Local Skiing Boasts a Vibrant but Tumultuous History
- LCHS
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
This article first appeared in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News "Nearby History" column on January 3, 2026.
By Hayley Noble, Executive Director
The snow flurries are flying and for many, that means it’s time to get the skis and snowshoes out of storage. Idaho is known for its many outdoor recreation opportunities and Latah County is no different, with a long history of skiing in our own backyard. The region boasts both ski hills and areas for cross-country skiing. Early settlers quickly learned that skiing and snowshoeing was a utilitarian necessity for transportation in the winter Idaho snows and later came to see the fun in skiing recreation.
The University of Idaho established its ski team in 1937, making it the oldest club sport on campus. The team grew and maintained its popularity well into the 1940s and 50s with top-ranking students in the NCAA, boosted by exchange students like Sverre Kongsgaard from Norway. Kongsgaard set a North American Competitive Ski Jumping record while on the UI ski team in 1949. According to former ski team member Don Hayes, the University of Idaho was third in the country in 1948 and 49. But in 1971, the Big Sky Conference dropped the sport and student skiers relied on club sport activity until the National Collegiate Ski Association formed in 1978. Now known as the UI Alpine Ski Team, students travel throughout the northwest competing.
Locals and students alike enjoyed several area ski locations by the early 1950s, with the sport continuing to grow into the 1960s. Established in 1955, McCroskey State Park had several ski runs that utilized University of Idaho Forestry students to clear out timber for access. The Civilian Conservation Corps built a lodge at the North-South Ski Bowl, (also known as the Emida Bowl) in the Hoodoo Mountains in the 1930s that was later owned by Washington State College. A bad snow year forced WSC to sell the area to the Craner brothers in 1959. A lift was added and the North-South Bowl was utilized by both WSU and UI ski teams. WSU students regained ownership in 1970, added a main lodge, and continued operating the ski area until 1980. WSU then sold the property in 1984 to private owners after facing financial hardships. By the mid-1990s, the area was not feasible to maintain with lower elevations impacting snow accumulation. Now, the former lodge, renamed as the Palouse Divide Lodge, hosts retreats for small groups, and the renamed Palouse Divide Nordic Ski Area has trails maintained by the Palouse Divide Nordic Ski Club.
Moscow Mountain saw its own ski area established in 1965 with the Tamarack Ski Area. As with WSU and the North-South Bowl, Tamarack was popularized by UI students and faculty. Wildlife professor Ken Hungerford led the effort to establish the ski area close to home after studying snow-pack records with students. The ski area selected was six miles northwest of Troy on the east side of Moscow Mountain. With loaned money, Hungerford and his group built an A-frame lodge with rental shop and lunch counter and readied the area for skiers. Volunteers, many of which from the university, received first aid training and comprised the ski patrol. Tamarack gained a reputation as a great family area that catered to beginning and intermediate skiers. But costs plagued them with the need for road plowing and a lack of utilities necessitating a diesel power plant. As with the North-South Bowl, Tamarack’s lower elevation meant varied snow levels and financial troubles. The corporation that owned Tamarack defaulted in 1971 and through the 1970s, a string of owners, in addition to the University of Idaho, considered purchasing the area. In 1984, the issue received interest again when UI student Arne Elisha tried to lobby the ASUI into purchasing the area and use a snowmaker – to no avail. Latah County and the City of Troy ended up with the remnants in 1992 due to owed back taxes. The chairlift was sold, the A-frame demolished, and Tamarack Ski Area was like it never existed.
As news of Idaho’s outdoor recreation opportunities spread, those topics became chief tourism draws in the 1950s, 60, and 70s. Several skiing articles appeared in the Palouse Journal holiday editions, all espousing the wonderful, affordable, ski areas on the Palouse during that time. Now much of that language has disappeared, unless you’re into cross-country skiing. As ski prices soar and climate change impacts snowfall, many feel that the ski boom of the late twentieth century may be over. Who’s to say what the future will bring, but our local skiing opportunities have waxed and waned, just like the larger skiing landscape. Many newcomers to the region would be surprised to learn just how many local options there were.
Sources
Burton, Gregory H. “Ski Dreams Gone Sour,” Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Mar 14, 1997. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MsMjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FNEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2162%2C1927992.
Darrow, Laurel. “ASUI Considers Opening Ski Area,” Argonaut, Jan 13, 1984. The Argonaut Archive, University of Idaho Library Digital Collections, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/argonaut/items/arg-1984-01-13.html.
Furniss, Malcolm. “Recollection of Tamarack Ski Area on Moscow Mountain,” Latah Legacy, Vol. 31, Latah County Historical Society, 2002: 25-28.
Palouse Nordic Divide Ski Club https://palousedividenordic.org/
Petersen, Anne Helen. “Who Gets to Ski?” Culture Study Podcast, Jan 22, 2025. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6wyr1wHyHoD2ZshP1AHgqj?si=UIHMFvftSMO0sAfQqMdNOQ.
Taggert, Cynthia. “Winter Slopes: High Hopes on the Slopes,” Here We Have Idaho: Winter 2007. University of Idaho Library Digital Collections, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/hwhi/items/hwhi_2007_winter.html.
Williams, Dick. “North-South Ski Bowl Takes Strides Toward Bigger Time,” The Spokesman-Review, Dec 12, 1959. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=f6URAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9-cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6808,4392200.
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