January 9, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Thorn Mountain's life short but sweet

by Jeff Leich/

George Burgess makes a point about the Thorn Mountain trail map to Ann Twaddle (right). (photo: Peter Besh; courtesy Dan and Nancy Grant)

George Burgess makes a point about the Thorn Mountain trail map to Ann Twaddle (right). (photo: Peter Besh; courtesy Dan and Nancy Grant)

Thorn Mountain in Jackson, N.H., is one of the most notable lost ski areas in New England, and perhaps one of the most forgotten as well. It was one of the first major areas to open after the hiatus of ski area development forced by World War II, it had what can be considered prime facilities for the time, it served as a training ground for many ski business people who had careers at other resorts, and, after an extraordinarily short tenure, it was one of the first areas to close.

The Thorn Mountain billboard just outside the village of Jackson claiming to be New England’s largest ski development may not have been strictly true — Cannon, Mansfield and Mad River Glen were larger in terms of vertical rise — but there is no disputing that Thorn was a major area.

Thorn Mountain aimed at status as a major ski resort from the day of its opening in the winter of 1949. The developer of the new area was Charles C. Plumb of Providence, owner of a road construction business. Thorn featured two single chairlifts, stacked to give a vertical rise of more than 1,000 feet, though probably not the 1,300 feet early ads claimed. Thorn thus became the earliest ski area in New England to open with two chairlifts, at a time when chairs were relatively rare.

The single chairs were remarkable in that they were manufactured by an individual, Walter Stadig of Soldier Pond, Maine, rather than a company. Stadig had built an earlier single chair on Michaud Hill in Soldier Pond on which riders were suspended only a few feet off the ground. Attached to each chair was a tow rope, so that a second skier could be towed behind each chair, essentially creating a chairlift/rope-tow hybrid. This system was repeated at Thorn Mountain, though because the terrain was so rough under the lift lines, the tow-rope option was not used.

Thorn possessed a comprehensive set of facilities — a base lodge, mid-mountain snack bar, summit warming hut, grooming vehicles — though none of them were large or prepossessing. The base lodge of Thorn Mountain had a branch of the Jack Frost Ski Shop. Thorn also advertised in its 1949 brochure that a day nursery was available in nearby Jackson Village at the Jack & Jill Playland, a very early mention of day care in connection with skiing.

On its staff were many people who would be significant at other resorts in the region in the years after Thorn closed. Olympic skier Paula Kann directed the ski school in the early years; she would soon marry Swiss ski racer Paul Valar and move to Franconia, where she and Paul spent their careers at Mittersill and Cannon.

Tenth Mountain Division veteran Dick May did publicity for Thorn Mountain and later moved on to be public relations director for Wildcat.

Mack Beal became a founder and director of Wildcat when that mountain was constructed shortly after Thorn closed.

Ray Abbott, ski patrol director and mountain manager at Thorn, served as mountain manager at Wildcat for many years.

Rink Earle, the first ski school director at Thorn, became the first publicity director at Wildcat, taught skiing in St. Christoph, Austria, and authored articles for ski magazines.

Dan Grant was ski school director at Wildcat in the 1960s, then operated Intervale in the early 1970s.

John McDonald, also of the 10th, taught at Cranmore for decades after his stint at Thorn.

By all accounts, the ski hill at Thorn was excellent — a mix of wooded trails below and open pastures on the upper mountain. One serious problem was that the visible ski terrain that confronted the skier arriving in the parking lot for the first time was all serious expert territory, while the gentler trails that bypassed those prominent slopes was hidden from view. The exact reasons for the area’s failure are unclear, but a lack of economic viability was certainly at the core.

Thorn Mountain surely had one of the shortest life spans of any New England ski area, for it closed about 1956. The location was an attractive one, however, just above the village of Jackson with its tradition as a skiing center stretching back to 1936, and in 1965 a second ski area, Tyrol, was constructed on the same mountain, higher up than Thorn had been, with an associated real estate development on the old slopes of Thorn.

Tyrol opened with a Mueller T-Bar with about 600 vertical feet — four days earlier than its neighboring competitor, Attitash — and in 1969 installed a double chair that extended from a point well below the base lodge to the summit, creating an area in which the base area was situated essentially in the middle of the vertical rise.

Tyrol was a small area with a loyal and fun-loving skier base drawn from the increasing community of second homes constructed in Jackson in this period. Plans for a 6,000-foot gondola linking Jackson village with the summit were mentioned by owner Murray Dearborn but were never followed up. Tyrol’s location on a mountaintop limited both the potential for a water supply for snowmaking and access on snowy days, when the road to the base area was often difficult. After several changes in ownership in the 1970s, Tyrol closed after the winter of 1981, and the ski slopes above the historic ski venue of Jackson began their slow, relentless transition to forest.

Jeff Leich is the executive director of the New England Ski Museum in Franconia, N.H.

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