The Brattleboro Ski Hill has operated at what’s now the town’s Living Memorial Park since its founding in 1937. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger BRATTLEBORO — Upon its start in 1937, the community-run Brattleboro Ski Hill was known as the old Clark farm before locals renamed it Living Memorial Park and celebrated its can-do spirit by coining the slogan “The Little Ski Hill That Could.”Until, with climate change minimizing and melting snowfall, it couldn’t.“We’ve had some challenges,” volunteer Todd Fahey recently recalled along the barren base of one of seven remaining nonprofit downhill venues in a state that, according to historians, once had nearly 15 times as many.Enter the Stratton Mountain Resort some 30 miles west and, with $2 million in new snowmaking guns, light-years away. Stratton has loaned the Brattleboro hill both equipment and expertise, while nearby Mount Snow has offered ski instructors for beginner lessons.Together, the big guns are helping retain a small-town tradition.“So many small ski areas have closed in Vermont, New England and across the country,” said Fahey, a Brattleboro Memorial Hospital administrator when he’s not making snow or selling $5 single-day tickets in a world where resort prices average $250. “That this iconic place is still here, operated by volunteers with an access-for-all mindset, is pretty cool.”Skiing in this southeastern corner of the state dates back to the 1890s, when author Rudyard Kipling, writing “The Jungle Book” and “Captains Courageous” in a hideaway home in neighboring Dummerston, received a pair of downhill skis from friend Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the detective character Sherlock Holmes.Volunteers fire up snowmaking guns to cover the 230-foot-wide Brattleboro Ski Hill. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger Brattleboro Outing Club founder Fred Harris — a contemporary of the airplane-inventing Wright brothers — advanced the sport to dizzying heights in 1922 by building the town’s Harris Hill ski jump, the only Olympic-size venue in New England and one of six of its height in the nation.Fifteen years later, a group of local skiers knew many residents were reluctant to climb a peak 30 stories high and leap off at speeds of up to 60 mph. As winter approached in 1937, they decided to install a newfangled contraption called a “ski tow” on a gentler farm slope near the town’s Creamery covered bridgeTheir plan, featuring a 1,100-foot rope ascending on Model A Ford wheels affixed to poles, was one of the earliest such lifts in New England, coming after the 1934 debut of the nation’s first ski tow in Woodstock.“A 20-horsepower electric motor operating a one-inch, specially prepared, waterproofed rope will be capable of handling 20 persons at a time,” the Brattleboro Reformer reported at the time, “drawing them up the slope at a speed of over 10 miles an hour.”READ MORE Rudyard Kipling’s historic Vermont home aims to weather changing times by Kevin O'Connor October 20, 2024, 7:05 amOctober 20, 2024, 10:54 am A lack of snow delayed the opening until January 1938, when locals could ski for 35 cents. Operators added lights a year later and continued to welcome skiers until the town, purchasing the land in 1954 to create the current Living Memorial Park, replaced the rope tow with a T-bar lift.“At a time when the complexities and diversions of life have a tendency to separate families,” the Reformer editorialized at the time, “it is good to see one strong force at work bringing them together.” By 1995, however, a budget crunch forced the town to stop operating the ski tow, leading a grassroots group to form a nonprofit organization and reopen the lift in 1997.Organizers went on to secure aging water guns from the old nearby Maple Valley ski area in hopes of hiding occasional bald spots. But with Brattleboro receiving less and less snowfall, they recently reached out to Stratton, which has loaned them state-of-the-art equipment able to cover the 230-foot-wide slope.Children travel with skis, sleds and skates to Brattleboro’s Living Memorial Park in 1957. Photo courtesy Brattleboro Historical Society “For a hill like us, it’s a dream machine.” Fahey said.About 100 volunteers still face the challenge of pulling water from a shallow pond and electricity from a slim number of poles. But they’ve figured out how to make enough snow to sell about 5,000 tickets a year, all while fundraising for an annual operating budget of $90,000.The Brattleboro Ski Hill is one of a handful of nonprofit Vermont areas that also include Ascutney Outdoors in Brownsville, Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond, Hard’ack in St. Albans, the Lyndon Outing Club, Mad River Glen in Waitsfield and Northeast Slopes in Corinth.Brattleboro’s success benefits its supporting large resorts.“If we can get 10 kids into skiing, somebody’s going to matriculate and ski there someday,” Fahey said.It’s also a big win for locals.“It’s all about getting people out to ski, snowboard and enjoy the winter,” Fahey said. “We want to continue to provide easy access for everybody.”Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘The Little Ski Hill That Could’ needed snowmaking help. Enter the big guns..