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Mt. Abram Ski Slopes By Donald Cross
In 1958, Stuart, Norton and Donald Cross were
operating a logging business called Cross Brothers. That winter we were cutting on Mt. Abram’s northwest
side where we owned two hundred acres. At noon we
would gather in a trailer for a warm lunch. There were discussions on
different financial adventures.
Ronald Snyder, one of our loggers, suggested
taking trees off a mountain and making a ski slope. The next day we had so much snow we had to
snowshoe up across a big part of Mt. Abram in order to
get to work.
That noon Norton said, “Why wouldn’t
that (Mt. Abram) make a good ski slope?” There
was much discussion between the brothers.
We had to contact people who owned parcels needed to make the package
complete.
Robert Cole was one of the big landowners - Doc
Ames another. They were both eager to see us get started. Right away we
bought parcels from Cole and Ames. This was
enough for parking and a few slopes.
One night Addison Saunders and Mike Thurston came
to Stuart’s house and wanted to know if they could buy a portion of land
Cross Bros. owned at Sunday River. They planned for a ski area. Stuart told them, “No; we were planning
a ski area ourselves.” They were
disappointed and left.
A few days later the same two came back and said,
“Why not have two ski areas in Bethel?” The three
brothers did a lot of thinking about this. We felt that we would be doing a
good deed for the town of Bethel if we agreed to help. We
actually owned 400 acres where most of the (Sunday River) slopes are
concentrated; at the same time they only wanted around 50 acres.
We agreed and took some stock and season passes
for our three families. Yes, we were
all skiers. We lived beside the ski slope on Vernon Street. We had used that hill before 1943,when we all went into World War
II, made jumps there, etc., so we all liked to ski.
Stuart, Norton and Donald were the ones to form Mt. Abram Ski
Slopes. At this time, Cross Bros.
owned 10,000 acres and, if we were going to start a ski area, we still
planned to log and keep both businesses going.
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Sunday River Ski Area by Mike Thurston
Since skiing in Bethel has affected so many lives,
economically, financially, physically and romantically I think someone should
write the history before it is all forgotten. Since this all started a long
time ago many things and names will be forgotten. But here goes.
In
the late forties about ten of us thought it would be nice to have a rope tow
in town I volunteered to oversee it. Not knowing where to start, I went over
to Cannon Mt. In Franconia, NH and made a few
sketches. None of us had any money to spare so we signed a note for $1000
with each ones liability limited to $150. We picked out a hill on Vernon St. and made
arrangements with the owner to use it if we would repair the fence in the
spring. It was all cleared with volunteer labor and Addison Saunders used his
bulldozer to do a little rough grading. We also built a small warming hut.
The daily and nightly fee was 50 cents so it was a break even operation but
in fact I think Howard Cole, the last volunteer president, had to pay a
dollar or so to close the books.
Then
at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, I think around 1958, we were discussing the
economy in Bethel and decided
the winter was pretty quiet. Those of us who had been at Cannon Mt. and Stowe, Vt. had seen how
active they were in winter. We dreamed a few months and finally Paul Kailey,
ski coach at Gould and a competitor at Middlebury College, mentioned
that Barker Mt. might have
possibilities.
Ten
of us on snowshoes hiked from where the Sunday River Inn (is in 2007) to look
over the slope Paul suggested which was the steep slope facing Steve Wight’s
place. We finally realized that we needed professional help and I happened to
know Sel Hannah who was in the business of designing ski areas. He agreed to
help us but his fee was $50. Per day - a real bargain though since he would
drive over from Franconia and be at my
house at 7:00 AM and cruise the
mountain till 5:00.
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Sunday River officers in 1960
President: Addison C. Saunders
Vice President: Murray W. Thurston
Clerk: Henry H. Hastings
Treasurer: Wilbur R. Myers
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He
immediately told us the face toward Steve Wight’s was too steep. He thought
the area where the first lift should go was where the South Ridge now
stands. We had previously avoided that
area since we would have to build a half mile of road.
. Click to continue
reading.
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