USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 20
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The official opening of the Equinox Links Club was July 1, 1927. One of the opening events was an exhibition match between Jess Sweetser, the English Open champion, and Francis Ouimet. The
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annual contest for the Orvis Cup has been played at the Equinox Links Club since that club came into existence, and for some years the Vermont State Golf Tournament has been played on that course.
Unfortunately the costs of constructing the clubhouse and the course totaled far more than was anticipated. This was the begin- ning of the Equinox Company's steady financial decline. When A. Rea Ball bought the hotel property including the golf course from a group of Manchester citizens who had taken it over, the Ekwanok Country Club leased the Equinox Links for a term of five years with an option of renewal.
CHAPTER XXIV
Winter Business-White Gold
As to Gomorrah on the hill she never lights up winters. The rats play in the cellars, the foxes hunt mice in the streets and the snows of winter lie like a benediction over all. The whole outfit is like a bed of flowers cov- ered up with a white blanket, waiting for the frost to roll by.1
S UCH was Manchester in the days when no one dreamed of hidden wealth in snowfall and winter weather. As early as 1913, however, the town made a commercial use of its cold weather assets by the sponsorship of a carnival on the ice park near Dumont Clark's to earn money for new sidewalks. Fancy skating exhibitions, a catered outdoor luncheon, huge bonfires, and the Manchester Band were all part of this enterprise. Helen Perkins (Pearson) was chosen Manchester's first Snow Queen. This same location has remained a community skating rink intermittently through the years. In 1922 it was exceptionally well patronized when the Vermont Hydro-Electric Corporation installed free lights and a shelter was built.
Even in 1923 a courageous few skied at Downer's Glen and in 1931 a "Snowshoe and Ski Club" was organized at Manchester Center. The following winter, illuminated skating rinks were ad- vertised at the Depot behind the home of Alton Hicks and at the Center on the property of Harold D. Giddings.
The Board of Trade slowly awakened to the cold clear fact that
1. Vermont Advance, October 6, 1900.
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if local folk would pay to skate on somebody's flooded meadow, such a romantic amusement would surely appeal to city people. The town was asked to contribute to a fund to advertise Manchester by circulars, newspapers, and outdoor advertising. $3,000 was promptly subscribed. About this time, a small group met at the Manchester Inn with Mrs. George Orvis and Fred Pabst, Jr., to dis- cuss the possibilities of skiing in Manchester.
In September 1935 a temporary organization for the purpose of promoting winter sports was set up with Robert J. Orvis chairman. A federal project was in view which included the development of ski trails on Equinox Company land on the east slope of Mount Equinox. Mrs. Orvis, president of the company, had been author- ized to make any desirable leases necessary for the project to be accepted. The lease was negotiated at a nominal rental to the town for a ten-year period. At the 1935 town meeting it had been voted to sponsor the building of the trails as a W.P.A. project with the government paying seventy-nine per cent of the cost and the bal- ance being furnished by Manchester from other sources. $800 was to be expended by the Selectmen.
Spurred by this support, the Manchester Outing Club organized in October 1935 at the Court House. This live-wire outfit immedi- ately took charge of opening two ski trails near Deer Knoll on Mount Equinox; flooded the Equinox House tennis courts to make a sheltered skating rink; completed a bobsled run on the Barnum- ville Road; and investigated the possibilities of getting a snow train for Manchester. The club was quickly boosted by the Manchester Journal:
Perhaps the greatest direct benefit now in sight is that which will accrue to our young people in dividends of health. The cooperative spirit ex- hibited will also benefit all concerned. The experience of other places indicates that there will be a large influx of winter visitors which will benefit the hotels, boarding houses, and tradesmen. .. . Manchester hap- pens to have unusual natural facilities for winter sports much superior to many now popular winter resorts. . . 2
The first season was inaugurated January 18, 1936 with a field
2. Manchester Journal, January 9, 1936.
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day and bonfire at the area near Equinox Pond followed by a dance at the Burr and Burton Seminary gymnasium. Ski races were held on the lower slopes of Deer Knoll and skiers were warned- "Bravado is not skill. If your skis are out of control, fall by throwing yourself backward and sideways in a relaxed position."
