The Lobby Plaza

Tony never rested in place. He was always charging ahead to the next big thing. 

While the Lodge is gone, the entrepreneurial spirit that defined the old Telemark lives on. The American Birkebeiner is the biggest race in North America. Over 340,000 people have participated, including some of the best skiers the world has ever seen. And now the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) has embarked on an ambitious project of Tony-Wise-like scale to rejuvenate the area: Mt. Telemark Village. 

The Village is a $10.2 Million project, complete with historic ski trails, state-of-the-art snowmaking, cutting edge mountain bike trails – the Trek Trails, powered by OTM, a paved loop – the George Hovland Trail – for rollerskiing, biking and hiking, the Kawabaming Lookout Tower – which is constructed out of pieces of the old chairlift, a biathlon range, the new Birkie Start Area, the hub building where people can gather, and a number of partner-led investments, like a new hotel, a new restaurant, a coffee shop, bike and ski rentals, and a place for camper cabins and Sprinter van parking. 

The ABSF is off to a rousing start in putting this project together. They purchased the land, razed the old lodge, put much of the land into permanent conservancies, they built the George Hovland Trail and Kawabaming Lookout Tower, they have completed a number of bike trails, and the hub building is slated to be ready this summer. 

But the organization needs the “old guard” – those who were there when Telemark was in its prime – to help ensure that we tell the stories and preserve the heritage of the old Telemark as part of the new Mt. Telemark Village project. We need your financial support so that we can include this homage to the past in the new Mt. Telemark Village. And the ABSF needs the old guard to help tell the story – so that the entrepreneurial spirit that defined the old Telemark will live on through the new Mt. Telemark Village. So that when a young child comes to the Village they will see the stories and know that Tony and so many who shared Tony’s vision started it all.

This “Telehenge” image reflects some of our first thoughts on what the Tony Wise Memorial Plaza might look like. We need you to help shape the Plaza, to help tell the stories, and to help make it happen through your generosity and support.

It is difficult to put into words. Yes, people learned to ski. An epic ski race was born of the stuff of Telemark. Families started traditions. Cross country skiing was elevated into something far more majestic than a frosty ski through the woods. The whole of Northwest Wisconsin was lifted up.

But it was far more than that. Something happened with the people who worked at and inhabited the halls of the old Telemark. They gained some magic powers. Some confidence, some grandiosity, maybe some Sisu – that allowed them to succeed and prosper long after Telemark went away. 

Talk to anyone who lived through it and they will try to articulate it. 

“Tony would walk in with a big plan,” they say, “and we were expected to make the plan a reality.”

“It was crazy,” they say with a laugh. 

And they go on to describe some scheme Tony had: “Fly all the best athletes in and have a World Cup race. Now, mind you, there was no such thing as a World Cup at the time. Tony made that up . . .”

The stories go on and on . . .

All of these people who were touched by Telemark seem to live life with a gleam in their eye. As if they are in on some great secret: “Anything is possible in the world – and we can have an amazing time making it so!”

And it seems that all of them went on to celebrate amazing successes – as if they had all gone to Harvard Business School for entrepreneurism. 

The fear is that these stories, this magic, that era, will die off with the generation that lived through it all. It’s almost as if the stories and the magic were buried with the old lodge. 

This proposal is meant to avoid all of that. 

Because Telemark and the spirit of Telemark are not dead. The spirit lives on every time someone skis the Birkie. Every time a biker heads out on the trails. Every time a new Northwoods event is conceived. Every time we celebrate the history and ask “what if?”

And now, with the new Mt. Telemark Village the spirit of Tony and Telemark will have a new home. 

Mt. Telemark Village is a $10 Million project meant to revive Telemark and the spirit of entrepreneurism that defined the old Telemark era. The project is led by the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) – an organization that may have seen a slow start, but has now revived the can-do entrepreneurial spirit that defined the early days. 

This is a think-big Tony-style project with a big (for the ABSF) price tag. But we think it will be well worth it. 

The project will specifically do two things. 

First, it provides a permanent home for the ABSF and the whole community. First class trails, including a revival of the old Telemark Trails, with snowmaking (recall that Tony was an early leader in snowmaking technology with the old Mt. Telemark), new mountain bike trails (Tony was always quick to adapt to the newest trends), and a new hiking trail that takes folks to the top of Mount Telemark for a grand view of the whole area from the new Kawabaming Tower. A hotel, camper cabins, a restaurant, a coffee shop, and bike and ski rentals provided by a variety of partner vendors – again harkening back to Tony’s “mall” in the old lodge. Finally, a new hub building, complete with a gathering space and the Tony Wise Museum. 

Second, Mt. Telemark Village is an opportunity to tell the stories and honor the past that brought us to this present moment. In addition to the Museum, MTV will include a new Lobby Plaza in order to welcome the new and honor the past. Built literally in the same location as the grand lobby in the old lodge, the cornerstones of the new Lobby Plaza are pillars preserved from the old lodge. We envision those pillars standing as tributes to that special spark that made the old Telemark work. 

We need your help with both pieces. We need your help financially – so that we can make this grand plan into a reality and help to bring people back to Telemark. But we also need your stories, your pictures, and a bit of the fairydust you acquired in those magical days of yesteryear. On this latter piece we admit that we don’t know exactly what we are looking for. I guess one way to put it is that we are hoping that those that lived through Telemark’s glory days can help us better define what telling these stories looks like. Is it pictures or murals? Is it verbal histories? Is it videos? Is it a Tony Wise Academy of some sort? We don’t pretend to know the answer to this question. But we know that we want to get this right. We want to honor Tony, the stories, and the memories. More than that, we want to help those stories, that fairydust, pass to the next generation: so that the Cable/Hayward area remains this strange little hotbed of forward-thinking and entrepreneurism. 

Please join us in making Mt. Telemark Village a reality and, more than that, in making sure that it is a place that carries on the incredible spirit of the old Telemark and all it stood for.

Ways to Give

• Make a donation online.
• Mail a check using these Offline Payment Instructions.
• Use a donor advised fund. Make your contribution payable to:
  The American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation/Telemark
  Our EIN is: 39-1503175
  Our mailing address is:
  ABSF/Telemark, PO Box 911, Hayward,
  Wisconsin 54843.

Do you want to transfer stock, contribute an IRA distribution, learn about naming rights for a larger donation, or ask questions? Contact Louise Droessler or Ben Popp via the phone numbers or email addresses listed below.

Your support is truly appreciated. Please contact us with questions or comments.

Louise Droessler
Development Director
louise.droessler@birkie.com
608-843-8451

Ben Popp
Executive Director
ben.popp@birkie.com
715-558-3091