Buffalo Valley Ski Area
Buffalo, Minnesota1966-1972
Browse Buffalo Valley Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. The lodge was a converted barn, and the ski patrol worked out of the silo beside it. Seven rope tows ran on about 240 feet of vertical, and by 1972 the ads bragged about no chairlifts, no T-bars and no waiting in line. Pick a style below, and the full Buffalo Valley 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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Buffalo Valley Ski Area History
Buffalo Valley Ski Area in Buffalo, Minnesota, ran on the west side of Buffalo Lake, about 35 miles west of Minneapolis, from 1966 into the early 1970s. It was started by a firm whose heavy air compressors did sandblasting in the summer and could make snow in the winter. The company picked the valley after scouting from the air for a hill within easy reach of the Twin Cities.
The hill had about 240 feet of vertical and was served by rope tows, seven of them in the first season. The lodge was a converted barn with its silo beside it, and the ski patrol worked out of the silo. In 1969 the area advertised night skiing until 10 p.m. every night but Friday. Its ads carried a cartoon mascot, a grinning kid in goggles and a shaggy horned buffalo cap, carrying his skis. By 1972 the ads made a virtue of what it lacked: no chairlifts, no T-bars and no waiting in line, plus a bar, a cafe and rentals.
The runs were short, and the hill drew mostly local skiers who came to practice. Upkeep was expensive. The area was still advertising in January 1972, and that November the Minneapolis Star listed it as closed for financial reasons. A bankruptcy and a sheriff's sale followed.
By 1977 the barn chalet had been vandalized and then bought, with its silo and 57 acres of the valley, by a family who made it their home and had no plans to build. That winter neighborhood boys rigged a small rope tow on the old slope.