By ABBY LaFOREST

Journal Staff Writer

ISHPEMING– Bill Jamerson, an Ironwood-based historian and singer/storyteller, recently performed two musical tributes to ski jumpers of the Upper Peninsula at the Ishpeming Carnegie Public Library and Forsyth Senior Center in Gwinn.

The programs are based on interviews that Jamerson conducted with U.P. ski jumpers nearly 25 years ago. His songs tell stories of people like Coy Hill, Wilbert Rasmussen and the Bietila brothers, recounting their experiences as children and teenagers ski jumping in the early 1930s and ’40s.

Jamerson also showed scenes from the PBS film he wrote and produced “Winter Wonderland,” which includes about 20 minutes of ski jumping footage and interviews.

In conducting his research for the film, Jamerson met some of the local legendary ski jumpers, sparking his interest in sharing the stories of Upper Peninsula ski jumping.

“I was producing a film for Michigan Public TV about winter sports in Michigan, and I discovered this wonderful story of ski jumping in the U.P. in the context of my research,” Jamerson recalled. “So, I spent time up in Marquette. I visited the United States Ski Hall of Fame and interviewed some of these old-time jumpers. I was so impressed that I expanded the content in my film to include more ski jumping, because originally the film was more about winter sports parks and alpine skiing,” he said.

“It was a visit to the United States Ski Hall of Fame that opened my eyes to this great treasure, this great history of ski jumping in the Upper Peninsula, and they led me to meet some of these jumpers like Coy Hill, Ralph Bietila and Joe Perrault. These are giants in ski jumping history.

“They were so welcoming and forthcoming in their stories that I brought back my film crew (and) I interviewed them. I put their pictures in my 1997 film called ‘Winter Wonderland: The Golden Age of Ski’….I didn’t know what ski jumping was, I (had) heard about it, but I didn’t realize it was so big.”

Some time following the film’s release, Jamerson moved to Marquette and discovered some of the men he interviewed in his film were meeting at Aunty Kathy’s Cafe in Ishpeming for coffee most mornings. He joined them for coffee over a several-month period, collected their stories and turned them into a dozen songs.

“One song I will sing is based on a poem that I found in the Ishpeming Iron Ore newspaper from 1904 that was written by a high school boy. I took his poem and I turned it into a song. (There’s) one about the Cleveland location in Ishpeming, which was the center of ski jumping for all the youth in the city of Ishpeming, because many locations had their own ski jumps, but the best competed at the Cleveland location. That’s where you met up against the Bietilas and Coy Hill and so forth.

“I wrote a song about that experience of walking and competing against the best at the Cleveland location. I (also) wrote a song which I dedicated to Ralph Bietila and his relationship to Suicide Hill. Ralph was born in 1924, the same year that the city of Ishpeming decided to build a ski jump. His whole life, he jumped….His last jump was (in) 1975, so I wrote a song about that. In the ’80s, Ralph was out there on the ski jump with Coy Hill coaching the young men. I wrote a song about Ralph Bietila’s relationship with Suicide Hill. I wrote a(nother) song called Nicknames. I used to meet these fellas at Auntie Kathy’s Cafe, This was almost 25 years ago. They all referred to each other by their ‘Nicknames’ I wrote a song about all their nicknames and how they got the nicknames, and so it’s kind of a fun song.”

The Upper Peninsula proved to be a popular place to learn how to ski jump, especially at the sport’s peak popularity in the first half of the 20th century. Long winters, heavy snowfalls and steep hills granted the youth of the U.P.’s mining towns an ideal place to train, with a few rising into the ranks of Olympians within the sport.

“It’s gratifying (when) people come up and say, ‘My grandfather ski jump(ed,) and this program means so much to me, I’m so grateful you came here.’ or ‘My uncle was a jumper. I never knew why he did it or how he did it.’ So it’s kind of bringing enlightenment, bringing a higher awareness about their relatives, parents and so forth,” said Jamerson.

“These old jumpers (also) show up in my programs….Jerry Koski over in Ontonagon shows up and tells stories about jumping off of a refrigerator crate. Willie Erickson and Butch Wedin down in Iron Mountain, they show up and tell their stories. It’s wonderful. And so they contribute to the program as well. They make the program bring a whole new dimension. Here we have living legends out there telling their stories. It’s great fun.”

The ski jumping scene in the U.P. attracted some big names in the sport as well. One of these was Anders Haugen, a Norwegian who had immigrated to Milwaukee and the only American to ever win an Olympic medal in ski jumping.

Haugen set a world record of jumping 152 feet off of Curry Hill in Ironwood during the 1911 U.S. National Ski Jumping Championships. His bronze medal from the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, is on display in the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame.

The hall is located at 610 Palms Ave. in Ishpeming, and more information can be found by calling 906-485-6323 or visiting its website at skihall.com.

The character and magic of early Upper Peninsula ski jumping carries over into the culture today, and while Jamerson’s programs include educational information, the spirit of what makes ski jumping so special lies at the heart of his work.

“It’s much more than information,” explained Jamerson “It’s a reminder of who we are as a culture that sports is about fair play. It’s about sportsmanship. It’s about helping your fellow athlete and showing self-reliance, individual responsibility, self-discipline. These are important stories. I tell stories how teenagers would get in one of their dad’s cars, and they would drive off to Red Wing, Minnesota, or Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) for these ski jumping meets on the weekend.

“(These were) teenagers, unaccompanied by parents, who showed great responsibility, and this was during the Great Depression. So that’s what I hope people take away … that are reminded that our young people do not need to be coddled. We need to nurture that self-discipline, self-government, and self-responsibility.

“My focus in this program is about teenagers jumping and how they trained, how they traveled, how they regarded each other. Their love of the sport was only surpassed by their love for each other. They competed very hard, but they had great respect for their other competitors. They wanted everyone to do their best. It was a great camaraderie, and sometimes we forget that.

In today’s sports, it’s all about beating the other person and getting the best leg up on the training. These guys all shared their secrets with each other. They all worked together. It was a whole different attitude. We don’t want to forget that. That’s our history. That’s our culture.”

For over 20 years, Jamerson has been presenting his “History of Song” programs about the Civilian Conservation Corps, lumberjacks and iron miners, in addition to his ski jumping programs. He’s recorded CDs, filmed a dozen documentary films for public television, and written a historical novel titled “Big Shoulders” about a teenager growing up during the Great Depression.

“I hope my programs inspire people to consider ski jumping as a sport today, (as) it delivers the same thrills as winter extreme sports and maybe more,” Jamerson concluded.

For more information regarding the programs or Jamerson’s work, call the senior center at 906-346-4818, the library at 906-486-4381 or visit Jamerson’s website at billjamerson.com.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.