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Photo Credit: Tread of Pioneers Museum, Steamboat Springs

The history of Steamboat’s famous ski jumping hill.

There’s nothing like walking through downtown Steamboat and seeing a ski jumper take flight from the 90-meter ski jump on Howelsen Hill. Not only is it unique to see a ski jump facility smack dab in the middle of town, Steamboat is one of only six cities in the U.S. to have a ski jumping hill. If you’ve ever had a chance to stop by the classic Colorado A-Frame lodge at the base of Howelsen Hill, you might even get a glimpse of a future ski jumping Olympian. Kids as young as 4 years old come in from a training session on the beginner “bump,” so small that their speed suits (which are meant to be skin tight) are a little bit baggy, their seemingly giant jumping skis in tow.

Today Steamboat boasts one of the most impressive ski jumping facilities in the country with training all year, thanks to the plastic matting that is used on the jumps in the summer, funded by private donors and the City of Steamboat Springs. The program boasts over 100 participants and has helped earn Steamboat’s reputation as Ski Town USA by sending an athlete to every Winter Olympics in history (except one, in 1936). Not only is Howelsen Hill’s ski jumping center part of what makes Steamboat unique, it also has a storied history that dates back to 1913—pretty impressive when you think about the fact that Vail didn’t even exist until the late ‘60s. Ski jumping at Howelsen Hill is in the heart of Steamboat in more ways than one.

A Leap of Faith
By Colorado standards, 1915 is ancient history when you consider most mountain towns weren’t founded until the mining era of the late 19th Century and ski resorts didn’t start popping up until the late 1950s. In that context, it’s crazy to think the first jump was built at Howelsen Hill in 1915 when the Steamboat Winter Sports Club was founded. Leave it to a Norwegian—a circus performing, ski-jumping Norwegian—to head up the effort.

Carl Howelsen was a Norwegian immigrant who had performed “ski sailing” at Barnum & Bailey Circus after winning the ski jumping competition at Holmenkollen two years before. He settled in Steamboat and built the first ski jumping hill.

In 1931 the ski jump was enlarged, and in 1937 the first chairlift opened. That first lift was a double-reversible, or “jigback,” with two ten-passenger sleds pulled by an electric winch at the base. Long before the days of high speed detachable quads, this homemade tow was 1,000 feet long with a vertical rise of 440 feet. Another crazy-fun fact: it was used until 1970.

Jumping Through Hoops
Over the years, it took a lot of work and money to maintain the ski jumps at Howelsen Hill. The jump had to be constantly rebuilt to increase the distance, but there were other challenges too. Throughout the 20s, 30s, and 40s, town officials were constantly faced with logistical issues like landslides and wooden platforms that needed to be repaired every year. The cost to keep Howelsen Hill running as a community center kept increasing as time went on.

In 1949, Douglas Graham built a jump that was meant to last. The Graham Jump became the stuff of legend across the United States, as jumpers came from all over the country hoping to clear 300 feet. The Graham jump became even more infamous when someone set it on fire in the early 70s, an unsolved mystery that has become the stuff of Steamboat legend.

Crash and Burn
Howelsen Hill’s ski jumps had some ups and downs, so to speak, beginning when someone set fire to the 90-meter Graham jump in 1972. The damage was beyond repair and the cause of the fire remains a mystery, though many believe it was in protest of the possibility of the Olympics coming to Colorado. “It was clear what the meaning was,” Scott Berry, a US Olympic ski team member from 1967-1972 told the Steamboat Today. “I don’t think there was ever really a question of why the jump was destroyed.”

Still, it was because of that fire that a complete jumping facility became a reality. After the fire, the jump needed to be entirely rebuilt. Along came John Fetcher, an engineer and fan of the sport who had designed jumps in Crested Butte, Purgatory, Winter Park, Aspen, Park City, Leadville, Gunnison and Meadow Mountain. He decided to create a world-class facility in Steamboat.

He raised funds via grants and donations. By the time the facility was finished in 1978, the price tag was $1.1 million—a fortune in those days. But it was an investment that would pay off in the long run.

Olympic Breeding Ground
Today, the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club has one of the biggest and most successful ski jumping programs in North America, hovering around 100 athletes, ages 4-18. The facility now has one of the largest selections of ski jumps in North America with seven jumps ranging from a “bump jump” for beginners to the Olympic-sized HS100 and HS127-meter jumps.

As a combined effort between the City of Steamboat Springs and private donors, two of Howelsen’s jumps (the HS45m and HS75m) are equipped with plastic matting that allows athletes to train all year. The summer programs combine jump training and camps to other jumping venues, along with dry land and endurance training.

Todd Wilson, a former member of the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team, who has been coaching Nordic Combined athletes and ski jumpers since arriving in Steamboat in 1991, says the grassroots efforts of Howelsen, Graham, and Fetcher are part of why the program is what it is today.

“It was really the starting point of recreation in the community,” Wilson told the Steamboat Today about Steamboat’s ski jumping heritage. “When Carl Howelsen first came here in 1913 this was a farming and ranching community. In the winter people went inside and nobody did anything (recreationally). This is Ski Town USA in great part because he came here and started ski jumping,” Wilson explained. “It was the catalyst for the community’s drive to get outside, no matter what time of year, and do things.”

To learn more about the history of ski jumping, visit The Tread of Pioneers Museum website or check out the ski jumping exhibit on display at the museum, at 800 Oak Street in Downtown Steamboat.  

For more information on the ski jumping program, or any of the other programs at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, visit www.sswsc.org.

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Photo Credit: Couloir Images, Rory B. Clow Photography

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