La Crosse Snow Bowl
La Crosse, Wisconsin1937-1950s
Browse La Crosse Snow Bowl tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. In the winter of 1937-38 the Jaycees and the Burlington Route railroad sold this coulee hill to Chicago skiers as the Mississippi River Alps, with the trip billed at about fifteen dollars all in. Its wooded trails had names like Rattlesnake and Corkscrew. Pick a style below, and the full Snow Bowl 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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La Crosse Snow Bowl History
The La Crosse Snow Bowl in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was a city ski hill in the State Road Coulee, about two miles southeast of the city limits on Highway 33. It took up a 350-acre tract on and around the Charles Hass farm, in a natural bowl that opened only to the north and was ringed with timber along its upper half. Plans for a proper ski area took shape in 1935. The La Crosse Junior Chamber of Commerce paid the land rent and raised money when it was needed, the city parks and recreation department kept up the grounds and the parking, and the La Crosse Ski Club gave free weekend lessons. Hass himself is said to have looked after the tow and kept the fires going in the shelter.
A ski shelter went up at the base of the hill for the 1937-38 season. That winter the Jaycees and the Burlington Route railroad put out a pamphlet selling the place to Chicago skiers as the Mississippi River Alps. It promised a 500-foot power rope tow by New Year's Day 1938, all-day tow passes for a dollar, a Norwegian ski instructor on winter Sundays, bobsled rides out to a country inn, and rooms at the Stoddard Hotel, with buses running from downtown to the slopes. The trip from Chicago was billed at about fifteen dollars all in. By 1939 the La Crosse Weather Bureau office was sending snow reports on the bowl to the Tribune and to Chicago.
A 1951 brochure, printed in navy and yellow under the banner La Crosse Snow Bowl, The Mississippi Alps, showed how much the hill had grown. It had two rope tows, lights for night skiing on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and wooded trails with names like Rattlesnake, Corkscrew, Juniper, White Birch, Stump Field and The Switchback. The Rattlesnake ran 1,900 feet with a 450-foot drop, the Corkscrew 2,400 feet, and the open practice slopes covered 1,500,000 square feet with a 200-foot drop. The brochure said the bowl had hosted the Central United States downhill and slalom championships several times.
When the Snow Bowl stopped running is not well documented. The Midwest lost ski areas project lists it as open in 1939 with a possible closing around 1958, and Mt. La Crosse, a separate commercial hill a few miles away in the town of Shelby, opened in December 1959. The coulee land has stayed mostly undeveloped since. The Outdoor Recreation Alliance now owns it and is working to turn it into a public trail farm.