Airport Hill Ski Area, Yampa

Yampa's Airport Hill sported a ski hill as well as a landing strip* beginning
in the 1930s. A rope-tow served the hill from the mid-1940s to mid-'50s.
Little is known about the tow; it's assumed to have had an electric motor
drive. Like Oak Creek's ski hills just up the road, Yampa's offered free
skiing. The American Legion and the youth group of the Congregational
Church of Yampa sponsored the facility.

The hill can be found on Roselawn Avenue on the town's west edge, just
past the Yampa Ranger Station. In my photo I've lined up the old
rope-tow track parallel with the flagpole. Walk past the buildings and
you'll find a couple of picnic tables near the base of the hill.

My thanks to Paul Bonnifield and Rita Herold of Yampa for their help
with my research.

Bill Fetcher

*Steamboat Springs Airport, still in use and also dating from the '30s, is
another example of an airport built on a hill. There were two reasons for
this. Small planes of the period were sapped of needed horsepower and
lift by our high altitude. Taking off from a runway that ended at the edge of
a hill was a sure way to get them airborne. Also no farmer or rancher
would think of selling prime bottomland for an airport, flat though it may
be, when wasteland on hilltops, once cleared of sagebrush, would serve
the purpose.