Birch Park Ski Area
Houlton, Wisconsin1966-c.1985
Browse Birch Park Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Each run was marked with a national flag and eight flagpoles stood in front of the chalet, which is why the hill was also called Eight Flags of Birch Park. One of its chairlifts was an unusual down-and-up design that climbed both sides of a small valley. Pick a style below, and the full Birch Park history is further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
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Birch Park Ski Area History
Birch Park Ski Area near Houlton, Wisconsin, opened in the winter of 1966 on east-facing slopes above the St. Croix River valley, about two miles east of Houlton on County Road E and three miles from Stillwater, Minnesota. In December 1966 the Chicago Tribune listed it among six new Wisconsin ski areas that season, with ten runs from 900 to 1,700 feet long, a modern chalet, six rope tows and a T-bar, open four nights a week.
The first brochure promised eight new runs, each marked with a national flag, and a row of eight flagpoles stood in front of the chalet, which is why the area was also called Eight Flags of Birch Park. The runs carried names to match, among them Viking, Lafayette, Windmill, Matador, Mount Royal and Yankee Doodle Dandy. The same brochure showed a skating rink and a sliding area at the base and advertised snow made daily and no waiting on lifts.
The hill grew quickly. A 1978 count lists seven rope tows, a T-bar and three chairlifts on about 230 feet of vertical, and a 1979 trail map shows 18 runs. One of the chairlifts was an unusual down-and-up design that climbed both sides of a small valley. By 1984 the brochure was selling Birch Park as 25 minutes east of the Twin Cities, with all 18 runs lit for night skiing until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, a cross-country trail, and a new Polar Bear Bar with live music on weekends.
The 1984 trail map is the last one known. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project gives about 1985 as the closing year, with a question mark. The slopes have since become home sites along Birch Park Road, where land listings still describe lots in the former ski area.