“Canton Ski Hill”

Interest in a ski hill in the Canton area began in 1911, when a young student from Norway, Lundvig Hoiby, gave a skiing expedition to a group of Canton students. By 1912 enough interest had been arouse to clear a hill two miles east of Canton, and a tournament was conducted. From the platform at the peak of the hill, to the landing place was a drop of nearly 275 feet, and a skier covered a distance of almost one-eighth of a mile at a speed of from 60 to 100 mph.

Tournaments were held again in 1915 and 1917, but waned during the first World War. Another tournament was held in 1920. In 1925 the National Ski Tournament was held on Canton Ski Hill, and among the list of notable entries were members of the United States Olympic team, the National champion, the winner of the 1925 international meet at Gary, Illinois, and the holder of the world distance record. Two local boys placed during the 1925 tournament, in the Boys’ Class B event, leaping 51 and 53 feet, and Lafe Knutson placed second in the same event.

Canton was host to approximately 5,000 fans.

Tournaments subsided in the early thirties, when insufficient funds and lack of snow made any large-scale tournaments almost impossible until 1935 when the National Ski Tournament was again held on the Canton Slope.

In this tournament Jimmie Hendrickson of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was signed to represent Canton. He was the Champion of Class B, and an Olympic Ski Team member. Sigurd Knudsen, secretary of the local Sioux Valley Ski Club, was President of the National Ski Association that year. Over 100 ski stars entered the 1935 tournament, and about 6,000 fans attended. Cash receipts taken in the first afternoon were about four thousand dollars.

The last tournament held on the Canton ski slope was the Central United States Ski Tournament in 1936. Sigurd Knudsen signed a 17-year old boy from Chicago, Paul Bietilo, to wear the Sioux Valley colors. With the hill in perfect skiing condition, 15,000 people attended, and Alf Engen jumped 191 feet, only 3 feet short of the record set at Salt Lake City. Bietilo won the C Division with a 184-foot jump.

After 1936, the tournaments again subsided due to lack of snow, and a windstorm on June 24, 1944, blew the old ski slide down. The top of the slide was entirely broken and the pieces scattered. Heavy wire cables which had held the slide were broken and one was completely torn away. The ski slide was never rebuilt.

Lincoln County, US 18 - 2 miles east of Canton