Oak Highlands Ski Area
Waverly, Iowa1971-1986
Browse Oak Highlands Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. This hill above the Cedar River near Waverly began as Ski Villa and ran on rope tows until a double chairlift and a T-bar went in before the 1982-83 season. In summer a hydrotube water slide, 365 feet long, ran down the same slope. Pick a style below, and the full Oak Highlands 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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Oak Highlands Ski Area History
Oak Highlands Ski Area near Waverly, Iowa, sat on a wooded hill above the Cedar River about two miles north of town, reached by First Street NW and the bridge over the river. It started as Ski Villa, which Waverly residents Erv Happel and Paul Tiedt opened to the public in late January 1971. The Waterloo Courier reported two runs at first, about 800 and 600 feet long, served by rope tows, with a chalet still being finished, snowmaking equipment ready and night skiing planned. A 1972 state guide listed six rope tows, a chalet with a snack bar, a ski school and ski patrol on duty, and Ski Villa still ran six rope tows in the late 1970s.
By November 1981 the hill was listed as Oak Highlands, formerly Ski Villa. Before the 1982-83 season A.C. Dunkelberger and his sons Mark and William, the owners, added 15 acres for a total of 70 and put in snowmaking, three handle tows, a T-bar and a double chairlift, where only rope tows had run before. The Courier counted six runs on a 150-foot vertical drop, the longest about 1,400 feet, plus cross-country trails and an 800-foot tubing hill. SKI Magazine noted that the lodge sat at the top of the hill and the base at the river, with a view over the Cedar and its wooded islands, and that students from the nearby college towns got price breaks.
The owners used the hill in summer too. A hydrotube water slide ran down the slope, 365 feet long by SKI Magazine's count, and a 1986 photograph shows the fiberglass tube winding across the grass to a pool below. A 1985 Courier feature pitched night skiing there, 20 minutes from Waterloo, along with paddle boats, canoe trips on the Cedar, a driving range and a new miniature golf course for the warm months. In Iowa the snow was the hard part, and the area leaned on its snow guns.
In January 1986 the Cedar Rapids Gazette counted Oak Highlands among Iowa's 11 downhill ski areas and reported a good season there. Owner Mark Dunkelberger said the newest draw was snow tubing on a hill set aside for tubers, and that the area taught about 800 people a year to ski. Warm winters ended the skiing. Oak Highlands did not open at all in the 1986-87 season because it was too warm, and in November 1987 a co-owner told the Des Moines Register it would stay closed unless someone leased it. A year later the Waverly Chamber of Commerce said it probably would not open, and no later ski season has been found.