By Rob, Dan, and Eric Moschet
Frank Moschet and his wife Shirley were natives of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and for many years before moving to Minnesota had enjoyed skiing on the slopes of Pine Mountain, in Iron Mountain Michigan. After moving to Silver Bay in 1955, Frank helped to build a small ski hill and rope tow behind Garden Drive, near the old water tower, to give the many children of the new town a place to learn to ski and have fun. The village Lion’s Club operated a small warming shack at the base of the hill, where hot chocolate and hot dogs were available.
After the Lion’s Club ceased to operate what had come to be known simply as “The Ski Hill” and the kids were looking for more challenging terrain to ski, Frank dreamed of constructing a larger facility but still close to Silver Bay. He enlisted the help of his good friend Carl Hultstrom, who also loved skiing, and the two of them formed an informal partnership to scout suitable locations, and to visit a number of local ski areas to check out lift equipment and chalet facilities. The plan was to start small, with two longer runs and one shorter beginner area, each served by rope tows, to be replaced later by T-bars and eventually chair lifts. Frank, a draftsman at Reserve, designed a one-floor chalet with a fireplace and a flat roof, to be added to later as the first floor of a Swiss-type chalet. Carl had to drop out of the partnership after suffering a back injury, but Frank went ahead and secured an SBA loan for the project.
Land was cleared for three ski runs and a parking lot (providing summer jobs for several local high school students), the chalet was built, rope tows with electric motors were installed, Frank christened the area “Mount Rockwood,” and the area opened for skiing in the winter of 1965. The tow ropes at the old Ski Hill had been made of manila, which was very difficult to grasp when the rope got wet, so the rope at the new Mount Rockwood was green polypropylene. The poly was easier to grip but was also very hard on gloves and mittens. And the tows were run with electric motors that did not break down or require lubrication and maintenance like the gas-powered engines at the old Ski Hill. Wiring the area for the electric motors also allowed lights for night skiing to be installed. Grooming of the slopes was provided by a rear-engine Polaris Sno-Traveler that sometimes had to be dug out of the deep snow, but which mostly got the job done.
While Frank attended to the equipment outside on the hill, Shirley was in charge of the grill and the fryer and the hot chocolate. She said the secret to her hamburgers was to toast buttered buns on a very clean grill and use only fresh oil for the French fries to make them crisp on the outside. During the off season in the summer months the chalet was open for lunches and dinners, and featured a full Bridgeman’s Ice Cream menu, complete with all the malts, sundaes, syrups, and fixings. Shirley even christened a “Tin Roof” sundae that she remembered from her childhood, consisting of peanuts and chocolate syrup over vanilla ice cream.
Mount Rockwood provided rental equipment in the early years, with wood skis and cable bindings. The serious skiers, though, gravitated to state-of-the-art metal skis by Head or Hart, and step-in bindings were taking the place of “long thong” bindings. Lace-up leather boots were giving way to buckle boots, and they in turn were changing to plastic boots by Lange and really futuristic boots with side door entry by Rosemount.
In addition to rental equipment, Mount Rockwood had state-of-the-art pneumatic splints available, which thankfully were not needed very often. But they were available to Al Matilla and LeRoy Yoki, who were the ski-patrol for the area.
Mount Rockwood provided several seasons of winter fun for many local kids and families, many of whom learned to ski there on equipment purchased as Christmas gifts. Frank spent many hours installing bindings for impatient kids who could not wait to hit the slopes on their new skis on Christmas Day.
The plan had always been to attract a more regional crowd as well, principally from the Duluth area and Two Harbors. However, competition from Lutsen and a government-sponsored Spirit Mountain in Duluth–which provided modern chairlifts and snow-grooming equipment– attracted more skiers, and Mount Rockwood closed after the 1971-72 season.
