(click to enlarge photos)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Feb.20, 2025
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Feb. 23, 2025
Seattle Ski Park of 1934 (at Snoqualmie Pass) was ‘close to heaven’
By Jean Sherrard
Every Saturday morning during bleak winter months in the late 1960s, when weather cooperated, my parents would drop me off at the parking lot of Bellevue Junior High School to catch a yellow school bus bound for Snoqualmie Pass and a day of skiing.
In the mountains, I joined hundreds of other students, learning to negotiate rope tows, chair lifts and snowy slopes until some measure of prowess and confidence bloomed. Though not a natural athlete, I discovered I was a passable skier.
By late afternoon, aching and weary, all of us student skiers boarded the buses home. We could hardly wait for the next Saturday.
I only recently discovered the early origins of the exuberant civic spirit that championed school and community participation on the ski slopes.
“In 1934, the Seattle Parks Department opened the first municipally owned ski facility in the country,” says ski historian John Lundin, author of “Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass.”
“Efforts were led by Seattle Mayor John F. Dore, a skier who envisioned the project as one that could lift his city’s spirits during the midst of the Great Depression.”
Ten acres of forest were cleared of trees by laborers provided by the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps, who also added a “warming hut” for chilled skiers.
To prepare Seattleites for this unfamiliar recreation, Parks offered lessons to neophytes in the old Westlake Ice Rink. “The indoor school,” reported The Seattle Times, “is an innovation in ski training.”
The Seattle Ski Park opened Jan. 21, 1934. Though it was a drizzly Sunday, newly minted skiers, however, were scarcely discouraged. More than 1,000 turned up
to celebrate opening day, which featured the North End Community Band and Dore himself, who awarded a prize for the day’s best skier.
“This park is yours,” the mayor proclaimed. “We hope to expand it … and give you a ski instructor so that your children may learn to ski.”
Hardy enthusiasm saved the day. Because the park’s snowy incline had no rope tows or lifts (the first wouldn’t be installed until 1938), every skier made the long climb up Municipal Hill on foot, rewarded with thrilling if brief downhill glides.
City Council skeptics questioned creating a city-run park 60 miles from Seattle limits. Most councilors pronounced “ski” with a long “I.” Commented a wag, “ ‘Sky’ Park is rather descriptive when you consider how close Snoqualmie Pass is to heaven.”
Parks relinquished the ski park in 1940, but not before instilling an enduring love of snow sports in Seattle devotees.
WEB EXTRAS
For a 360 degree narrated video of this column, please join us on the snowy slopes!
Click here for historian John Lundin’s delightful HistoryLink essay. Much more of John’s work can be found at his personal website.
I remember well, in late 70s, you could easily identify a Bellevue kid by the navy blue ski-jacket they wore everywhere. (Orange and yellow stripes at sleeve ends, I think)
I have the book and enjoyed much. I been on Ski Patrol for 60 years.. My question is I have new old stock never used pair of glove savers would you like to have them for your collection?