Scholastic skiing competitions, snowshoe races, and a hockey game between Arlington High School and Burr and Burton Semi- nary were held on February 1. The following weekend brought four sled-dog races over an eleven-mile route as part of a series for the New England Championship Cup. Funds to bring the dogs here were collected from townspeople and tradesmen. Though the Man- chester Ministerial Association urged the town both publicly and privately to call off Sunday racing, the weekend developed into a gay and profitable affair. Special railroad fares, fancy skating exhi- bitions, and the presence of the Manchester Band and Governor Charles M. Smith all served to bring out a large crowd. Saturday evening, Ianni's eight-piece orchestra played for the Carnival Ball and G. S. Bennett was master of ceremonies.
It was an auspicious start for a community attempting to drag itself out of the winter doldrums. The Outing Club was renamed the "Manchester Winter Sports Club" and began preparing dur- ing the summer and fall of 1936 for the oncoming winter. It an- nounced plans for the opening of a well-constructed and patrolled ski run on Bromley Mountain in the National Forest. This trail, seven miles long, followed the Long Trail from its entrance on the Peru road at a 2,000-foot altitude to the summit of Bromley (3,260 feet), then dropping 800 feet to the south village of East Dorset where it met the highway and railroad near the foot of Little Mad Tom. This ski run was developed at the lower end near East Dorset by the club while the upper section was built as a W.P.A. project under Forester Ralph M. Hutchinson and foreman Walter H. Beebe. The trail was to be kept in condition and patrolled by C.C.C. men who would also render first-aid.
The club also planned to offer two ski tows, one on the east slope of Mount Aeolus, 2,500 feet long and 600 feet vertical descent, which was to be the third largest in the United States and the long- est open slope tow in the east. The other was to be within Man- chester town limits.
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The East Dorset tow, constructed by Fred Pabst and sponsored by the Winter Sports Club, was located one-half mile north of the railroad station on the left of U.S. Rte. 7 behind the James Beebe farm. Above it were four miles of trails to tie up the two abandoned quarries on Aeolus and to make possible a circuit over the moun- tains into Dorset Hollow.
A slope to be lighted evenings was established close to the fifth hole of the Equinox Links Club near the foot of Union Street in the Village.
Unfortunately, this was all the planning and work of some fifteen or twenty enthusiasts while the rest of Manchester watched with mild interest and not a little criticism. Some even thought the Win- ter Sports Club was out for its own profit. The Manchester Journal pleaded for the co-operation of the entire community :
Labor is needed, money is needed, and above all, intelligent interest. Without this help, the work of the committees cannot succeed. ... Where Manchester has not offered any financial help toward the build- ing of the ski tow (on Bromley) other towns have raised up to $2000 to induce the Ski Tow, Inc. to build tows within their limits. The manage- ment of the Manchester tow has been most generous and cooperative. It is up to the town to help make their venture a success.3
The Journal urged two ways to raise money-through club mem- berships or through donations. $500 was quickly pledged and one summer resident offered to match any sum raised among other summer residents. The enthusiasm became contagious. A tractor was contributed and people, armed with hoes, rakes, picks, shovels, and hatchets, volunteered for trail and slope clearing. The stores were urged to incorporate the winter sports theme in window dis- plays and townsfolk were called upon to offer low-cost comfortable rooms with plenty of hot water and good simple food to attract skiers.
Even the Mark Skinner Library offered a special section of read- ing material for winter sports enthusiasts. Ski lessons, and there were plenty of novices in those days, were printed in the Manchester Journal along with advice on snow conditions. Today even Man-
3. Manchester Journal, October 29, 1936.
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chester's youngest skiers know that "rain in the valley is often snow on the mountain." The New York Central Railroad finally agreed to run one snow train January 15, 1937 and more, if suc- cessful.
The club's bobsled run, 0.88 of a mile long and very fast, which had been constructed in 1935 from the old toll gate to Barnumville, was improved and bobsleds were available to rent. An indoor skat- ing rink, 170 by 45 feet, with a heated dressing room, was estab- lished at the Carsden Inn Garage belonging to the Equinox Com- pany. It was sponsored that first year by the Winter Sports Club. Everything appeared to be ready. Indeed, once the idea caught fire, the area became developed so quickly that it was soon recognized as one of the finest in the east. Manchester sat back and waited.
Alas! NO SNOW! Though Manchester was to grow accus- tomed to the unfortunate situation, it would never be accepted graciously. The community cooled its heels until the middle of March. Though snowfall was never sufficient to rate a snow train that year, special rates were offered from New York City and some 500 persons attended races with thirty-five competitors on the Bromley run.
