Nebraski Ski Area
Gretna, Nebraska1982-1996
Order Nebraski Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Cut into the Platte River bluffs off Interstate 80, it opened as Trailridge on December 15, 1982, with trails named Mule Train, Pony Express and Wild Bill. By 1999 pine trees were growing up through the red-slatted chairs, and the NebraSki sign still stood beside the interstate. Pick a style below, then read the full history 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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Nebraski Ski Area History
Nebraski Ski Area near Gretna, Nebraska, began as Trailridge Ski Area, cut into the cedar and oak bluffs above the Platte River just off Interstate 80, about 20 miles from Omaha and 30 from Lincoln. Tom Valasek, an Omaha restaurant owner, broke ground in July 1982 and put about $450,000 into it. It opened on December 15, 1982, with five trails, a 900-foot T-bar, four handle tows, lights for skiing until 11 at night, and two snowmaking machines fed by a pond built to chill the water. The two-story log lodge, modeled on Colorado lodges, had a fireplace on each floor and a lounge upstairs. Its brochure ran under the headline Ski Nebraska!
The trails had a Western theme. The first five were Mule Train, Pony Express, Wild Bill, Stampede and Ambush, and later maps add Bronco, Calamity, Horseshoe, Mustang, Spur, Oxbow Trail and Shoot Out, plus a double chairlift called the Gun Slinger and the Stage Coach T-bar.
By the 1990s the area had been renamed NebraSki, and Lee Sapp was president of the company that ran it. It did not open for skiing in the winter of 1994-95, when shareholder Charlie Bystrek, owner of Nebraska Electronics, bought out the remaining stock and rented the lodge for parties and receptions. He reopened the slopes in December 1995, and that winter the hill had snowboarders on it. Mild winters and snowmaking that cost a couple of thousand dollars a day made it too expensive, and 1995-96 was the last ski season. Afterward the hill was used only for paintball and private parties.
The property was sold in 1999. By then pine trees were growing up through the red-slatted chairs, the snowmaking guns sat in the weeds, and the NebraSki sign still stood in the hills beside the interstate. The land is private.