First of a series of excerpts from Gerry Miller’s book “Crotched Mountain Ski Area in Francestown, New Hampshire,” a history/biography about the original Crotched Mountain Ski Area in Francestown, developed by William C. (Bill) MacAdam and syndicate. Miller grew up in Francestown. Much of the material for the book was from the Monadnock Ledger or Peterborough Transcript.

Once upon a time, in the little town of Francestown, New Hampshire, there was a ski area developed on the northeastern slope of Crotched Mountain. Unfortunately, due mostly to the nature of the elements and unrealized gains from investments by a multitude of owners, its life was short-lived. But for those of us who had the pleasure of growing up and honing our skills of skiing, it was in fact the embodiment of a true fairy tale.

Before there was a ski area, there was just a woods road almost to the top, where a Forest Service Fire Lookout Tower stood. It was very popular to climb up the mountain and then up the steps of the tower into the cabin on top to take in the view.

It was especially popular during blueberry season. My mother would have us pick enough so that she could make a pie and some muffins. She’d made this journey since she was young.

Gone are the Fire Lookout Tower and Warden’s cabin, replaced by communication towers and buildings. Gone are the ski lodge, ski school, and lifts. Only a portion of the lower T-bar remains. Trees are now reclaiming even the well-groomed trails.

As the story goes, Bill MacAdam, 1936 graduate of Syracuse University School of Forestry, who worked for the Great Northern Paper Co. and Oxford Paper Co., was first to recognize the mountain’s potential as a ski area. He was part of the crew that came to Francestown in 1939 to salvage lumber from the trees leveled by the Hurricane of 1938.

In the process of clearing the downed trees, Bill and friends imagined trails for skiing. At that time, skiing was recognized as an up and coming recreational business in New Hampshire. It would take another quarter of a century for that vision to be realized. Bill ended up moving to Francestown and became an integral part of the community, and a leader in building the ski area.

Bill’s daughter, Ethel MacAdams MacStubbs, shares a different take on the origins: “The story my family carried is, Ted Bixby, Tom Place and Dad skied up there on skins before any of us were born, and the thought of a ski area dawned. Tom said, ‘this would make a good ski area,’… and Brooks said his mother Pat always told it that way. My take is they were all there as young vigorous studs…. and the idea was born. The seed got planted. Dad grabbed onto the watering can.”

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I started skiing when I was seven years old, in 1959. I took lessons and practiced on the sloping land behind our house on King Hill Road, Francestown. Skiing down and climbing back up again, over and over. My brother, John, and I built a little wooden jump by making a box frame with boards covering the top and another set of boards for a ramp from the slope above to the box. It wasn’t very high, but it was high enough for us to fly through the air for about 10 feet, land and then quickly make a turn to avoid crashing into the trees.

Back then there were rope tows in Peterborough.

Whit’s Ski Tows was located on a steep slope that abutted the Peterborough Golf Course at the top and ran along the Contoocook River. There were three tows. Every Saturday there were free ski lessons at 10 o’clock, which is where I first started taking lessons. Ann Eneguess was my instructor and the director of the ski school then and her daughter Kathy was my age so we skied a lot together then, and again on the ski team when we reconnected once more in high school. Whit’s also had night skiing.

Peterborough’s Temple Mountain first opened in 1937, and closed for good in 2000, weathering the challenges of too little snow and the cost of doing business.

In the ’50s, all Crotched Mountain had to offer was the fire trail up to the summit. I remember climbing up it with my father and brother and skiing back down in one long schuss, turning only where the trail turned. What a rush that was to experience because it was only about 12 feet wide, just wide enough to drive a vehicle up it. When Crotched Mountain ski area was eventually developed, that old fire trail became a much wider trail initially called No. 1 and renamed later as Easy Street, a beginners slope.

Deb Stewart Adams recalls her early days of skiing:

“Before Crotched Mountain Ski Area ever existed, there was backyard skiing in Francestown. Many of us had parents who had skied around their fields in the 1930s and 40s. I still have old wooden skis my mother and my aunt used. My neighbor Jack Curren has some too. In the 1950s, we all skied in our yards. Bev Abbott skied in her back yard. The Varnum brothers skied with the Miller brothers on the Millers’ hill. In those times, a ski area with a lodge, lifts, and out-of-towners in our little hometown was beyond imagination.

How the book came to be

By GERRY MILLER

My family history in Francestown goes back six generations to Peter Woodbury, who built the Woodbury Homestead, the third building built in the town village. A home that is still a very impressive part of the makeup of the town center.

My grandmother was the last in the line of Woodburys to own it. My older brother was the last in line of the family to live there. I grew up in the house that my father built on two acres of what was once part of the pastureland beside the homestead, on the hill overlooking the town common and with a good view of Crotched Mountain.

