Bill Collier Community Ice Arena

Mission Statement

Klamath Ice Sports will develop and provide wholesome winter-time activities and attractive facilities for ice sports in the Klamath Basin, promoting participation by youth and families at a reasonable cost, in a beautiful year round multi-use pavilion setting.

Our Story

Klamath Ice Sports (KIS) is a grassroots 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit charitable organization. KIS operates the Bill Collier Community Ice Arena under the direction of a volunteer board of directors and a small paid staff. The 200′ x 85′ sparkling outdoor sheet of ice is covered by a beautiful tensile fabric roof and is open early November through the end of March. Birthday parties, school field trips, group figure skating and hockey lessons, for-credit college physical education classes, hockey and figure skating lessons, recreational hockey leagues for ages five through adult, curling (no skates needed!) and broomball (no skates needed!) sessions are offered.

Bill Collier Community Ice Arena

The tradition of ice skating out-of-doors in the Klamath Basin began in the early 1900s when the city created a community ice rink near Moore Park along the south shore of Upper Klamath Lake. This natural sheet of ice was a popular winter recreation site. However, in the 1970s, due to changing climate and city budget constraints, the rink was forced to close. In the 1990s, Bill Collier, a local retiree and former hockey player, began to personally renovate the historic site, which meant spending cold winter nights and early mornings spraying the dirt patch with water from a firehose in order to create the required sheet of ice.