It is remarkable that the Winter Sports Club had the courage to ask for a $2,000 appropriation from the town to further promote a permanent winter resort business which it felt would bring sub- stantial cash returns to nearly everybody in town. It was estimated that one snow train bearing 500 people into Manchester to spend an average sum of $10 each would leave a total of $5,000 in the com- munity. "Winter sports," the Club argued, "promise to be as per- manent an institution as golf and if Manchester can get this busi- ness ... it will relieve much of our business stagnation in the win- ter." The people, with hope in their hearts, voted for the appro- priation, 124-71.
In 1938 the Club reported how it had spent the money :
1. Supervision, construction, and maintenance of two new ski trails and a forest slalom on Mount Equinox and also the "Battenkill Ski Tow" with a 700-foot length and 200-foot vertical drop on the golf course.
2. Rebuilding and improvement of the Mount Aeolus tow and slope and the Bromley area including the setting up of signs and markers.
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3. Maintenance of a ski patrol and first-aid equipment.
4. Maintenance of club headquarters and the skating rink.
5. Written publicity and provision of a telephone-telegraph information service.
Also that winter, plans had been made tor a shuttle train to go back and forth to the slopes in East Dorset, and for three snow trains.
Again NO SNOW! Finally, on January 22, 1938 the first snow train with 116 passengers was welcomed at the Depot. For the first time, too, Ski Tows, Inc., opened its 850-foot rope tow on so-called Peru Mountain. The skating rink again opened at the Carsden Garage and $500 was voted by the town for its maintenance with the balance of its cost to be derived from fees to enter the rink. Though under the supervision of the Selectmen, Clifford B. Gra- ham was the manager for many years succeeded by Harry Mercier and Bryce Tuttle until 1950, when the town, which had always had a close vote and in 1940 had voted against the rink, again refused the appropriation. In the winter of 1947-1948 the rink was built on a foundation of twenty truckloads of sawdust. It was a real community undertaking that year because of an acute water shortage. The shortage not only delayed the opening, but forced the town to transport all the water needed to fill the rink. Despite the fact that the taxpayers seemed reluctant to favor the rink, it was exceedingly popular and offered an annual carnival on colored ice that drew large crowds. In 1952 the balance of the skating rink fund was used to build a sounding board at the bandstand at Manchester Center.
In April 1938 the Winter Sports Club estimated that approxi- mately $15,000 had been spent in the area during the previous winter. A meeting was called on June 23 to organize a Chamber of Commerce to further promote the town as a resort center.
In November 1938 the construction of a 2,200-foot rope tow by Ski Tows, Inc., was begun on the west side of Bromley meadows. This was the beginning of Fred Pabst's enormous Big Bromley de- velopment and the tow was unique in that it had a turn in the up- ski route. A new forest slalom was also begun 100 yards beyond where the Long Trail crosses routes 11-30. Bobsledding teams that year raced on Nichols' run in Dorset sponsored by the Manchester
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Rotary Club. The Winter Sports Club began to acquire such ski paraphernalia as stop watches and first-aid kits.
The holiday crowd over New Year's in 1939 was the biggest Man- chester had yet seen. Snow train service by then had become per- manent. On Saturday morning, two cars were set off on the Man- chester siding with forty-eight passengers aboard. Harry Starks provided heat with an improvised steam plant. The cars remained in town until Monday morning, when a southbound train picked them up.
In February came the second annual visit and races of the Ama- teur Ski Clubs of New York. Roland Palmedo, an official of the clubs and frequent Manchester visitor, became one of the area's best publicists. Other ski pioneers besides Palmedo and Pabst were Dave Parsons, Ralph Hutchinson, and John Perry. The latter formed a ski team at Burr and Burton Seminary.
During the summer of 1939 volunteers were called to help cut and clear a major ski trail on the upper eastern slope of Mount Aeolus in anticipation of a continuous run of 2,300 vertical feet from the summit. The golf course rope tow was removed by Ski Tows, Inc., as a financial failure, though floodlights were retained by the Winter Sports Club.
The Chamber of Commerce advertising committee which had been very active handling both summer and winter publicity made its first report in 1941. The following vote was passed by a narrow margin at town meeting:
That the Town of Manchester appropriate, by matching dollar for dol- lar, what sums of money may be actually raised by other means, to be devoted to the purpose set forth in article 14 (advertising and promoting Manchester as a resort), a sum not to exceed $1500, the monies to be ex- pended under direction of a committee composed of chairman of Select- men, Treasurer of the town of Manchester and one appointee of the Chamber of Commerce.
