home updates map photos alsappers contact about  
               

Soldotna Ski Hill

1955 to 1978

Name of Ski Area: Soldotna Ski Hill
Location: Soldotna, south of the Kenai River, between the Sterling Highway and Ski Hill Road.
Type of Area: Ski Hill and Jump
Dates of Operation: 1955 to 1978
Who Built It?: Jim Browning, Ralph Soberg, Bill Caroland, Rusty Lankashire, Stan McLane, Dave Spencer, Peninsula Sportsman Association (a non-profit corporation).
Base/Vertical Drop:

Base: ~100' / Vertical: ~150'

Lifts: The original lift was powered by a dump truck with the back end jacked up and one wheel used to power the rope tow (see picture below). Later the rope tow run by an electric engine that was acquired from the Homer Electric Association (HEA).
Facilities: Small warming hut, lights for night skiing.
Miscellaneous: The ski area operated weekends and sometimes mid-week evenings.  It usually operated 4 months of the year.  In 1959 3000 skier days were logged.

ANILCA (Alaska National Interests Land Conservation Act) issues were the reason for closure of this ski area.

The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (KNWR) headquarters are near this lost ski site and cross country ski trails are maintained by KNWR in this area.  According to former UAA ski team member Gloria Thiele, in the early 1970's races were once held on these trails.  Races in the Soldotna area are now held on the Skyview High School ski trails.

Sources of Information:

Stan McLane; Paige Spencer; Jim Hall; Gloria Thiele; Tim Kelley; Jim Browning; Pamela Ables; Gary Titus; Bill Caroland; Vern Brooks; Alan Borass; Pete Snow

Photos:

Does anyone have pictures of skiing at the Soldotna Ski Hill (or current pictures of the vicinity) that they would like to contribute to ALSAP ?

~  PHOTOS  ~
 

Early 1960's Photos Courtesy of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

[Photo credits: Kenai National Wildlife Refuge / Wade]

View of ski hill, December 1961 Rope tow, 25 March 1962
Zoomed in view of December 1961 photo that shows earthen mound and structure at the top of the ski area

 

1955 Jim Browning Photos

[Photo credits: Jim Browning]

Jim Browning jumping The original tow engine, a surplus dump truck - jacked up and one wheel used to drive the rope tow
[Jim Browning - 31 March 2008 email]

I am going to attach a couple of pictures and update some of the following info based on what I know. My name is Jim Browning and was in the Army at the Kenai Base from 1953 to 1955 and was involved in getting the ski hill started.

I met Ralph Soberg, Foreman of Alaska Road Commission and talked to him about skiing, he was a former ski jumper.  He let one of his bulldozers get lost on a hill near Soldotna one day to clear the trees and that was the beginning of the ski hill.  He also overhauled a surplus dump truck and donated it to the ski hill along with a generator and lights.

Bill Caroland arranged to get some surplus rope from the Army Ski Hill in Anchorage and have it trucked to Kenai. 

Bill Caroland and I (Jim Browning) talked up the ski hill at the Kenai Army Base and got some guys interested in it.

Rusty Lankashire, a homesteader, talked it up and got some community folks interested in it and The Kenai Sportman's Association was born.

When the ski lift was first operating all we had to do was bring along 5 gallons of gas and we were in business.

 

1955-56 Vern Brooks Photos

[Photo credits: Vern Brooks]

(Above) This picture is likely from the top of the ski hill (note man with ski boots and goggles, and skis in the background)
           

[Vern Brooks - 17 February 2009 email]

I was stationed at Wildwood Station (8607du) in 1955-56. Scanned a lot of my old slides, and am forwarding these.  The ski hill had a rope tow, powered by an old truck motor, with what I believe were two large rims, that powered the rope.  Also remember a small hut where we warmed up. Was surprised to find this site.  Vern Brooks

~  SITE PHOTOS  ~
 

Site photos of the Soldotna Ski Hill Site taken October 7, 2007 by Tim Kelley

The ski area is now very overgrown.  The lift line and ski slope are barely discernable. The lift line, looking down. There is what seems to be a large man-made earthen mound at the top of the lift line.  This may have been the top of the ski jump in-run. Here is a view north, down the overgrown ski slope.  Buildings can be seen in Soldotna near where the Sterling Highway crosses the Kenai River.

~  MAPS and AERIAL VIEWS  ~

This large scale topo shows where the Soldotna Ski Hill was located relative to Kenai, Soldotna and Kasilof.

(click on this map to expand it)

topo_soldotna.jpg (132323 bytes)

A zoomed in topo map view shows the location of the Soldotna Ski Hill between the Sterling Highway and Ski Hill Road in Soldotna.

(click on this map to expand it)

topo_zoom_soldotna.jpg (104285 bytes)

A zoomed in 1997 aerial view shows the approximate location of the Soldotna Ski Hill.

(click on this view to expand it)

terra_zoom_soldotna.jpg (89330 bytes)

Research Correspondence 
[Jim Browning - 31 March 2008 email]

I am going to attach a couple of pictures and update some of the following info based on what I know. My name is Jim Browning and was in the Army at the Kenai Base from 1953 to 1955 and was involved in getting the ski hill started.

