The annual Norfolk Ski Jumping Competition was held for five years beginning in 1933. With Olympic champions and some of the country’s best skiers competing, the event always attracted a large crowd. The 150-foot natural slope jump on the side of Canaan Mountain was designed by Scandinavian skier Birger Torrissen, who was among a group of Olympic competitors introduced to Norfolk through cross-country skier Olle Zetterstrom of Canaan. With other Norfolk enthusiasts, the men formed the Norfolk Winter Sports Association, which hosted the annual competition. In 1938 when rain threatened to cancel the event, an ice-pulverizing machine was brought up from Madison Square Garden, and a fleet of some 20 trucks hauled cakes of ice to the ski hill. The following year, with a world war on the horizon, the competition came to an end.

Text by —Ann Havemeyer
Photo Courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society