Harbor Springs, MI –Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs is celebrating 50 years of skiing with an anniversary weekend filled with merriment, live music, a dinner party, fireworks, and more. The event takes place January 31 through February 2 and guests wishing to celebrate with the resort can join the festivities for a day or the weekend.
“This milestone is a celebration for the resort, but it’s just as much a celebration for those who have spent time with Boyne Highlands throughout our 50-year history and contributed to what the resort is today,” said Brad Keen, president and general manager of Boyne Highlands Resort. “Many of our guests visited when they were children, and now take their children or grandchildren here to enjoy the same experience they fell in love with. We also have many team members who have been with us for 20, 30, and 40 years. We’re truly like a family, and this is a special time for us all.”
Boyne Highlands Resort first greeted skiers on December 26, 1963, introducing guests to the world’s first triple chairlifts and the highest vertical skiing of any terrain in northern Michigan. Everett Kircher, founder of Boyne Resorts, purchased the original property, Harbor Highlands, from a group of shareholders who had been forced to close due to lack of capital. When Kircher bought the property, he insisted on paying off all the creditors as well as making sure that all the shareholders recovered their full investments. Kircher then purchased an additional 2.900 acres of land adjacent to Harbor Highlands in order to carry out his vision for a large year-round ski and summer resort – a vision that’s been reality for the last 50 years.
On Friday night, guests are greeted to an evening of skiing and snowboarding under the lights, horse-drawn wagon rides, and live entertainment with Pete Kehoe in the Zoo Bar from 4 to 8 p.m., and Chris & Adam in the Slopeside Lounge from 9 to 11:30 p.m. On Saturday, wake to the tastes of Boyne Highlands’ breakfast buffet before heading out for a day of adventure. Skiing, tubing, Zipline Adventures, ice skating, dog sled rides, and more are on the line-up. Saturday evening includes dinner in the Main Dining Room featuring the Up North Big Band from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., Zoo Bar party with Detroit dance band The Sun Messengers from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., and fireworks over the slopes at 9:30 p.m.
A special event package is also available including two nights’ lodging, three-day lift tickets, breakfast, tubing, Saturday night cocktail reception with appetizers and signature 50th cocktail, family style chicken dinner, admission to the Zoo Bar party, and commemorative photo book. The package starts at $213 per person, per night. Children ages 8 and under sleep, ski/ride, and eat breakfast for free and juniors ages 9-15 receive discounted rates.