I met Ralph Soberg, Foreman of Alaska Road Commission and talked to him about skiing, he was a former ski jumper.  He let one of his bulldozers get lost on a hill near Soldotna one day to clear the trees and that was the beginning of the ski hill.  He also overhauled a surplus dump truck and donated it to the ski hill along with a generator and lights.

Bill Caroland arranged to get some surplus rope from the Army Ski Hill in Anchorage and have it trucked to Kenai. 

Bill Caroland and I (Jim Browning) talked up the ski hill at the Kenai Army Base and got some guys interested in it.

Rusty Lankashire, a homesteader, talked it up and got some community folks interested in it and The Kenai Sportman's Association was born.

When the ski lift was first operating all we had to do was bring along 5 gallons of gas and we were in business.

[Bill Caroland - 15 April 2008 email]

I don't know whether Jim told you which side of the hill the rope tow was on or not.   Looking up the hill it was on the left when we were there.  He is right about there.  Jim is correct about the location of the ski jump.  When I was out there we did not have a warm up hut.  Jim and I were there when the ski hill was started and I remembered helping compact the snow for the first trip down.

[Bill Caroland - 15 March 2009 email]

Hi Tim,
 
Jack Paugh (an old Wildstation fellow) emailed me the other day and had the Soldotna web site with it.  I had not seen it since you completed it with Jim and my information and pictures.  My son and I looked for the ski hill in 2001 when we visited Alaska but could not find it.  The web site looked good and I was happy to see all the photos and  write-up.  I found something the other day you might be interested in.  I found my membership card.  I had designed the card in 1955 and Jim Browning got them printed.  Allan Petersen ("Once Upon the Kenai page 264") signed it.  I don't what whether he was the first president or not.  The Ski Hill really gave us some place to ski and enjoy.  At Wildwood Station we had very little except Army work.  Gave us some place to get away and enjoy ourselves in the long winter months.
 
Bill Caroland

[Tim Kelley note: The ski area is quite overgrown, so it indeed can be hard to find.  If anyone wants to look for it, this GPS coordinate from Google maps should be near the center of the ski hill:  lat="60.468812" lng="151.086044"]
 

[Tim Kelley - 19 February 2011]

Above comments have mentioned the Wildwood Air Force Station.  Recently Alan Borass wrote an article for the Anchorage Daily News that described his experiences at the Wildwood Air Force Base in 1973 just after it was turned over to the Kenai Native Association.  Here is an excerpt from that article:

"In 1973 one of my first jobs at Kenai Peninsula College was teaching Adult Basic Education classes at Wildwood north of Kenai. The former Wildwood Air Force base had recently been transferred to the Kenai Native Association, which was setting it up as administrative offices, apartments and a vocational training facility.

An air base without airplanes, Wildwood was something of a mystery. According to Al Hersberger, a Captain Knowland selected the base's location choosing Kenai over the other finalist, Kodiak, because the fishing was better. When Wildwood was built in 1953 it provided some of the first regular employment outside of commercial fishing for men who worked on its construction. The airmen also supplied some much-appreciated diversity to the dating pool for Kenai and Soldotna girls.

When I opened my metal military desk in the basement of Building 10 I got a clue to the function of Wildwood. In it were three ink stamp-style stamps labeled confidential, secret and top secret. Beside the desk was a barrel with remnants of kerosene still in the bottom apparently for burning those top secret documents in case of attack. Poking around on the third floor of Building 10, I came across the war room. On one side were two tiers of desks with maybe eight stations on a tier each with a red telephone but no dial. Naturally I checked to see if any were still connected; they weren't. The desks looked out on an 8-x-12-foot Plexiglas map with an outline of Alaska and Siberia etched into it. Obviously someone could stand behind and draw with grease-pen the progress of Soviet and American planes or missiles. Not quite the war room scene of Dr. Strangelove, but the same idea.

Wildwood Air Force Base was a cold war spy base. We were monitoring Soviet activity just as they were undoubtedly monitoring ours. We now know information was passed on through a communications system called AUTODIN which consisted of a network of spy bases sending teletype messages at all levels of secrecy. AUTODIN was an early form of e-mail initially networked to 17 locations.

But even as Wildwood was reaching its stride, the seeds of its obsolescence were being sown. As a result of Russia's 1957 Sputnik launch, President Eisenhower authorized a spending package that included research into better communication systems. A Polish émigré named Paul Baran, working for the Rand Corporation, developed a packet switching system which became the basis for a communication system called ARAPNET."

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/02/18/1711178/evolution-of-communication-continues.html##ixzz1EQgRyyGA
 

[Pete Snow - 26 February 2014]

Hi Tim,

Took these photos from the top of the Soldotna Ski Hill yesterday (January 26, 2014) from roughly the same spot where you took your photo of the mound. Interesting that the piece of birch bark hanging from the tree in your photo from 2007 is still there (part of it, anyway) 7 years later. Looking down the slope, it appears that it would still go (with a bit of clearing ;)).

Thanks for all of your work on the site. It's a great resource.

Cheers,
Pete Snow
Kenai, AK

 

 

Do you have further information, stories or pictures that you would like to contribute about this ski area?