This vote was repeated in 1942 and was cut to $500 in 1943, probably because of the war. The question was ignored until 1947, when Manchester appropriated $3,000, the largest sum ever, and again in 1949, by a close vote. The appropriation was voted down in 1948, 1950, and 1951. In 1952, $1,000 was turned down and in 1957,
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$2,500. In 1953 the town did vote to spend $450 to reprint the Four Season folders. Finally, in 1958, $1,500 was again voted to be spent with any other money raised or contributed by the Chamber of Commerce for promoting the interests of Manchester. This was also voted by a narrow margin in 1959 and 1960.
The town attitude as expressed in these votes is indeed curious, considering that Manchester has changed its entire economic set- up for the better and acquired an international reputation as an American ski center through development of the winter business. During the ninety-four day season of 1959-1960 an estimated $1,650,000 was left in Manchester by winter tourists alone.4 In earlier years, the frustrated Chamber of Commerce repeatedly tried to arouse more support :
The winter business means much to every person in Manchester and in this area; in fact this has been called the million dollar business. This means that much interest and work has gone into the promotion of the facilities. ... No one ever dreamed that we had such hidden wealth in these surrounding hills until outsiders came in and developed it for us.
At one point, as the result of the appropriation being voted down, Walter Hard suggested that revenue could be raised if every Manchester adult paid $1 weekly for a year. This was to be called the "Walter Hard Club." At a special meeting of businessmen, over $2,000 was raised before they left the room.
The winter of 1941-1942 saw the birth of a junior ski program in Manchester under the instruction of Nat Niles and also the forma- tion of a ski patrol at the Snow Valley area. The Winter Sports Club supervised the Southern Vermont Downhill and Slalom cham- pionships and the Annual Father and Son Tournament of the U.S.E.A.S.A., both at Bromley. It also operated weekend bus serv- ice to the ski areas.
On January 7, 1943, with the best snowfall for such an early date since 1935, business really boomed! Every housewife in town who had a spare room prepared to go into business, as housing facilities were sorely needed. A booking service and ski information bureau was managed that year by Sally Litchfield, later to become first lady of skiing in Manchester as the wife of Fred Pabst.
4. Estimate reached by Fred Pabst from formula worked out in relation to lift re- ceipts at Big Bromley.
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In September 1946 the Chamber of Commerce reorganized and established headquarters at the Colburn House with one secretary employed all year round and a second employed during the winter by the ski areas to issue snow reports and information. By 1948 both Big Bromley and Snow Valley were on the schedule of the U.S.E.A.S.A. with six competitions for the winter. A pitiful lack of snow for the 1953-1954 season brought cloud-seeding operations called "Project Snow" to the area by a nonprofit local corporation that kept the cloud seeder and his equipment on hand.
The Chamber of Commerce has sponsored an annual Winter Carnival since 1959.
§ Snow Valley
THIS ski area five miles east of Manchester with a top elevation of 2,800 feet is the result of an 800-acre development that began in October 1941. Work was done by a twenty-man force on the north slope just off route 30 at the top of Bondville Hill. The site had been purchased from the International Paper Company by Paul Kollsman, inventor and aviation executive of Greenwich, Connecti- cut. He became president of Snow Valley, Inc., with the work di- rected by his nephews, Dolf and Walter Rath.
The backbone of Snow Valley was to be a 2,500-foot alpine lift designed by Constam, whose famous Swiss installations were dupli- cated all over the world. Snow Valley opened in late January 1942 with 800 people in attendance. The lift began operating in March. John Ortlieb was the first agent, and Otto Lang, an Austrian who had attended the Hannes Schneider Ski School, directed the Otto Lang Ski School which served both Snow Valley and Bromley.
Because of gas and oil shortages, sleighs were used in the winter of 1943 for transportation to the Valley. Recognizing the lack of sufficient lodgings to accommodate skiers, Snow Valley, Inc., leased the Worthy Inn at Manchester Village, later purchasing it in May 1948. Fred Iselin was director of the children's free ski school which held competitions at Snow Valley in 1944 between the Vil- lage and the Center schools. Sig Buchmayr has also been in charge of the ski school.
Among championship races run at Snow Valley have been the
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Junior Four-Way Meet and the Invitation (Open) Team Race for men and women. The area now has one rope tow, one Poma lift, one T-Bar lift, seven trails, and four open slopes which are owned and operated by Fred Colclough.
