Bamber Hills Ski Area
Rochester, Minnesota1947-1985
Browse Bamber Hills Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Each fall Rochester Ski Club volunteers groomed the slope with rakes and shovels, and the city took the hill over in 1971. In 1984-85 it was open just 19 days and took in about $3,500 against about $21,000 in costs, and that fall the city left the ski business. Choose a style below and scroll down for the full Bamber Hills history. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
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Bamber Hills Ski Area History
Bamber Hills Ski Area in Rochester, Minnesota, was a small ski hill on the east side of Bamber Valley Road, southwest of the city, on land owned by the Mayo Foundation. It began with the Rochester Ski Club, which a 1954 report says was formed by Mayo Foundation fellows. In November 1947 the club opened a ski tow on a hill three quarters of a mile west of the Mayo Institute of Experimental Medicine, after members had skied it the winter before.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, club notices placed the hill near Mayowood and south of Bamber Valley School. Floodlights went up in 1954, and by 1961 members could ski under the lights every night that the snow allowed. Each fall volunteers groomed the slope with rakes and shovels. The hill sat idle for two winters in the late 1960s and reopened in 1969 with a new tow rope, lights for night skiing and a warming house.
In July 1971 the Rochester Park Board agreed to take over the hill after the 500-member club said it was hard to find volunteers to keep up the slope and the rope tow. The city ran it as the Rochester Ski Hill, with three runs and about 140 feet of vertical. By the late 1970s it was Bamber Hills Ski Area, with a lift running alongside the rope tow.
The city never made snow, partly because neighbors objected to the noise of snowmaking at night, and the hill could not open at all in the 1980-81 season. The city added snow tubing, but in 1984-85 the hill was open just 19 days and took in about $3,500 against about $21,000 in costs. That fall the city announced it was leaving the ski business. The slope is still there off Bamber Valley Road, partly grown over.