In the early 1970’s, when I was patrolling at Mt. Maria, after a good natural snowfall, we occasionally would hike over the top of the hill to the east of our ski area where we could ski the abandoned slopes of a former ski area which closed a few years before Mt. Maria opened. From the bottom of the slopes, we would have to hike back along the road to the Mt. Maria lodge. My recollection is that the area was called Timber-something. and that it had closed after its lodge burned, not an uncommon story in Michigan in the 50’s and 60’s.
John Thompson confirmed on July 1, 2014 that the area was called Timberline and was just east of Mt. Maria at the south end of Hubbard Lake. He says it had two rope tows and the longer one was a “real killer on top”. He says it was owned by Bob Peters and it only operated for 4 or 5 years.
If you have any information about skiing at Timberline or any other former ski area in Michigan, please leave a comment or send us your information via the instructions on the About MILSAP page.
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Hi, just doing a bit of research on the history of Timberline and Mt. Maria. My family just picked it up in an auction. The views are incredible from the top, simply unreal. Apparently National Geographic named the peak one of the top ten lake views in America, and I can see why. My family picked up the parcels together (Maria/Timberline), and are currently evaluating the economics of re opening both mountains as a combined resort. If anyone would like to share any thoughts or history of the resort, or any fond memories of skiing there, please do e-mail me at purplebookcat@gmail.com. I live in Colorado myself (though grew up in Bay City), and would love to develop the mountain and get it on the Epic Pass package. While not a massive vertical drop, the pitch of the back side of the mountain looks as though it would make some great tree skiing for Michigan. I can imagine a half pipe down the front with an epic backdrop for photos.
A halfpipe in Michigan? They seem to be a dying species. Looking at the topo map, there appears to be great terrain for expansion to the SW, overlooking the creek and swamp where the elevation and vertical drop are even greater.
Sounds interesting. Hope you keep us informed as to what is decided.
My parents owned Timberline.
Hi Sally, I remember hiking over from Maria to ski down the hill after a couple big dumps. That would have been around 1969-70. Timberline was gone before that. Do you know when it opened and closed?