Milwaukee Ski Bowl was an alpine

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

in the northwest

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, which operated between 1937 and 1950. It was southeast of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in the Cascade Range at Hyak, on the east side of

Snoqualmie Pass Snoqualmie Pass is a mountain pass that carries Interstate 90 (I-90) through the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. The pass summit is at an elevation of , on the county line between Kittitas County and King County. Snoqualmie ...

. Executives of the

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

("The Milwaukee Road") built the ski area in the fall of 1937, including a large two-story day lodge and one surface lift near the east portal of the railroad's Snoqualmie Tunnel, just north of

Keechelus Lake Keechelus Lake () is a lake and reservoir in the northwest United States, near Hyak in Kittitas County, Washington. Approximately southeast of Seattle and a few miles southeast of Snoqualmie Pass, it is the source of the Yakima River. Keechel ...

. It was originally the "Snoqualmie Ski Bowl" until it closed at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. It reopened in 1946 as the "Milwaukee Ski Bowl" to avoid confusion with The Snoqualmie Summit ski area, away at the top of the pass. It was a major ski area for its era, comparable to but not as luxurious as Sun Valley, the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

's new resort in central

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

. In early 1938, there was

night skiing Night skiing is the sport of skiing or snowboarding after sundown, offered at many ski resorts and mountains. There are usually floodlights – including LED lamps – along the piste which allow for better visibility. It typically begins afte ...

and lift tickets were a dollar a day, or ten cents per individual trip, for the cable surface lift, which vertically climbed .. Five runs were in the bowl, named for the railroad's popular trains of the era: ''

Hiawatha Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...

'', '' Chippewa'', '' Arrow'', ''

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

'', and '' Olympian''; additional lifts were added over time. The area proved to be popular when the '' Seattle Times'' newspaper sponsored a free ski school for high school students from Seattle and Tacoma. A round trip train ticket cost one dollar in 1940 with lift tickets for fifty cents. The lodge could hold one thousand people and concessions were operated by the Ben Paris complex of Seattle. A Class-A

ski jump Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the final ...

was built in 1941 and was said to be the largest in North America. National championship events in ski jumping were held here,National Ski Jumping Championships At Snoqualmie, Washington
(1941) British Movietone News at YouTube including the 1948 Olympic team tryouts, held the preceding spring. In 1949, the lodge burned down in the early hours of Friday, December 2; the ski area reopened a month later, and operated out of numerous railroad cars on a new

spur line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

for the rest of the season, its last. The ski area reopened under new ownership in 1959 as Hyak, and continues as Summit East. It has the lowest base

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of the four Summit at Snoqualmie ski areas, at approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. The railroad later went bankrupt; its former right-of-way in the Cascades is a rail trail,

Iron Horse State Park Iron Horse State Park, part of the Washington State Park System, is a state park located in the Cascade Mountains and Yakima River Valley, between Cedar Falls on the west and the Columbia River on the east. The park is contiguous with a ...

References

External links

History Link
- Milwaukee Ski Bowl, 1938-1950: Revolution in Local Skiing (essay 10060, 2012)
History Link
- Milwaukee Ski Bowl (essay 1685, 2000) {{Washington Ski areas navbox Defunct ski areas and resorts in Washington (state) Ski areas and resorts in Washington (state) Cascade Range Buildings and structures in Kittitas County, Washington 1937 establishments in Washington (state)

See also

References

External links