Carousel Mountain Classic Ski Area
Holland, Michigan1963-1973
Shop Carousel Mountain Classic Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Norm Archer and Don Martin opened it in 1963 in the wooded dunes beside Lake Michigan near Holland, Michigan, with a merry-go-round theme and a carousel emblem of two galloping horses. The lodge was built of timber salvaged from a dozen old barns, and an antique oak water wheel turned in the creek by the cider barn. Pick a style below, and the full Carousel Mountain history is further down. Every shirt is printed to order in the USA and carries the memories of bygone places and teams.
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Carousel Mountain Classic Ski Area History
Carousel Mountain near Holland, Michigan, was a ski resort cut into the wooded sand dunes beside Lake Michigan, between Macatawa and Castle Park in Laketown Township, about four miles west of town. Norm Archer opened it in 1963 with his business partner Don Martin, and they gave the whole place a merry-go-round theme, down to a carousel emblem with two galloping horses on its brochures.
The resort had a double chairlift, a T-bar, a J-bar and four electric rope tows, plus snow machines and lights for night skiing. Its lodge was built of white painted cinder block and timber salvaged from a dozen old barns, with tall windows facing the slopes and red beams and carpet inside. For the second season the owners set an antique oak water wheel in the creek beside a new barn with a cider press, and sold the cider with doughnuts.
The money did not keep up. By 1965 the resort was in trouble, and in September 1966 a court ordered foreclosure. United Insurance Company of America took it over that fall and reopened it for the 1967-68 season under manager Larry Phillips, with more rope tows and new snowmaking gear. In 1968 the Chicago industrialist Norbert C. Smith bought it.
Carousel Mountain ran four more winters and closed for good in 1973, after about ten years. The Laketown Township board's refusal to allow liquor sales had kept the lodge from running a full restaurant, and lakeshore winters did not always bring enough snow or cold to make the slopes pay.