Did Eau Claire used to have a ski jump right in the city? Pretty much.

V1 Staff |

This article was written by Eau Claire's Ron Buckli and originally published in the Eastside Hill Neighborhood's newsletter (the article can now be found on their website). The info is included in Buckli's book, The Flying Eagles and the School Yard Jump, about the history of ski jumping in the Chippewa Valley. Copies can be purchased directly from Ron at jrbuckli@charter.net or 715-832-6820. You can learn more about the present-day Flying Eagles on their website.

The Forest Hill Ski Jump

A big crowd stood in the snow to watch 117 youths ski down the  wooden slide, soar through the air, land on the side of the hill and come to a skidding stop far out on the flat.

Hosted by the neighborhood’s newly formed Hilltoppers Ski Club, it was Eau Claire’s first major ski jumping  tournament for juniors and the site was the South end of the Forest Hill Cemetery grounds.

The date was Saturday, February  21, 1936. Only weeks earlier, laborers in President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration had erected the slide – which  stood 18 feet tall at the top of the  hill – for city recreational purposes.

The jump looked directly at the  heart of the city’s Eastside and jumpers would finish their runs near the  junction of Summer Street and  Huebsch Boulevard.

“It was really scary. When you stood at the top of  the slide and looked behind, you were  looking straight into the Third Ward.”

“It was really scary,” said Hilltoppers  president and top jumper, Tom Hagen. “When you stood at the top of  the slide and looked behind, you were looking straight into the Third Ward.”

Hagen said the Hilltoppers marked  good use of the hill, skiing every afternoon until dark. Club members were also responsible for maintaining the  ski area, bringing their own rakes and shovels. To prepare the hill for ski  jumping, they filled baskets full of snow and hauled them to the top.

“I knew when to go home for supper,”  said Hagen, who lived a few blocks over at 1415 Highland Ave. “I could see the back of the house from  the top of the hill and when Mom turned the backyard light on, that was the signal.”

Merle Stewart, another of the club’s top jumpers, didn’t need a signal. He lived directly below the hill on the south end of Summer Street.

Prior to erection of the scaffold,  youngsters would ski down what  Hagen called the “Seven Bumps trail” that slanted down the south end of  the bluff to Hoover Avenue.

There were about 15 members in the Hilltoppers, and the club held city and area tournaments each year.

Hagen, now in his mid 80s and living is the Stevens Point area, remembers that there once was night skiing on the hill – which he said had a one-way dirt road across the top for the end of Dodge Street to Hoover. “Emmett Chaput and Art Harstad drove up there, put a lantern at the takeoff, and were skiing in the darkness,” Hagen said.

The first tournament was held two weeks before the Flying Eagles staged their inaugural tournament at what became famous as the School Yard jump at the Fourth Ward School in Shawtown.

Glenn Nelson, local WPA recreation director, was in charge of the meet, which included youths from the city and surrounding area. Winners were Victor Nelson, Strum, Senior Class L Bussy Severson, Flying Eagles,  A: Jackie DeBow, Whitehall, B  and Oscar Severson, Flying Eagles,  C. Gerald Larson of Chippewa Falls had the longest standing jump at 49 feet. Later, the length of jumps would range between 50 and 60 feet.

The jump was a beehive of winter activity until the beginning of World War II when it became a liability and was torn down.

Republished by Volume One with Ron Buckli's permission.