On Mar. 5, 1954, the Cass City Chronicle stated that two young ladies from East Lansing, visited one of their homes in Elmwood and then spent the weekend enjoying the winter sports at Silver Valley near Tawas.
Silver Valley was 9 mi northwest of Tawas on Monument Road. It had 4 slopes and trails and 2 tows, with a ski shop, instruction, rentals and skating. It also had a 2-course 3100′ toboggan slide with toboggan tow. This according to a Consumers Power brochure from around 1959. On Dec. 24, 1959, The Luddington Daily News printed a ski report listing Silver Valley as having a 5″ base with 10″ fresh powder and excellent skiing conditions. On Feb. 10, 1961 the same paper reported they had 1″ new snow over a 3″ base with fair skiing.
Today, there is a campground called Silver Valley in the middle of the Corsair x-c trail complex near Tawas. As described by Gary Nelkie of Nordic Sports:
The Corsair Ski Trails are immediately visible on both sides of you as Monument Road passes through the interior of the immense trail system. The Silver Valley hills and snow bowls leap up to the north and the icy waters of Silver Creek knife through the forest below. The Corsair Trail System, a skier’s Shangri-La, nestles in this beautiful valley surrounded by the 120,000-acre Huron National Forest.
I do not know if this is where the ski area was located. If you have any information about Silver Valley when it was lift-served, plese leave a post or use the instructions on the ABOUT page to let us know.
The entrance to the ski and toboggan hill were on the opposite side of the road from the parking area for Corsair. There is still a short “driveway” with a gate across it; it’s just a little further NW out monument road (it’s been a while for me, so I think maybe half a mile? Surely no further than thatl) Silver Creek ran perpendicular to the downhill runs, and I remember being afraid I would slide so far on my flying saucer, I’d land in the creek!