Published: November 09, 2009 10:11 am      

Former owner reminisces

NEW PARIS — The paint on the flower boxes and shutters is chipped and faded on the lodge. A few large picture windows looking out toward Mount Wawasee are boarded, with shards of glass lying about. And although it’s been abandoned for more than 20 years, the lodge gives glimpses of its former glory.

The wood beams throughout the lodge are still solid. The fire pit in the center of the main gathering room looks like it’s waiting to be lit.

And outside, going up to the summit of Mount Wawasee, remnants of this land’s life as Indiana’s first ski resort remain. The T-bar and chair lift crown the summit, and paths to swoosh down the slope are visible.

Taking it all in recently were some visitors from days past — including former owner and founder Loyal Wilson.

The Angola man, along with friends Robert F. Haskin and Clifford Hamilton, all of South Bend at the time, started Mount Wawasee in 1962.

Wilson said he went skiing at a resort with some friends and it was his first time out. He broke his leg.

“I had too much time on my hands to dream,” Wilson said.

He decided he would like to start his own ski resort.

He and his partners researched ski resorts and asked a lot of questions from a lot of experts.

“The hardest part was finding a hill,” Wilson said.

All the steep hills were on the south side, he explained. They wanted north ones because it gets sun during the winter.

“This was the best hill we could find,” Wilson said.

At the time, the hill — a glacial rock formation — was known as Buzzard Hill, named after the Buzzard family.

According to Wilson, a lot of children used it as a sledding hill and were disappointed when he bought it from Paul Christner.

“We talked him into a 50-year lease, and then a 100-year lease,” Wilson said.

The lease was based on a $1,000 per year payment and a percentage of the profits.

“So he didn’t get rich off of it,” Wilson said.

Wilson and his partners added 40 feet to the top of the mountain.

The group then relied on experts in engineering and in the ski industry to take them down the slippery slope of developing a ski resort.

A Mishawaka firm built the lodge out of Douglas fir. The resort’s employees also made snow.

The resort was received very well in Indianapolis and southern Indiana, Wilson said. When the weather was conducive to skiing, business was great.

But once it stopped snowing, the business stopped — even if the snow had only stopped in Indianapolis and not New Paris.

Wilson also said that an unexpected problem came from Northern Indiana Public Service Co.

The resort needed compressed air to make snow. Wilson didn’t intend to install a permanent compressor. NIPSCO wouldn’t commit to installing electricity out that far unless the resort was going to spend $15,000 a year. So Wilson bought two electric air compressors.

The Christmas holiday was also about a third of the income.

“We should have gone to schools,” Wilson said, adding it would have helped with the basic costs.

By 1978, business was slowing down and the partners sold it.

“I got tired of it and it wasn’t making money,” Wilson said.

Plus it wasn’t easy to hire management. And at the end, Wilson said he thought, “I just didn’t need this.”

The new owner operated it until 1987 and then it closed for good, Wilson said.

The land reverted back to the Christner family.

Wilson said, “We actually tried to auction it once and it didn’t work.”

At its peak, there were 500 to 600 people per day at the resort and a staff of 30 to 35 people, including ski instructors.

As for how it looks today, Wilson said, “I was disappointed in seeing the building. It’s still a good building, but it needs some tender loving care.”

And that’s what he hopes the next owners will give it.

The land is being auctioned off Sunday starting at 10 a.m. The approximately 55 acres will be divided into four lots.

Joining Wilson on a tour of the old Mount Wawasee were his sons Bob and Will, a couple of members of the Christner family and a married couple who met and fell in love while working at the resort.

Eric and Vivian LaVine were in high school when they met as employees of the lodge.

“They were supposed to be working,” Wilson said with a chuckle.

“It was so much fun to be up here working,” said the former Vivian Naile.

“It was a place where you could come and know everybody,” Eric said, adding that “The resort hosted a lot of dances and this floor would just shake up here.”

But, he added, Wilson made sure nothing got out of hand. Eric once saw Wilson take two young men in headlocks and lead them down the stairs when they were disturbing the peace.

There were a few memorable employees and guests, too.

Joe Cousins, now owner of Milford-based Torrent Engineering, started as a snow maker at Mount Wawasee. Now he is in the international snow-making business and even makes snow for the Olympics, according to the group as they reminisced.

They also talked about Donald Jerome Berg, who is a ski instructor at a major resort.

There are also Mount Wawasee enthusiasts that can be found on Facebook in groups at The Zoo.