Resorts: Boulder's Chautauqua Mesa Ski Hill
The community supported a local ski area—until bigger and better options opened in the high country.
The Chautauqua Movement, which started in 1874 in Chautauqua Lake, New York, initially focused on religious education, but soon expanded to include the arts, culture, entertainment and literature along with an appreciation of the great outdoors. After visiting, Theodore Roosevelt deemed the Chautauqua Institution, the movement’s initial setting, “a gathering that is typically American in that it is typical of America at its best,” according to the Colorado Chautauqua’s website.
Since 1898, the Colorado Chautauqua has operated on a mesa in southwest Boulder. With its original structures intact, it is the only Chautauqua west of the Mississippi that has continuously operated largely in the way it was originally built. Meanwhile, 40 miles of trails framed by Boulder’s famed Flatirons—rock faces named for their resemblance to old-fashioned clothing irons—weave through the surrounding Chautauqua Park.
Few of today’s estimated one million annual visitors know that the site was once home to the Chautauqua Mesa Ski Area.
Photo top: Skiing in the shadow of the Flatirons. University of Colorado 1957 Yearbook
Operating on and off from 1947–1952, then re-opened in the early 1960s, the area relied on a 200-foot rope tow, powered by a gasoline engine from a World War II Dodge army truck, to service three lighted ski jumps and one slope, according to Boulder historian Silvia Pettem.
Strong Backs Wanted
In October 1947, sporting goods entrepreneur Bert Street asked local officials for help in creating a place for Boulder residents to ski in their backyard. The town cleared a portion of Chautauqua Park of rocks and other obstacles.
By January 1948, enough work was completed to create a children’s ski jump out of dirt and snow. It was so well received that a junior ski championship was held on the slope, attracting 100 competitors. Felix Dunbar—recently back from World War II, when he served with the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division—was recruited as a ski instructor.
“Operation Big Push” began in October 1948, soliciting more than 25 volunteers with strong backs to clear the runs. It was a hump trying to get University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) students to volunteer. As organizer Steve Bradley complained in the Boulder Daily Camera (Nov. 1, 1948), “Hardly a skier exists who enjoys splintering his skis or ripping off his steel edges by running over hidden rocks, but pitifully few of them seem to be willing to do anything about it, if it means work.”
Boulder’s junior chamber of commerce also invited “girls or women” to be on hand, “for there will be lighter jobs for them,” the local press reported. The City of Boulder and the National Guard supplied the bulldozers, trucks, shovels and picks to help remove rocky debris. The guard used it as an
opportunity to train bulldozer operators.
After various upgrades, the Chautauqua Mesa Ski Area formally opened in January 1949, offering “slatsmen” as they were often called, three ski jumps of varying heights, for beginner to advanced levels. In addition, the area boasted one ski slope and an extended rope tow, which had been moved uphill, as well as night-skiing lights and field telephones connecting the base and summit lift operators.
Lift tickets cost one dollar, and just 50 cents for children under age 12. “Most skiers bought surplus boots and skis left over from the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division,” wrote Boulder historian Pettem.
Peggy S., once a student at CU, located a mile away, commented on her ski experience on the Colorado Ski History website: “I skied at Chataqua (sic) Mesa, Boulder, in 1949, with my Phys Ed ski class (for credit) during winter quarter of my freshman year. As an absolute beginner, I found the rope tow so hard to ride that I preferred to remove my skis and walk up.”
Undeterred, she continued, “We were glad there was just enough snow to go there at all, after initial lessons on the lawn by the freshman girls’ dorm. At least we learned to walk on skis, fall, get up, and snowplow.”
During Summer 1949, volunteers again improved the slopes, clearing away even more rocks and raking and seeding to reduce erosion. (Jane Barker, Daily Camera, Oct. 24, 1971).
Going Downhill
As quickly as it came, Chautauqua Mesa’s ski history went downhill in the early 1950s. Plans called for a permanent “city ski jump” and a ski school to capitalize on the increasing interest in the sport. But these improvements came to a halt thanks to vandalism, a lack of snow and the Chinook winds common to Boulder’s highly variable winter climate.
An attempt to rekindle skiing at Chautauqua Mesa in the early 1960s lasted only a short while. Jumps were built and slopes were groomed by hand, but again, inconsistent snowfall thwarted skiers.
The year 1962, though a significant one for Colorado skiing, did not bode well for Chautauqua Mesa. Eldora Mountain ski area opened in nearby Nederland, and lifts began turning at Vail and other big-time resorts in Summit County. Now there were plenty of opportunities for Boulder-area skiers to log vertical, although they had to travel a bit higher and farther west of the Flatirons.
Occasionally, though, in the hours just after a major snowstorm and before the intense Colorado sun radiates its heat, you can see skiers and snowboarders poach the same slopes picked clean two generations ago as they follow the tracks of history in Chautauqua Park. 
Jeff Blumenfeld is a vice president of ISHA and past president of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. A fellow of the Explorers Club, he’s covered the adventure field for ExpeditionNews.com for 30 years.