Majestic Hills Ski Area
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin1957-1988
Order Majestic Hills Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. The main coop of the old Grunow chicken farm became the chalet, and in 1968 a boat storage building on the property, turned into the Majestic Hills Bandstand, hosted The Who and the Beach Boys. The chalet burned early on March 7, 1988, and the hill never reopened. Browse the styles below, and the full Majestic Hills 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.
5 products
Majestic Hills Ski Area History
Majestic Hills Ski Area in the Town of Linn near Fontana, Wisconsin, sat on the south shore of Geneva Lake, between South Lake Shore Drive and County Road B, about six miles west of the city of Lake Geneva. The ground had been the Val-Lo-Will chicken farm, started by William C. Grunow, a part owner of the Grigsby-Grunow Company, which made Majestic radios. His 1928 house on the lake was called Majestic Lodge. In 1957 his son, William Grunow, then 26 and a vice president of the farm, turned the land into a $500,000 winter sports center. Crews moved close to 500,000 tons of earth to build up the hills and toboggan runs, and the Chicago Tribune reported that the digging uncovered a spring and an old tree trunk buried deep in the clay.
The center was set to open on December 6, 1957, with three ski slopes, six toboggan runs, three skating rinks and compressed-air snow machines that could lay down three and a half feet of packed snow a week. The main chicken coop became the chalet, with a stone fireplace, a bar and a restaurant. A pair of A-frame gables was later added to the long, low building, and the hill's brochures advertised a new double A-frame chalet and two new chairlifts. In 1960 the family added a lighted driving range and a nine-hole golf course that wound through the ski slopes. Bill Grunow and his wife, Melita, ran the hill together, and Melita often posed for its promotional photos.
By 1975 the Lake Geneva Regional News called Majestic Hills the oldest ski area in Walworth County, with two chairlifts, a set of rope tows and a new quarter-mile run. For the 1977-78 season a saddle between two peaks was filled in and a quad chair was added, with a helicopter brought in to help set it up. That gave the hill two double chairs, the quad and six rope tows on about 230 feet of vertical, with snowmaking on every slope and skiing under the lights each night. The trail map of the time listed the Bunny Run, Beginner I and II, the Quarter Mile Run, Intermediate and Expert runs, and a Racing and Freestyle Area, with a large American flag flying on the summit. A daily adult ticket cost $9 on weekends.
Summers brought a different crowd. By 1968 a big boat storage building on the property had been turned into the Majestic Hills Bandstand, a partly open-air rock venue, and The Who and the Beach Boys both played there that year. Early on March 7, 1988, the chalet burned. The loss was not insured, and the ski hill never reopened. The Grunow family sold the 56-acre parcel in 2020. The land is fenced off now, and the chalet's stone fireplace still stands on the site.