View Ridge Ski Area
New London, Wisconsin1963-c. 1979
Order View Ridge Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. More than 50 volunteers cleared the tow lines on the first Sunday of May 1963, and crews dynamited a rock ledge three-quarters of the way up one towline. Good snow stayed scarce, and the club president liked to joke that there was no shortage of grass fit for skiing. Pick a style below, then read the full View Ridge history further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
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View Ridge Ski Area History
View Ridge Ski Area near New London, Wisconsin, was a club-built ski hill on Alcan Road, just north of County Trunk S east of town in Outagamie County. It was the second home of Mo-Ski-Tow Hill, Inc., a nonprofit formed to develop skiing in the county. From 1956 the club had run rope tows on Mosquito Hill, a ski-jumping site in the 1920s and 1930s, but that hill had few trees and the west winds stripped the snow off its upper slopes. In March 1963, after seven seasons, members began hauling the tractors, sheds, A-frames and tow poles to a 40-acre wooded hill the club had bought.
Work at the new site began on the first Sunday of May 1963, when more than 50 volunteers turned out to clear trees and brush from the tow lines. The club paid for the project with its own money, donations and $10 and $25 debentures paying 3 percent. Crews dynamited a rock ledge three-quarters of the way up one towline, a bulldozer graded the runs, and work days ended with a picnic and corn roast. The plan drawn that summer showed four slopes on the north and west faces, from a 1,400-foot expert run with a headwall to a 2,400-foot beginners' run, four rope towlines and a Swiss chalet style warming house at the foot of the hill. A skating rink and a ski jump were planned for later.
Snow was the hard part. In December 1968 the Appleton Post-Crescent reported that good snow had been scarce at View Ridge since it opened, with 1966-67 the best season so far, and that club president George Kubisiak liked to joke that the club had no shortage of grass fit for skiing. That winter the club added safety gates, a new tow building and more lights for night skiing, and the hill ran on weekends and weeknights when conditions allowed.
By the late 1970s Outagamie County owned the hill and ran it as a county park. SKI magazine's March 1979 issue described a 150-foot hill with four main runs, the longest 2,500 feet, served by two parallel rope tows, plus two beginner slopes with two more ropes, no snowmaking, and a chalet with a circular fireplace, a snack bar and windows facing the slopes. An adult day ticket cost $3. Skiing appears to have ended around 1979. The county still lists a View Ridge Natural Area among its parks.