Hallaway Hill Ski Area
Pelican Rapids, Minnesota1952-1970
Order Hallaway Hill Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. A Minnesota cow pasture on South Lake Lida, it was leased for a dollar a year, and the first warming house was a cleaned-out chicken coop. Rope tows were run by pickup trucks on blocks, and the hill hosted regional ski championships in January 1954. Pick a style below, then read the full Hallaway Hill history 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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Hallaway Hill Ski Area History
Hallaway Hill Ski Area near Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, ran on a steep wooded hill on the shore of South Lake Lida, about five miles east of town on State Highway 108. The hill belonged to the Hallaway brothers, who used it as a cow pasture in summer. Around 1951, members of the Fergus Falls ski club leased it from them for a dollar a year, hauled up a portable rope tow that ran off a small motor on an aluminum toboggan, and cleaned out an old chicken coop by the lake to use as a warming house.
Skiers from Pelican Rapids soon joined in, and the two groups formed a corporation, Hallaway Ski Hill, Inc., selling shares to local families, doctors and businesses in both towns. They put up permanent tows, cut a ski jump on the north side and had the slopes graded with a bulldozer. In late January 1952 the hill held what the Fergus Falls Daily Journal called the first tournament of its kind in the area, and skiers from North Dakota and the Twin Cities praised its natural slopes and gullies. In January 1954 the Fergus Ski Club hosted Central U.S. Ski Association championships there, with jumping, cross country, slalom and downhill over two days.
A brochure from the hill's later years shows a lodge by the parking lot, four tows including a twin poly rope tow and a portable tow for beginners, and 26 acres of runs with names like The Pelican, Brush Buggy, Sun Valley Express-Way and Mikes Pasture. Its mascot was a cartoon skier called the Little Norske. People who skied there remember rope tows driven by pickup trucks set up on blocks, the rope wrapped around a wheel rim and usually run in second gear, a small jump through the trees, and night skiing. The ropes were hard on gloves, and a shoe store in Pelican Rapids did steady business patching them.
One family bought a season pass for the 1970-71 winter, but the hill never opened that season or again. The lodge was moved to Franklin Lake and used as a rental cabin. The hill is now inside Maplewood State Park, and hikers climb to the Hallaway Hill overlook above South Lake Lida.