The below case study was developed through a NGA partnership with Oregon State University’s Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy to research and assess the Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation award program at the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Read the full report here.
Project Overview
Grant: Frost Fire Park Waterworks/Snowmaking Utility Infrastructure
Grant recipient: Pembina Gorge Foundation
Type of Grant: Competitive TTOR grant
EDA funding: $2,170,488
Total project funding: $2,713,110 (with $542,622 local match)
Current project status: Completed
What is unique, innovative: This EDA investment funds the Frost Fire Park Snowmaking Infrastructure Improvement and Expansion Project to update the water and related snowmaking infrastructure that will improve the quality and longevity of skiing in this unique and eclectic park in northeastern North Dakota.
The project supports the Pembina Gorge Foundation — as a new owner of Frost Fire Park which first opened in 1976 — with addressing the regional need for resilient outdoor recreation activities at the park. The snowmaking equipment has a direct economic impact on the park’s operations, particularly by extending its winter sports season.
The project’s unique and innovative aspect is the loose but large local/regional team of numerous devotees who have all worked toward a common vision for the region over the decades of its existence and contributed to the park’s sustainability. The Frost Fire Park stakeholders are working hard to make this area a more noted destination for their region of the state, just as the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is for the southwestern part of the state.
In the northeastern region of North Dakota, the communities in the Pembina River Gorge area – such as the cities of Walhalla, Langdon, Cavalier, and others — are the ones that would benefit and prosper the most from any improvements at the park. In addition to its neighbors across the border, Frost Fire Park also draws visitors from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
The park has been a popular destination for more than 40 years and has expanded its offerings and amenities over that period to include other outdoor sports and to include a theater for arts and cultural activities.
Through the love and devotion of local, regional, and state stakeholders, champions, and visitors, the park has survived several difficulties over the decades — including the collapse of the theater’s roof due to snow and the main chair lift becoming unsafe for use. In the midst of the pandemic, the failure of the park’s snowmaking equipment caused the park to close down for its entire 2022-2023 winter season.
“Snowmaking has allowed Frost Fire Park to open. Thanks to an EDA grant, we were able to purchase new snowmaking equipment. Our team has been hard at work making snow to make us the first ski park to open for the winter season in North Dakota this year.”
Source: https://FrostFirePark.org/FAQ
Takeaways on What’s Replicable: The early planning efforts of the EDA-designated Economic Development Districts (EDDs) in northeastern North Dakota helped to make the EDA-supported snowmaking improvement possible at Frost Fire Park. These groups included the Red River Regional Council (RRRC) and the North Central Planning Council. EDA provides funding to these and similarly designated EDDs around the country to bring together the public and private sectors to help create an economic development roadmap for the region. Additional supportive organizations included the Job Development Authorities for Cavalier County and Pembina County, among many other organizations.
North Dakota’s Frost Fire Park demonstrates the region’s passion for winter sports and outdoor recreation, and the willingness of the region to dedicate itself to the park’s preservation for a future generation. The entire Pembina Gorge region is building up a cohesive regional tourism and outdoor recreation brand through education and marketing, and the park has been featured in state marketing publications and economic development magazines. An important related strategy involves enhancing the existing assets, especially the amenities at Frost Fire Park to attract more visitors. This project stimulated existing assets in recovery rather than designing a new project that would create competition for older projects.
This project, among the competitive EDA ARPA TTOR recipients, rose to the top based on its data survey results (see the Benefits sections below).
Background on the Project
This Pembina Gorge project is located in the far northeastern region of North Dakota about 5 miles from the Canadian border and about 1.5 hours south of Winnipeg, the capital and largest city in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The love for the Pembina Gorge runs deep through what is called the “Rendezvous Region” of North Dakota and across borders. The region includes the three counties in the farthest northeastern corner of the state — Cavalier, Pembina, and Walsh Counties. It is a uniquely rugged natural area, as steep valley cliffs tower over small, isolated prairies, and continues to be a top destination for adventure seekers with a passion for nature.
Frost Fire Park opened for skiing as a family business in 1976 by owners Richard and Judith Johnson. The downhill ski area now has about a dozen ski runs. The Johnsons also had a passion for the arts and, in 1985, they added the annual Frost Fire Summer Theater, creating the “Frost Fire Ski Area and Amphitheater,” as the park was known at the time. The summer theater has regularly welcomed an average of 5,000 guests during each theater season. During a recent heavy-snow season at the park, the theater’s roof and stage collapsed due to the snow load, and the park is already in the planning stages for a new theater using state matching grants. Once the new theater facility is finished being built, the park plans to use that new facility as a venue for weddings, festivals and rock concerts, and other larger scale events.
Frost Fire Park also operates the only downhill mountain bike trails with lift service in the state of North Dakota. These biking trails are separate from the ski runs. With 350 feet of elevation, they are the types of high-quality bike trails that appeal to all levels of riders. The park has 8 trails of varying difficulty. On Fridays through Sundays during the summer months, Frost Fire offers downhill mountain biking tours. All riders must have an access pass to use the downhill trails. There is also a mountain bike terrain park, and hiking-only trails.
Support from regional economic development districts: After Richard Johnson passed away in 2016, the North Dakota Parks & Recreation Department and Judith Johnson formed a temporary partnership to help keep Frost Fire open to the public until a more long-term solution could be found to keep it going and sustainable.
In 2017, several regional councils and community foundations worked to make the park a sustainable venture including the Red River Regional Council (RRRC) which is a nonprofit quasi-governmental organization that serves as the EDA-designated EDD for the northeastern North Dakota region of 42 communities and the counties of Pembina, Walsh, Nelson, and Grand Forks. RRRC brings together public and private partners to create a roadmap known as a known as a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy or “CEDS.” This sort of activity supports business growth, revitalizes Main Streets, and develops vibrant communities where people can live work, learn, visit, and play for generations. The overall goals ultimately are to strengthen regional economies, support private capital investment, and create jobs. RRRC is governed by a 15-member board of directors, which includes mayors, city representatives, county commissioners, local job development corporation members, private business owners, chambers of commerce leaders, educators, and a liaison from the state’s job service.
This group of people and organizations formed the Pembina Gorge Foundation that Mrs. Johnson sold the Frost Fire Park to in 2017. The Foundation’s board launched Phase I of the “Fire Up Frost Fire” capital campaign with a goal of raising $3.1 million to:
- Acquire the park.
- Maintain the major equipment, fleet of snowboards, the snowmaker, people movers, and theater equipment.
- Accomplish small renovations.
- Set aside a $1 million endowment for scholarships.
During the campaign’s first year, a large group of committed individuals, families, businesses, regional councils, and county job development authorities and workforce funds provided startup funding, along with The Governor’s Fund. With this funding, the tubing hill was able to open for the 2017-2018 season.
The 2019 state legislative session awarded the Pembina Gorge Foundation a $750,000 North Dakota Gorge Preservation Grant match which was instrumental for opening the mountain’s dozen slopes for the 2019 ski season.
Impact of the pandemic: The COVID-19 pandemic was tough on Frost Fire Park’s business, particularly due to the border closing with Canada. In March 2020, the US-Canada border was shut down for the first time since 9/11. The border crossing on US I-29, just 70 miles south of Winnipeg is North Dakota’s most heavily used port of entry from Canada. Frost Fire Park also draws visitors from the two larger cities of Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Therefore, before the pandemic, a 200-mile radius around the park offers a combined target audience of 1.5 million people from which to draw visitors. Since Frost Fire Park is the only ski-bike-theater- restaurant complex in the Pembina Gorge, it is the only such recreation area for more than 150 miles in any direction, which makes it a keystone business for outdoor recreation and tourism. However, the shutdown of the US-Canada border to workers, travelers, and tourists removed 80- 90% of the typical customers for these industries.
During the pandemic several dedicated residents volunteered to keep Frost Fire Park’s skiing and biking areas operating safely. As a result, the park managed to survive financially – at least at first — and even enjoyed a resurgence of local and regional visitors from North Dakota and nearby states.
A season-long closure: Like most ski resorts, Frost Fire Park relies on snowmaking to continue operations during times of warming temperatures in early Spring. Despite multiple repairs over the years, the park’s snowmaking system stopped working requiring the closure of the park for the 2022-2023 season. The park’s closure for the entire season had an impact on many other nearby locations. More than 40 seasonal employees were out of a job – not only at the park, but also in neighboring hotels, motels and restaurants due to the lack of tourists and visitors in the surrounding communities.
New snowmaking infrastructure: From the beginning of the pandemic back in 2020, the Red River Regional Council in the Pembina Gorge region led and supported certain significant projects that benefited from the funding opportunities resulting from pandemic appropriations such as the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This resulted in two grants being awarded to the Pembina Gorge Foundation for updates to the Frost Fire Park facility, particularly its snowmaking infrastructure:
- The $2.17 million EDA ARPA TTOR grant.
- A $900,000 grant from the state of North Dakota.
New visitors: With EDA’s funding, the new equipment was installed in the summer and fall of 2023, and the Frost Fire team immediately got to work making snow for the 2023-2024 season. It produced more and better snow than the old equipment. Although there were warmer winter temperatures than usual, the snow quality led to an increase in the winter visitors.
Financing snowmaking infrastructure, with appreciation: As noted, Frost Fire Park received a little more than $2 million in funding from EDA for the water/snowmaking infrastructure project. EDA provided 80%, and the state provided a 20% match of just over $540,000. The Foundation had estimated it needed at least $3 million to do the project, but the construction bids came in $1.8 million higher than the originally estimated cost. A new scaled-down estimate was around $3.6 million. They still have a $500,000 overrun that the park will now need to borrow. Nevertheless, the EDA funding was crucial for the Frost Fire snowmaking project as the park previously had a 40-year-old system. The Foundation and its stakeholders spent the summer of 2023 installing their new state-of-the-art water infrastructure for snowmaking.
Demographic trend underscores target audience: As in other rural areas of the country, over the last 25 years, many young people from the Pembina Gorge area moved to jobs in larger cities. In the last 5 years, however, the region has experienced a turnaround in that regard. COVID drove a shift back to rural areas of people in their 30s as the younger generation migrated back to their rural roots. The main target audience for the Frost Fire Park improvement project work is their population of youth and young families. But until the trend really takes hold, now there are many open positions, but no people available to fill them. The Foundation is in tune with the youth in the area, and the board is interested in expanding on the options available to local youth through camping and other activities. In fact, about 50 school-age kids are taking part in an arts camp at Frost Fire in the summer of 2024.
Project Actors – State leaders, champions, stakeholders
Local and regional stakeholders are long-standing champions: Frost Fire Park’s stakeholders have an ongoing funding effort. They hired a professional fund-raising group to help focus on expansion and capital improvements to existing attractions, and their overall effort will continue for the next 15 months.
A state policy, the North Dakota 40% tax credit for gifts to endowments, has assisted this fundraising effort. The Pembina Gorge Foundation’s endowment is held at a local community foundation that qualifies for the North Dakota Endowment Tax Credit.
In addition to the $750,000 North Dakota Gorge Preservation Grant match back in 2019, the state of North Dakota legislatively appropriated an additional $900,000 to Pembina Gorge Foundation for additional Frost Fire Park infrastructure enhancements. The Pembina Gorge Foundation and Frost Fire Park also presently have a matching grant of $1.75 million from the state for destination development. But without a local match, they can’t use this funding source. Thus, they are trying to identify additional support.
Governor Burgum’s support for the Pembina Gorge region: In 2023, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum announced that the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area encompassing 2,800 acres of public land in the Pembina River Gorge area would be developed into North Dakota’s 14th state park — along with a campground through $6 million secured by the North Dakota Parks & Recreation Department during the 2023 legislative session. Development of the park’s campground would include underground utilities, roads, a 55-site campground, 6 year-round cabins, a comfort station, a shop, and seasonal staff accommodations at a cost of approximately $8 million. The additional $2 million for this initial development is coming from a matching federal Land & Water Conservation Fund grant.
“The Pembina Gorge is one of North Dakota’s most beautiful areas, offering an incredible array of recreational activities including canoeing, hiking, biking, horseback riding, skiing, snowmobiling, hunting and birdwatching.”
Governor Doug Burgum
A significant aspect of this development is that the 165-acre property for the new state park’s campground is about a mile from Frost Fire Park. The Pembina Gorge Foundation’s board says that having this new state park and campground nearby will help attract visitors to the area.
Economic Benefits
Frost Fire Park has expanded its business, and increased employment opportunities by creating new jobs, saving other jobs, spurring private investment, and advancing economic resiliency throughout the northeastern part of the state. The actual results have been:
- 44 new jobs created and 22 existing jobs retained (mostly seasonal but a few annual positions in retail, financing, and other supporting services).
- 15 businesses retained that provide supporting services.
- Workforce development training opportunities in customer relations and applying technical outdoor skills.
- An increase of 4,000 new visitors in 2023, visitors staying longer, and with about 63% non-local visitors who spend more on average than local visitors.
Additional results have included:
- New outreach and networking events engaging a variety of stakeholder interests.
- Leveraged additional state and regional funding.
- Increased economic resilience through business and visitor diversification, collaboration and technical assistance, and hazard reductions.
Training and workforce development: In announcing the new state park’s campground development, Governor Burgum said, “This project is an opportunity to enhance outdoor recreation, tourism and economic development while helping us recruit and retain much-needed workforce.”
The same objective applies to Frost Fire Park, especially the part about retaining and recruiting a workforce. The Pembina Gorge Foundation has been advertising the open positions at Frost Fire Park using the state’s job service, and the park has some local residents working there; however, many of the park’s young workers are coming from Mexico. The park is accepting H2B commercial visas for immigrant workers like how the state’s nearby agricultural sector has gone to H2A programs to bring in workers from South Africa. Much of the area’s farm labor has retired, and there is no replacement labor force based on the younger generation leaving the area until just recently, as noted earlier. Wages paid at the park range from $14 to $20/hour.
Skills development: In terms of skills, there is a need for culinary skills at Frost Fire Park. Local community colleges identified this need early on, and began training in culinary skills. The community colleges are also helping the park to advertise its need for cooks.
There is also a need for skills related to equipment. At Frost Fire Park, this would include having an onsite individual to maintain and troubleshoot potential technical difficulties with the ski chair lift, thereby eliminating the burden of seeking external insight. Similarly, there is a great deal of technical equipment involved with the new water system for making snow, which will require individuals with specific technical skills to maintain and oversee.
Encouraging emerging entrepreneurial opportunities: The Frost Fire Park stakeholders are interested in better assisting the potential entrepreneurial community in the area to help create new businesses. Certain attractions in the Pembina River Gorge area are unique, such as a dinosaur fossil dig that is near Frost Fire Park. The Pembina Gorge Foundation and others involved in regional planning are working toward diversifying the attractions in the gorge area to offer horseback riding and birding – which is very big – along with increasing biking and hiking. Kayaking and tubing are additional opportunities along the Pembina River.
Potential demand: Frost Fire Park now sometimes reaches a total of 7,000 skiers a season. The park’s theater recently had 6,000 attendees for a theater season showing the Sound of Music. They are pushing toward bringing in 12,000 visitors per year and would like to see that grow to 20,000 over the next year or two. The current estimate is that — between Frost Fire Park, the new State Park, and the expanding outdoor recreation opportunities around the Pembina Gorge — there is the potential for 30,000 to 40,000 visitors annually in the gorge area.
