Snowburst Ski Area

Snowburst Ski Area near De Pere, Wisconsin, was a small family-run hill about three and a half miles south of town on Old Martin Road, within reach of Green Bay, Appleton, Neenah and Menasha. Most of its life it was called Pink Panther, a name kids kept using long after the sign changed. Brothers Roy and Don Cain started it, with a Wisconsin lost-ski-areas listing putting the opening at 1968 and a personal history blog from a former skier saying the 1964-65 season. The blog says Roy took over for 1979-80 and renamed it Snowburst, aiming at a more adult crowd, while the listing dates the new name to 1978 or 1979.

The hill sat in a spring-fed creek valley with 23 acres and about 150 feet of vertical, according to a 1982 SKI Magazine write-up. That piece counted five snowmaking-covered slopes, one T-bar and three rope tows, ski patrol, rentals, a shuttle bus and 10 instructors. The Green Bay Press-Gazette ran its beginner ski school there, which the article dates to 1969. School groups, scout troops and college clubs skied there, and cross-country trails, ice skating and horse-drawn sleigh rides were added for non-skiers.

The buildings were part of the pitch. The original A-frame chalet served as lodge, office and bar, and in 1982 it was being turned into an adults-only lounge with gourmet lunches and picture windows over the valley. The Rathskeller, a mostly underground building with a snack bar, rentals, game room and stone fireplace, handled the youngsters, and in summer it hosted bands. Adult tickets that year cost $6.95 on weekends and $5.75 midweek. The T-bar, the blog says, was brought from Colorado, and the wooden T's were made in a high school wood shop.

Sources do not agree on the end. The listing gives a 1983 closing and a possible reopening under another name in 1985, with last mentions in 1989-90, and the blog only says it closed in the mid-eighties. The site later held a large pond where the creek had been dammed.