Back in Time: Winter daredevils

By Tim Spitzack | Editor | January 2024

Now that a chill is back in the air, scores of people will soon be zipping around the city’s outdoor skating rinks and whooshing down its sledding hills. South St. Paul has a long history of supporting winter recreation. The city opened its first municipal ice-skating rink Feb. 7, 1919, between 12th and 13th avenues south, and for years the hill near the high school had several ski and toboggan slides, including the 30-foot-high City Ski Slide built in 1949. In the early to mid-1900s, the city was also home to two other towering ski slides that provided thrills for wintertime daredevils and those who watched them perform their aerial wonders. One was at Seidl’s Lake and the other at Simon’s Ravine.

The late Milt “Sonny” Kreuser knew those slides well. A member of the St. Paul Ski Club Hall of Fame, Kreuser got his start in ski jumping at the age of four when Arnulf Unneberg helped build a ski jump in Milt’s family’s back yard. Unneberg taught him the skills he needed to launch and land, and Milt grew to love the sport. He eventually helped form a junior ski club called the Kaposia Flyers, who used the jump at Simon’s Ravine. Kreuser and Unneberg were also instrumental in the design and construction of the smaller ski jump near the South St. Paul High School.

Milt went on to became president of the South St. Paul ski club and served in that role until he enlisted in the service during World War II. After the war, he returned to the sport, but his competition days ended after a ski jumping accident. Nonetheless, he continued to enjoy recreational skiing. His son, Joe, followed in his tracks and went on to compete in ski jumping. As a result, Milt was pulled back into the world of ski competitions. He became a St. Paul Junior Ski Club adviser, where he supported the activities of the club and took skiers to ski tournaments across the region. He also served as a member of board of directors of the St. Paul Ski and the South St. Paul Educational Foundation. He was inducted into the St. Paul Ski Club Hall of Fame on Oct 30, 1998. He passed away on September 26, 2020, at age 96.

At the turn of the 20th century, ski jumps and toboggan slides were all the rage and were found across the Twin Cities. In 1886, a six-track toboggan slide was built down Cedar Street in St. Paul for the first St. Paul Winter Carnival. It began at the State Capitol grounds. The first ski jumping hill in St. Paul was constructed at Mounds Park in 1924-25 and was patterned after the ski jump at Odnes in Norway. The 60-meter hill at Battle Creek was built in 1939 for the Winter Carnival and hosted the national ski jumping championships that same year. If you think a 60-meter hill is high, it’s peanuts compared to the Vikersundbakken jump in Vikersund, Norway, the world’s highest jump, at 253.5-meters.

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