Abandoned Farmington Valley Ski Areas

With winter here, snow-filled slopes beckon people to go skiing and snowboarding. Many go to nearby Ski Sundown in New Hartford and Mount Southington. Others take trips north to Vermont and New Hampshire. However, decades ago skiers would only need to drive a few miles in their town to hit the slopes.
Jeremy Davis is the founder of the New England Lost Ski Area Project, a group that tracks and keeps documentation of defunct ski areas throughout the region. He started the online database back in October of 1998 with six known closed ski areas. Ten years later, his project lists areas throughout the United States and Canada.

"I estimate that the final tally for all of the closed ski areas in New England will be around 625," Davis said. "We also estimate that there might be between 300-400 areas in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York."

Aside from tracking closed ski areas, Davis is a meteorologist in the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., area and serves on the board of directors for the New England Ski Museum in Franconia, N.H. For Davis, work on the project has been both a passion and a hobby. The New England Lost Ski Area Project (NELSAP for short) has 60 areas in the state of Connecticut alone.

Of those 60 areas, several are located in or near the Farmington Valley. The town of Simsbury had three; New Britain had two at the Martha Hart Park and Stanley Quarter Park; Avon, Canton, Berlin, Bloomfield and West Hartford each had one ski area.

In Simsbury, both the Westledge (now Master's) and Westminister schools had small slopes with rope tows on their campuses. The former ski area near Westledge is now part of a land trust. The third area in town was the Simsbury Ski Club Hill. It was a larger slope than the other two, and it is still visible from Weatogue Street. According to NELSAP, it contained a 900-foot rope tow and had a 190-foot vertical drop. It had a wide main trail sandwiched by two narrower ones. It was in operation from 1936 to 1968 and now lies vacant with remnants of its rope tow still in place.

Sweetheart Mountain in the Collinsville section of Canton was a popular area for decades. The Canton Ski Club operated this ski area with two rope tows and even a warming lodge. It operated from 1948 until 1975. The land is currently owned by the Canton Land Conservation Trust and contains two marked hiking trails. There are still remnants visible from its skiing past. Rope tow motors are still cemented to the ground; several poles with wheels and lights still stand despite not being maintained for over 34 years.

In Avon, the Hartford Ski Club in 1937 used a slope on the west side of Talcott Mountain. The area had rope tows and trails, but in 1959 the area closed due to the lack of snowfall and the encroachment of golf.
Sometime in the mid-'60s, the Renbrook School in West Hartford had a rope tow and slope to ski on. It only operated for a few years.

According to Davis, not much is known about the ski area in Bloomfield. The NELSAP Web site shows a map that lists a ski lift on a map of the town. The lift may have a vertical of 150 feet, but how long or when it was in existence remains a mystery. It was at one time operated by the Bloomfield Ski Club in the 1940s. It had one trail and was located not far from the end of Valley View Drive.

"We don't even know what the name of the ski area was," Davis said. "Anyone with information about this ski area or any of the others listed or not listed on the site should contact us. We want information on these areas."

From the 1940s to the 1970s, many small slopes had rope tows. Rope tows were not expensive to maintain or even run. But competition from larger ski areas that had chair lifts and gondolas put many of these smaller ski areas out of business. In Massachusetts, Mount Tom in Holyoke and Brodie Mountain in New Ashford were bigger than any of the Connecticut ski resorts, yet they both closed.

"I hiked Mount Tom a few years ago," Davis said. "The chairlifts are gone, yet the lodge and pool are still there. The waterslides are still visible, but they are being overgrown with vegetation. A couple of winters where there was warm temperature and little snow caused it to go under."

Bad weather and competition are not the only reasons ski areas are closed; Mount Nebo in Manchester was demolished to make way for Interstate 384. Davis said that highway creation has destroyed several ski areas in New Hampshire, New York and in other states across the country.

It was the cost of rampant vandalism that made the town of Manchester permanently close the Northview Ski Slope in 1979. It was too costly for the town to constantly repair damage to the rope tow and adjacent buildings.

"There were many factors why many of these areas went out of business, Davis exclaimed. "First and foremost was a lack of snowmaking and challenging weather. In other cases, the land was more valuable to be built on with houses and even golf courses. In many cases, these were Mom & Pop operations and when the owners passed away, no one wanted to take it over."

Davis explains that the many closed ski areas were doomed due to changes in the culture. Social clubs that depended on a large number of volunteers ran many of them. With the creation of larger resorts, many of these volunteers eventually left. Many ski areas also relied on family vacations and outings to make a profit. According to Davis, despite the increasing popularity of snowboarding, both skiing and snowboarding are not as much community oriented as skiing was decades ago.

Connecticut still has four ski resorts open to the public, and a fifth one in Torrington is privately owned. Mount Southington, Ski Sundown, Mohawk Mountain and Woodbury are still persevering. The status of the now closed Powder Ridge is still up in the air as there is talk that the town of Middlefield may purchase it. Davis feels that there is a possibility that the area can still re-open again with some success. In regards to the other areas such as Sweetheart Mountain and the Simsbury Ski Hill, the outcome is not likely. To Davis, they're just reminders of a skiing era not too long ago.

If you have any information about any closed ski areas contact Jeremy Davis at nelsap@yahoo.com. Or visit the website at www.nelsap.org.