April 2, 2008 History and legacy of Vermont's lost ski areas Play video

(NECN: Castleton, Vermont) - Buried in the mountains of New England are traces of the past -- relics of the ski industry at a much different time. At one point, there were hundreds of small resorts across the region, many more than there are now. And they are all being inventoried by an organization -- whose mission is to preserve the history and legacy of these so-called "lost ski areas."

NECN's Anya Huneke visits one such area in Vermont.

Script:

Bill Jenkins: "I'd gone by this for years, and I thought ah - I'll see if I can buy it and do it."

A half a century ago, Bill Jenkins hatched a plan. He wanted to build a ski hill in his town, so that people in Castleton, Vermont, would have a place to go in the winter. In those days, small ski areas were like, say, McDonald's restaurants are today...

Bill: "Almost every little town had one or two rope tows."

In 1958, he founded Birdseye Mountain Resort - which opened with one rope tow and one stable disc lift -- that Jenkins himself developed.

Don Sevigny: "So you put that between your legs, and sit on it and ride up."

For almost ten years, the ski area thrived. On weekends, the parking lot was packed. Parents brought their kids to enjoy an inexpensive, convenient activity. Lift tickets sold for just a few dollars, and ski apparel consisted of - well, street clothes.

Bill: "Back then, everybody wore jeans and got sopping wet."

Even though it was a tiny

Bill: "Of course, everybody thought we were nuts. In Vermont, where it always snows - and we were making snow -- it just didn't make sense."

In the late 60s, though, Birdseye shut down. Chairlifts were becoming more mainstream, skiing was becoming a fancier, costlier sport...and many small resorts couldn't afford to stay current.

Bill: "No-one wanted us to shut it down, but it just wasn't practical from an economic standpoint."

Jenkins, who is now 83 - and former Birdseye employee Don Sevigny - still visit the property from time to time. There are many remnants here of the once vibrant operation -- lifts, lights, and trails.

This is one of more than 100 ski areas in Vermont that has closed. There are many more like it throughout the region.

Jeremey Davis, founder, Nelsap, "today in New England, we have about 85 areas that are open, give or take...and about 600 that have closed. So, a huge percentage of the areas that were once open are no longer in operation."

Driven by curiosity and fascination, Jeremy Davis founded NELSAP, or the New England Lost Ski Areas Project, nine years ago. Through research, contacts, trips, and hits on his website, he's collected information on hundreds of defunct resorts.

Jeremy: "We've found just about every one, but every once in a while someone lets us know about an area we didn't know about."

Though only 30 years old, Davis has become an expert on an era well before his time…when recreational skiing was new and exciting, affordable and hard work.

Jeremy: "It's just really fascinating to see how the history of skiing has changed."

Bill: "In those days, we were tough!"

Bill Jenkins believes the evolution of skiing was inevitable...he laments some changes, but welcomes others.

Jenkins still skis at other resorts, of course...but when he craves a taste of the past, he visits Birdseye, where a decade of his life is frozen in time.

For more information about NELSAP please visit: www.nelsap.org.