Brady's Hills Ski Area
Lakeview, Michigan1956 to 1983 (with gaps, and run as Winterskol for about 1976 to 1982)
Browse Brady's Hills Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. The Paulson family ran it near Lakeview, Michigan, and by around 1970 it had six electric rope tows, a Poma lift and a redwood lodge. When the family put it up for sale in 1974, a real estate agent who leased it had Jaycees and ski patrol members run the lifts as volunteers, saying a sale would be easier if buyers could see people skiing. Pick a style below, then read the full Brady's Hills history further down. Every shirt is printed to order in the USA and carries the memories of bygone places and teams.
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Brady's Hills Ski Area History
Brady's Hills Ski Area near Lakeview, Michigan, sat on a wooded ridge in Montcalm County, about three and a half miles west of town off M-46 on Gravel Ridge Road. The Paulson family farmed the surrounding land, and the hills carried the name of Brady Paulson, a Norwegian settler who the family said had bought a 400-acre tract of timber there about a hundred years earlier. When the Battle Creek Enquirer listed Michigan's new ski areas at the end of 1956, Brady's Hill on M-46 between Lakeview and Amble was one of them.
Arthur Paulson ran the area with his sons Jack and Rick and their wives. Their brochure billed the slopes as the highest point in Montcalm County and the place as the family ski area. By around 1970 it had six electric rope tows and a Poma lift, snowmaking, night skiing on Friday and Saturday, a rental and ski shop, a ski school and a redwood lodge. A day of tows cost $4.50, and a night cost $3. The runs on the brochure map were Brady's Run, North Wind, North Run, Westward Ho, Shelter, Intermediate and Beginner. The Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project puts the vertical drop at about 135 feet.
After 18 seasons the Paulsons put the area up for sale in 1974, asking $100,000 for 100 acres, six tows, the Poma, the lodge and about 200 rental outfits, and the AAA reported it closed that fall. A Stanton real estate agent and two partners leased it instead and opened the day after Christmas, with members of the Stanton and Greenville Jaycees, Lakeview skiers and the ski patrol running the lifts as volunteers. The agent said selling the place would be easier if buyers could see people skiing on it.
New owners reopened it for the 1976 to 1977 winter as Winterskol, with a new hill and a larger lodge, and that name appears on a 1980 road map. By about 1982 it was Brady's Hills again, and the 1982 to 1983 winter appears to have been its last. The old lodge is now a private home, and the slopes are used for horseback riding.