§ Big Bromley
THIS colorful ski resort is seven miles east of Manchester on route 11; top elevation, 3,260 feet, and bottom elevation, 1,860 feet. A total winter's snowfall amounting to ten feet at higher elevations and immaculately cleared slopes and trails provide the best of ski conditions from Christmas to April.
Fred Pabst, son of a Milwaukee brewer, and his wife, Sally Litch- field Pabst, are responsible for turning Bromley into one of the out- standing American ski areas. A graduate of the University of Wis- consin, Pabst was one of the organizers of the Badger Ski Club, which took part in the first collegiate ski event in the United States. Following graduate work at Harvard Business School, he spent ten years in the family business as an executive vice-president. It was after attending Hannes Schneider's Austrian ski school that he es- tablished Canada's first permanent rope tow in 1935 at St. Sauveur in the Laurentians. Each year he added other tows-in Intervale and Plymouth, New Hampshire; East Dorset, Vermont; Lake George, New York; and Wausau, Wisconsin-until the problem of absentee ownership and promotion made him decide on Manches- ter, Vermont, for permanent operation.
His mile-long tramway, a J-Bar lift 2,800 feet long with a rise of 690 feet at the Big Bromley area, opened in December 1942 as the lower of two lifts designed to provide a continuous mile-long trip to the peak. Both tramways were planned to serve seven trails, four open slopes, and two forest slaloms. A rope tow serviced the Little Bromley slope. By 1960, the area had increased to eight trails, seven major slopes, six J-Bar lifts, one Poma lift, and a 5,750-foot electri- cally-powered chair lift with double seats running express to the top of Bromley Mountain all year round.
The area employs a work force of some 100 people, has a trained ski patrol and high calibre ski school staff, and boasts a restaurant, ski shop, and nursery. In 1949 weekend buses to the ski area from
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Boston and New York City were arranged by Pabst with the Grey- hound and Vermont Transit lines.
A junior ski program for Manchester school children was started by Sally Pabst in 1952 and is now sponsored by the Bromley Ski Club. Among the races held at Bromley have been the Pre-Season Junior Giant Slalom, the U.S.E.A.S.A. Veterans Downhill, Slalom, and Combined, and the Open Giant Slalom. The latter is the an- nual Louise Orvis Trophy Race first held in 1948 in honor of Mrs. George Orvis, who was first to foresee the possibilities of winter sports in Manchester. The large trophy, donated by John Ortlieb and Fred Pabst, is inscribed and remains in Manchester, while a smaller replica is awarded to the winners.
Spectacular Washington's Birthday celebrations were held sev- eral years at Bromley featuring a snow queen, fireworks, and a torchlight slalom.
Ski Tows, Inc., the Pabst pioneer development, together with world-famous Big Bromley, have given Manchester over a twenty- five year period a new lease on life. Walter Hard has said:
Only the wilfully blind fail to see the economic blessings which this de- velopment of a natural resource-snow-formerly considered for the most part as a costly nuisance, has brought to the region.5
Another Manchester man put it this way:
I am not the same fellow I was fourteen years ago. Then I was what you would call the worst of its type. Today I think I am a good citizen and I know there were lots of people on the rocks the same time I was. Thanks to you, Fred Pabst, and all the others, for what you have done for us.6
5. Manchester Journal, March 3, 1960. Letter to the Editor.
6. Manchester Journal, March 1948. Letter to the Editor.
CHAPTER XXV
Cultural, Fraternal, and Social Organizations
SKINNER POST NO. 24, DEPARTMENT OF VERMONT, GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC Chartered May 9, 1873; organized July 16, 1879 by Manchester Civil War veterans; post named in honor of Lt. Richard Skinner (son of Mark Skinner of Chicago, grandson of Governor Richard Skinner), mortally wounded in the Petersburg Battle; David K. Simonds, first commander; its auxiliary, the WOMEN'S RELIEF CORPS, organized 1886; Mrs. J. C. Black- mer, first president; responsible for placing monument "To Our Union Soldiers" in Factory Point Cemetery, 1900.
LT. J. C. BLACKMER CAMP NO. 60, SONS OF VETERANS Organized December 1889 to carry on spirit and efforts of the rapidly declining G.A.R .; A. J. Davis, first commander; began as a state organization in 1886; group still active in 1926, but soon dis- banded and gave up charter; the AUXILIARY TO THE SONS OF VETERANS organized 1907; Miss Nina Marsh, first president.
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