Low-key version of former Raging Buffalo facility planned
More than 60 years of for-profit winter activity in Algonquin is over as the Kane County Forest Preserve District's Raging Buffalo Snowboard Park will transform into more of no-frills snow hill.
District officials tried to keep the snowboard park in operation, but the facility's decaying infrastructure under the former for-profit management company fueled a decision to seek a new operator.
"We did not believe they had the skill set to pull off operating this facility," said Ken Anderson, the chief of planning and operations for the district. "And we don't have the staffing or expertise to manage a facility like that."
The park once billed itself as "the world's first exclusive snowboard area" and featured halfpipes, tabletops, kickers and rails along with tow service back to the top of the hill. Officials sought proposals from new potential operators of Raging Buffalo. They didn't receive any proposals they liked.
So the plan is to work with the Kane County Division of Transportation on a redesign of the site. The new layout will abandon several of the upgrades envisioned for the facility along with many of its longtime features.
The plan will eliminate the tow line service, reduce the parking on the site by half and extend a trail system that connects to the south end of that parking lot. There will still be a shelter and a bathroom at the site.
Monica Meyers, the district's executive director, said it was not worth salvaging the former lodge that served as the starting point for most people looking to snowboard or tube down the hill.
"I don't even know if I'd use the word 'vintage' to describe that lodge," she said. "It was bad."
Anything resembling a lodge for snowboarding on the site will not return. There is some ongoing consideration of creating a shelter that could be rented out at the site and maybe a trailhead where people would park and access the rest of the Brunner Family Forest Preserve.
"People probably will still snowboard there," Anderson said. "And people will probably still bring tubes, but it won't be the recreational complex it is now. It might still be the best location for people in the area to come and do their sledding activities."
A committee of forest district commissioners agreed this is the best plan for the site moving forward. But district staff members, recognizing the many decades Raging Buffalo provided a winter entertainment outlet, said they will host public information sessions about the plan to get feedback from area residents. The dates for those sessions are not yet determined.