Ski Sugar Creek

Ski Sugar Creek meant Sugarcreek Ski Hills in Bellbrook, Ohio, a ski area on Washington Mill Road just outside town, on the slopes above the Little Miami River southeast of Dayton. A lodge for the new area was announced in the Xenia paper in September 1965, and the hill started that winter with two rope tows. It went by SugarCreek, Sugar Creek and Sugarcreek in its own brochures and in the ski press, and its maps carried the line Ski SugarCreek.

The area was built for people who had never skied. In 1977 SKI Magazine counted 26 acres, two T-bars, a Poma and five rope tows on about 180 feet of vertical, with snowmaking over the whole hill, night skiing until 11 on weeknights, and a free safety lesson for newcomers; more than 1,200 first-timers had been through the ski school the season before. By 1982 the lifts were two four-place chairlifts and two rope tows, the vertical was given as 200 feet, and the longest run was 1,600 feet. The ski patrol had been named the best in the nation in 1981.

The trail map showed a wide open bowl ringed with bare hardwoods, with the lodge and its parking lot at the bottom left. Its runs included Competition, East Ridge, Meadows, Freestyle, Mogul Run and the Sugar Bowl, served by the East Ridge and Mogul Hill quads and two rope tows. In 1986 the area was run by its single owners, Fred and Helly Freudenschuss, with a ski school of about 50 instructors, a carpeted lodge with two fireplaces, an outdoor beer garden, and a Saturday Nite Owl session that ran until 4 in the morning.

Sugarcreek Ski Hills closed after the 1988-89 season. The lodge and four acres went to the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Park District, which reopened the old chalet as the Bellbrook Community Center at 2751 Washington Mill Road. Later plans to bring snow tubing back to the hill under the name Bellbrook Mountain had not opened to the public as of the last reports.