anaconda
- 5Montana Historical Society · Photographs of Casper Oimoen and the Wraith Hill chairlift, ca. 1938 (accession 2908)
- 6Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Parks Division · Outdoors in Montana 1983: Montana Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (full text, Internet Archive)
- 7International Skiing History Association · Skiing Heritage Journal, Vol. 15 No. 3, September 2003 (full text, Internet Archive)
- 8Montana State Planning Board · Montana survey of communities' economic development potential, 1963 (full text, Internet Archive)
- 9U.S. Forest Service, Northern Region · National Forest ski guide, Northern Region, 1973 (full text, Internet Archive)
- 10Lift Blog · News Roundup: 2S (March 10, 2023)
- 11Skilifts.org · Lost Ski Area - Anaconda, Montana
- 12Montana Promotion Division (Travel Montana) · 1985-1986 Winter Guide (full text, Internet Archive)
- 13Montana Promotion Division (Travel Montana) · Montana winter guide, 1986-87 season (printed September 1986; catalogued as 1988) (full text, Internet Archive)
- 14Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Area, Inc. · Southwestern Montana Resource Assessment and Profile, July 1988 (full text, Internet Archive)
- 15SnowBrains · Private Montana Ski Area 'Wraith Hill' Lists for $3.5 Million (April 18, 2023)
- 1696.7 KISS FM · Private Montana Ski Hill For Sale And It's Extremely Affordable (Will Gordon, April 19, 2023)
Photos
No photographs of Wraith Hill 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 Wraith Hill, in their own words.
Facts
Location
46.1736° N · 113.2101° W · Montana · Flint Creek Range
OpenStreetMap still maps 2 lifts and 7 downhill runs here; OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1936 · 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 5all 5, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain