November 11, 2024 @ 2 pm

Sherman & Ruth Weiss Community Library – Meeting Room

Ironwood, MI based singer/songwriter Bill Jamerson will perform an hour-long musical tribute to the ski jumpers of the Upper Peninsula on Monday afternoon, November 11, at 2 pm at the Sherman and Ruth Weiss Community Library. The program is co-sponsored by the American Birkebeiner and the Friends of the Library and is open and free to the public.
With guitar in hand, Bill performs original songs he wrote based on interviews with former ski jumpers 25 years ago. Bill tells stories about their ski jumping experiences as children and teenagers from the 1930’s and 1940’s. There are stories about older brothers teaching their siblings, how they trained at all hours of the day and stories about their travels across the Midwest to compete at tournaments in towns like Red Wing and Westby. Bill will also show Nordic skiing footage from his PBS film ‘Winter Wonderland.’ The stories are as important as they are entertaining, as honest as they are fun.
Ski jumping was a popular youth sport in the mining towns of the Upper Peninsula from the early 1900’s through the 1950’s. Long winters, heavy snowfalls and steep hills created ideal training conditions and produced many Olympians. In his program, Bill talks about how ski jumping was brought to America by Norwegian immigrants who worked in the iron mines. Soon other ethnic groups took up the sport and in time ski jumping competitions were held across the U.P. and Upper Midwest with meets that drew thousands of spectators.
Some of Jamerson’s songs include ‘The Flying Bletilla’s which tells the story of six Finnish ski jumping brothers from Ishpeming. ‘Boy Lost’ is based on a ski jumping poem written by a teenager. ‘Cleveland Location,’ is about how the best jumpers came far and wide to compete with the best, while ‘Brothers Regret’ is a song about a younger brother outjumping his older brother. ‘Nicknames’ is a song about the nicknames jumpers went by.
For the over 20 years, singer/storyteller Jamerson has presented ‘History through Song’ programs about the Civilian Conservation Corps, Lumberjacks, and Iron Miners. He has recorded CD’s, produced a dozen documentary films for Public Television and wrote a historical novel. For more information, please call the library at 715-634-2161 or visit Jamerson’s website, www.billjamerson.com.