Chester Bowl Historical Photos
So, the brouhaha over the ski jumps reminded me about this project – some historical photos from Chester Bowl.
If you’re a fan of daring feats of winter bravery or even just swanky sweaters, you’ll love this stuff. This is a work in progress, Peter Spooner from the Tweed sorted and scanned photos from various sources and posted them, we’re hoping that people continue to contribute and add any info they might have about the photos.
Oh, and if you’re a fan of the modern-day Chester Bowl ski program, don’t miss the wine-beer-pizza tasting and silent auction on Nov. 12, 6-9 p.m., at Midi Restaurant.
I think this one is particularly classic.
I can almost make out Gene and Ken in the top picture … correct?
Zra, I think that’s Gene and Dean. Ween.
Big jumpers back in the day before they discovered the rocknroll devil music.
Push the little daisies. Make them come up.
I watched “The Ski Flyers” on PBS years ago and got kind of misty. We were skiing at Pine Valley in Cloquet one time and stopped afterward to watch some awesome old guy in a 1960s snowmobile suit coaching a bunch of little kids in ski-jumping. I wish they were still jumping in Duluth, although I’m not sure I’d be thrilled if our girls wanted to do it.
Awesome photos. Thanks for posting the link.
The kid strapping on his skis in that newspaper clipping is my grandfather. He’s in his 70s but still skis Spirit just about every weekday.
I would love it if anyone who has ever done any jumping off either Big or Little Chester to post a memory or two of what those places meant to them or what it felt like gliding through the winter air off of either of those two jumps. It must have been something special sensation-wise.
One of my brothers was on the team briefly in the 1960s. He came home one brisk winter day with a very bloody face from a bad wipe out off of Big Chester. I think it had something to do with the crappy used skis he had. My mom had to tie his wrists to the bedposts to keep him from scratching his face in his sleep.
Thank you so much. I “lived” at the bowl 1947-1954, winter and summer. Great memories of Matt, jumping, baseball, tennis, etc.
I also “lived” at the bowl during the late 1960s, early ’70s.
I used to ski over from our house after school weeknights and then call home for a ride when I was done because it was dark then. Most weekends were spent there as well.
I remember being coached by Adrian Watt. Skied alongside a lot of talented skiers of the age. The Denney’s, Broman’s, McTavishes, to name a few.
The first ride down Big Chester for me is still etched in my memory, you can’t get that kind of feeling from an amusement park ride.
TimK, is your last name Kotlareck? As in any relation to the ski-jumping coach who lead the U.S. jumping team back at Innsbruck?
Gunnar,
Please explain! LOL!
That would be Tim Kaiser. Circuit bender extraordinaire.
Videos used to be taken during tournaments and used for coaching, wonder if there are any of those lying around??
@Ed
With an amusement park ride you are tethered or restrained by some means, not so with jumping. It’s more like skydiving. Controlled suicide.