In 1932, Minnesota became the first state to make skiing an official high school sport, fueled by the Scandinavian-heavy north country. The first regional Arrowhead High School Ski Meet included teams from Duluth, Coleraine, Virginia and Cloquet, and was held on Duluth's east side at Chester Park.
Yet the state's first official school tournament wasn't on skinny skis — it was jumping only. Chester Park also was known as Chester Bowl, ideally hilly terrain for skiers to get air and drop into. (The Duluth Ski Club had been jumping there since the early 1900s.) Cross-country skiing would be added to the tournament the following year by the Minnesota State High School League.
The story is but a thread in the expansive, remarkable fabric woven in the state by Nordic skiing captured from cap to knee breech in a new book from University of Minnesota Press, "Winter's Children: A Celebration of Nordic Skiing" by author Ryan Rodgers.
Rodgers goes back — way back — to the origin of the ski but briskly moves to its arrival (via Norway, of course) to the Upper Midwest and Minnesota, right up to cross-country's present popularity, including the golden speed of Afton's Jessie Diggins. And good thing, because there is a lot to tell and piece together of skiing's ups and downs — and ups.
Like why and how ski jumping was valued by many high schoolers over cross-country skiing all those years ago.
Beginning the project in 2019, Rodgers scoured old articles, visited historical centers, and at times sat in wax sheds to hear from families built and transformed by the sport. For all the rich details about Nordic skiing's characters and rhythms, Rodgers said he found himself producing something more.
"I didn't want to write it for skiers only," he said. "I wanted it to appeal to skiers, but I wanted to appeal to anyone. I wanted the story to stand up on its own."
In a conversation about his book, Rodgers talked about Nordic skiing's character-driven arc but, too, what's sliding away. His comments below were edited for length and clarity.