Other Benefits
Supporting youth, equity, disabled persons in the local communities: The Pembina Gorge Foundation hopes to develop a slush fund of donors so that school groups and church groups can plan a ski day. As an attraction, a slush fund of about $2,500 could be used to help defray the cost of providing lunch to the groups. One donor recently offered a $2,500 contribution for 4,000 free lift tickets for local high school students over the recent holiday season from December 21 to January 2. For the next ski season, the board hopes to increase the number of free lift tickets to 10,000 to help provide even more of an opportunity for those students who don’t have the means to purchase tickets and rent gear. The Pembina Gorge Foundation board would also like to become more involved in helping disabled persons access the facilities.
Challenges
Organizations like Frost Fire Park must break even from the standpoint of a nonprofit’s cash-flow business model. There are a couple of interrelated challenges related to the different types of fundraising and donor groups, as described in this section.
- Donors want to see groups of investors or donors, and they want to see a positive cash flow, and investment going back to the local communities. They also want to see state and federal involvement.
- Federal and state investors want to see local involvement. Each of these types and groups of investors and donors are necessary. They operate hand-in-hand and complement and feed off each other.
- The struggle for the cash flow is real. Donors don’t want a business that they’re investing in to fold in two years. They want to invest in an entity that is cash-flow positive, and they want to make sure their contribution continues to provide opportunities for recreation over time. They don’t want to donate working capital or pay for labor or help pay for the light bill or other recurring expenses. They do want to see “shiny new infrastructure.”
For any business, the first five years is touch and go. Frost Fire Park is still in its first 5-year period since it was converted from being owned by a private corporation to being owned by a nonprofit foundation. And the foundation is learning these lessons as they continue to work toward sustainability.
The foundation hopes to continue to improve on winter amenities, such as by adding a ski school, ski clubs, and spinning off small businesses associated with the park. The board is considering building an outdoor ropes course and similar types of outdoor facilities that would accommodate fee-paying corporate team-building events and outdoor education. Some of Frost Fire’s amenities that will be improved by “Giving Hearts Day” in 2024 are: theater stage reconstruction, kitchen and bath remodeling, and employee housing – and more on this below. Giving Hearts Day is a 24-hour online campaign that raises money for nonprofits in North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.
Key Findings and Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned and Key Findings: The Pembina Gorge Foundation has learned a great deal from the data being collected at Frost Fire Park. The organizations collect data in a variety of ways. For example, they:
- Use the app called “Square” which most restaurants and bars use. It is a popular app that tracks the numbers of visitors and their purchases.
- Have a state-of-the-art system for ski equipment rentals that tracks the skis going out and coming back in – and which also helps identify replacement needs.
- Have been building a database of visitors from their mail marketing system that provides information on the number of skiers and bikers per weekend.
- Use their nearby Job Development Center, which is a regional state agency, for some necessary data on businesses and job creation within a 60-mile radius around the park.
Need for housing accommodations for visitors, workers: Potential visitors are asking where they can stay if they visit Frost Fire Park. There is a 30-unit hotel in Walhalla, which is 7 miles away, but that is not enough housing over time, so presently there are substantial opportunities for builders. The following are some current activities underway in this regard:
- There are a couple of different builders erecting cabins: one in the area south of Walhalla and one to the west of the park.
- The Pembina Gorge Foundation, itself, is exploring the possibility of building some thirty cabins on the property at the Frost Fire Park. The Foundation’s board is exploring the possibility of creating a separate development corporation to help address housing for both visitors and workers.
Anticipated results of increasing housing: By adding overnight accommodations in the region, per-person visitor spending is expected to grow substantially. In 2023, North Dakota Parks & Recreation noted that by adding overnight accommodations and destination property amenities, per-person visitor spending is expected to grow substantially statewide. Visitor spending increased from $86 for single-day visitors to nearly $460 for multi-day visitors to the North Dakota state park system in 2020. The upgraded level of service and amenities, in addition to increased winter recreation opportunities, improves the region’s tourism and economic development, and impacting the entire state.
Read the full report on Innovative Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Awards, or additional case studies from: Colorado, Hawai‘i, Maine, Indiana, and West Virginia.
Disclaimer: This document was prepared by the National Governors Association using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070131 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.
