In the 1950s and 1960s, a ton of little ski areas opened through New England: Any farmer with a big slanted field would haul an old Ford engine to the top and make a rope tow, trying to get a few bucks in the winter. Virtually all of them shut down in the 1970s because of insurance costs and skiers’ expectation of snowmaking, which was too expensive.
I’ve long enjoyed researching and writing about these small, long-gone ski areas. I’m not alone: The New England Lost Ski Area Project, a citizen-history website, has been compiling memories about these areas for two decades. At the moment it has 172 of them listed from New Hampshire, which is amazing. (The site is at NELSAP.org)
This weekend I had a story about some areas in and around Concord, N.H. You can read it here: https://www.concordmonitor.com/skiing-history-nh-concord-nh-21218147
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