Bull Run Ski Area
Boscobel, Wisconsin1972-1980
Browse Bull Run Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Bull Run was a farm hill run by three Boscobel teachers and named for a herd of Black Angus cattle, not the Civil War battle. Its chalet was called The Barn, with stools made from milk cans and tractor seats, and a ticket cost $3. Pick a style below, and the full Bull Run history is further down. 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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Bull Run Ski Area History
Bull Run Ski Area near Boscobel, Wisconsin, was a small farm ski hill about two miles west of town on Highway 133, in the state's southwest corner above the Wisconsin River valley. It sat on Leon Glasbrenner's farm and was run by three Boscobel teachers: Glasbrenner, Gary Novinska and Jerald Fitzgerald, who did most of the building themselves. The name came from the farm's herd of Black Angus cattle, not from the Civil War battle.
The hill opened for the 1972 season. That November the partners held an open house at a new chalet, built as a project by the agricultural buildings division of the vocational school in Fennimore and furnished with a wood stove, sawhorse benches and round wooden tables. A new rope tow ran beside it to the top of the hill, and the vocational school taught a Skiing for Fun course on the slope that winter. Lights for night skiing came later.
Weather was the constant problem. The first winter had snow on December 12, then rain two weeks later took it all, and one season had only four good skiing days. By December 1977 the area had two rope tows, ski equipment for sale in the chalet, and Saturday night skiing, and was open weekends and school vacations.
In February 1978 SKI Magazine listed Bull Run as a collector's treat for skiers who like remote, rustic areas. It described a north-facing hill with a 230-foot vertical drop, six runs cut through white birch woods with the longest at 3,800 feet, and a longest tow of 1,200 feet. The chalet was called The Barn, with stools made from milk cans and tractor seats; one trail was named Cowpath, and skiers parked in the farmyard. Tickets were $3. The Midwest lost ski areas project lists 1980 as its last season.