Historical society members pinch hit on ski history talk
January 31, 2025 | By Gwenna Peters | Correspondent 
People arrive by train for ski carnival weekend in Waterbury, 1940. Photo courtesy Waterbury Historical Society
On January 21, 1938, the Waterbury Record newspaper announced a new tow rope opening on Perry Hill.
It was 1,000 feet long with a 225-foot drop and a 19-degree slope. The tow was equipped with the latest type of overhead ropes with individual hangers. According to a Jan. 26, 1938 Waterbury Record front-page story, fundraising for the project was to come from the third annual “Cabbage Patch” basketball game between WDEV staff members and players from local merchants.
The previous two such games had raised funds for the Red Cross. (As for the name, the newspaper story says that each team had one previous win and “the winner … becomes the sole possessor of the head of cabbage.” A subsequent account of the game in the paper’s Feb. 9, 1938 edition reported that the merchants team won.)
The new ski hill opened on January 22, 1938, with about 70 skiers. It was estimated that 100 skiers used it the following day. The standard fee was 50 cents per half-day for adults and 25 cents for students.
Just a year later in 1939, however, this ski area closed. A follow-up newspaper report stated: “There were so many boulders on the slope it was a menace to life and limb.”
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Skip Flanders and Cheryl Casey pinch hit on lost ski area talk. Photo by Gwenna Peters
So went one of the historical anecdotes shared Thursday night in the Steele Community Room at the municipal complex as part of Waterbury Winterfest.
Speaking of life and limb, the presentation was given based on notes from local ski historian Brian Lindner who unexpectedly could not attend as planned. A particularly ill-timed mishap left him with a fractured leg from a ski accident that very morning.
Knowing the talk would likely draw a crowd and not wanting to disappoint, Waterbury Historical Society members Skip Flanders and Cheryl Casey filled in using Lindner’s notes and slides and some artifacts from the society’s collection.
With about 40 people in attendance, audience members further assisted by sharing their own memories about the past ski areas in Waterbury. Among the tidbits of local ski lore discussed was the fact that at least seven ski areas existed in the past in and near Waterbury including:
Waterbury ski slide
Civilian Conservation Corps site
“Eight miles”
Waterbury ski tow
Pinnacle Park ski-land
Sunset Hill
Harwood Union High School
The Waterbury ski slide was created by the Waterbury Chamber of Commerce in Pilgrim Park in 1934, opening on Dec. 26, 1934.
In 1937, the Smith Camp near the Waterbury Dam built a ski jump that was 15 meters high. On February 6, 1937, a reporter for the Waterbury Record newspaper wrote about the first successful jump of the season with this description: “On my way to the mess I observed the new ski jump just south of the black officers quarters, I saw him drop down down down. He flew at great speed gracefully snow plowing and finished the landing upright with only a small mark from his tush in the snow.”
On Dec. 8, 1938, the Chamber of Commerce announced a new “stellar attraction” consisting of 8 miles of new ski trails. This was part of the Waterbury ski tow at the top of Perry Hill described in the first paragraph of this article. That area stayed open only one season because of the hazardous conditions.
1939 saw the ski scene in Waterbury move to Wissle Mountain and become Pinnacle Park ski-land. There was an ice skating rink, base lodge, and ski lessons. In 1940, there were ski trains to Waterbury and people in the community helped house the ski tourists for Carnival Weekend. There were 500-600 people who came to Waterbury on the train and could walk to the ski area.
The train was nicknamed “The Ski Meister,” Flanders recounted in an interview after the presentation. Boy Scouts would meet passengers to guide them to the homes where they would stay, he said.
The newspaper further reported: “City people can leave refreshed by the Vermont fresh air.” (see photo)
By 1942, World War II had changed the ski operations and Al Wingrove of Green Mountain Power shut off the electricity to the ski area as the bill had not been paid. The area became overgrown and dysfunctional.
In 1948 Waterbury found a new area at Sunset Hill with a tow rope being donated by Sepp Ruschp, a Stowe ski instructor. The new ski area was on Sunset Hill with the tow rope powered by an old Model A Ford engine moving skiers up and down the side of Blush Hill. By 1951, the area was plagued by vandalism and shut down. Interstate 89 now runs through this spot.
Harwood Union High School opened in 1966. English teacher Stu Campbell became the school’s ski instructor and a cross-country course was set up behind the high school. A 15-foot ski jump was active there until 1983. It was noted that in 1970, George Woodard donated an antique Ford engine to run a rope tow.
Many people in attendance at Thursday’s presentation recalled both the ski rope tow by the high school and the ski jump.
Waterbury was also home to Derby and Ball, a company that made skis in 1950. The shop was located near the current Waterbury recycling and transfer station. The Waterbury Historical Society’s collection contains some of the old skis and Casey and Flanders shared a broken ski in honor of their absent colleague Linder being treated for his broken leg.
The informative and light-hearted program concluded with the observation that while Waterbury never matured into being a ski destination of its own, it retains a rich ski culture and continues to be a recreation crossroads situated in close proximity to ski areas at Stowe, Sugarbush, Mad River Glenn, and Bolton Valley.
Attendees at Thursday’s presentation may have left with a few unanswered questions due to Lindner’s absence, but they wished him well on his road to recovery and return to the ski slopes and ski patrol.
Duxbury resident Gwenna Peters is a skier and contributor to the Waterbury Roundabout.