NEW PARIS -- In the early 1960s, Loyal Wilson went skiing and broke his leg.
The experience would've turned some people off from the sport. Instead, it gave Wilson an idea: Why not build a ski resort in northern Indiana?
"I had too much time on my hands to dream," Wilson joked Friday inside the ski lodge he, a friend and their pastor built.
"The hardest part was finding a hill. I scoured northern Indiana," Wilson said. Most hills had a gradual slope to the north and the steep side to the south. Since the sun isn't kind to snow, a steep southern exposure wouldn't work. Then they found Buzzard Hill and convinced Paul Christner to lease it to them.
"We added 40 feet to the top of the hill," they got a ski safety expert from Michigan to engineer the ski area and the head of a T-bar lift company in New York came and helped with the engineering. "Since we didn't know what we were doing, we had to rely on people who did."
They shipped in Douglas fir timber from Washington State and built a lodge. They convinced NIPSCO to run electricity to the property.
They decided to market the resort to people in the Indianapolis area, but that presented name problems.
"Who knew where New Paris was? But everybody knew Lake Wawasee," so they decided to borrow the lake's name for the ski resort and named it Mt. Wawasee.
The resort opened in 1962, and Wilson co-owned it for about 15 of its 25 years of operation.
As Wilson talked about the resort's history, two sons chimed in with details. Eric and Vivian LaVine also talked about their experience with the place: They met at Mt. Wawasee. "Thirty-five years of marriage because of this place," Vivian LaVine said.
"They were supposed to be working," Wilson interjected jokingly.
The couple said the people who worked there really loved it. "It was so much fun to be up here working," Vivian said.
"It was just a really fun place for a lot of people around here," her husband said.
The lodge, now empty and neglected (though the structure appears sound), was the site of many dances. "This floor would just shake up here," Eric LaVine said.
Mt. Wawasee produced a few professional skiers and ski instructors and was a ski spot for a man who started a Milford engineering firm that provides snowmaking equipment to major resorts worldwide.
Though the weather didn't always cooperate, Eric LaVine said, "On a busy day this place was packed." The lodge was open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and some days 500 to 600 people would be there. Anywhere from 20 to 35 employees worked at the resort, not counting the ski patrol volunteers. They weren't paid, but they skied for free.
The venture was never a cash cow, and it took a lot of the owners' time, said Wilson. "We started hiring management. That may have been one of our problems. Ownership's very important in management," he said.
They could've marketed better to the schools, he supposes, but the biggest impact on business was the weather in Indianapolis. "The one thing we did not consider was the effect of the snow outside on Mom, when she looked outside and saw the snow. We'd have snow up here but if they didn't have any in Indianapolis, it wasn't busy. As soon as it snowed in Indianapolis, our phone would start ringing off the hook," he said. "In spring our snow would last for a while, but as soon as the flowers were blooming, they quit coming," he said.
Eventually, "I got tired of it. It wasn't making money. I just got to the point where I didn't need this," Wilson said. In the late '70s the resort operators sold it to Bill Staff, who ran it until it closed in 1987, Wilson said.
He's still interested in the place, though. Friday was the second time he's come back from Angola to check out the old resort since it was listed for sale, and he plans to be there for the auction Nov. 14. "Not to buy, though," he said.