I thought the two books that had been published about Francestown had been sorely lacking in their coverage of the history of what was a very vibrant part of my life growing up. The books I refer to are “Frances’ Town: a history of Francestown, New Hampshire” by John R. Schott, and the most-recent edition, “Francestown: Fifty Years of Growth and Change, 1970 - 2020” by Kevin Pobst.

I can’t say that I had planned to write a book about the original Crotched Mountain Ski Area in Francestown, and ultimately including Bennington, too. It just snowballed as I got together with more and more of the people that I knew who had some history with the area.

Initially, I started out with the thought of a short story for preservation in the historical society, or maybe even a chapter in the next history book to be written by someone about Francestown. Between my memories and everyone else that contributed their memories and memorabilia that we still possessed, it grew into the next book. It became a time capsule of Francestown and Crotched Mountain Ski Area.

It started at Vespers in the Old Meeting House the evening before Francestown Labor Day 2022. As part of the program that evening was a skit – Francestown history in 15 minutes. One of the sections was given by Ethel MacStubbs about the Crotched Mountain Ski Area. It was very fitting because she was the daughter of the man that spearheaded the creation of it.

After, outside the Old Meeting House on the lawn, I talked with Ethel. I lamented about my feelings towards the written histories and how I wondered how many in attendance that evening even had a clue about her bit about the ski area. Each year, there are more people I don’t recognize than I do. I offhandedly said that maybe I’d do a writeup and give it to the historical society. I’d already written some other short stories that I gave to them about other aspects of Francestown history.

So, I decided at that moment, “Why not?” That’s when Ethel told me that her older brother Bruce had just given her boxes of slides that their father had taken and told her to do something with them. She was sure that there were probably some of the ski area, and that I was welcome to go through them and use whatever I wanted.

Before Thanksgiving arrived, I sat down with her and rummaged through the boxes of slides and pulled out any that had a note written on it to do with Crotched Mountain. I walked away with 298 slides with no idea of what was on them. I digitized and enhanced them. I ended up using 40% of them in the book. Seeing all those pictures brought a flood of memories that gave rise to other aspects that I felt the need to write about.

Then, the town librarian gave me a resource link to articles that had been written in the Peterborough Transcript and Monadnock Ledger detailing almost a day-to-day developing news story and established the timeline for the life of the area. It was the business side of the story.

Then, I started to get together with some of my friends where we sat around a table going over pictures and memorabilia and telling stories that I recorded. I then took and fleshed out moments of interest that I wrote up and sent to them for correction of details, deletions or additional thoughts that became their stories. One contact would lead to another and another. More pictures. More memories. This became the section of the book that I view as the life of the area. The heart and soul.

Then, when I reconnected with John and Rose Perry, longtime (50 years) owners of the Inn at Crotched Mountain, they gave me almost a complete collection of yearly brochures. These completed the business side of the story with the promotional part.

As for my personal part of the story? I tried to bring to it the history of change that took place over the years with what we had for ski equipment and style.

It was never my intention, and still isn’t, to write this book and sell it commercially. It was, from the start, my intention to give a copy to the Francestown Bixby Memorial Library and to the Francestown Improvement and Historical Society as part of their museum collection. That way, anyone interested could sit down in that environment and not only take in what was included in the book, but everything else that would surround them.

It has been my pleasure to also collaborate with the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript to put an edited version of this story out to the greater populace, so that many others that once experienced the area could fondly remember a chapter in their history. Also, others who never experienced the area would learn about a time before that once was in their backyard and the joy that it brought to so many. I’ve no doubt, that skiers will understand.

Gerry Miller is the author of “Crotched Mountain Ski Area in Francestown, New Hampshire.”

Crotched Mountain timeline

Sept. 10, 1938: Hurricane levels over one billion board-feet of lumber in northern New England.

1939: While salvaging hurricane lumber on Crotched Mountain, Bill MacAdam and others see potential for a ski area in Bennington. 

1961: A committee representing six towns requests $500,000 of New Hampshire’s $10 million recreation development fund for a state-run winter sports area on the north peak of Crotched Mountain, Bennington.

1962: Proposal for state-run area on Crotched Mountain is rejected by state.

1962: Plans announced to develop ski resort on Crotched Mountain land formerly owned by the Hob & Nob Farm, Francestown.

1963: Clearing and construction continue.

1964: Jan. 1,  Crotched Mountain Ski Area, Francestown, opens with two trails, one lift. $4 all day.

1964 : First PSIA ski school director, Bill Coolidge. Lesson with lunch and all day ticket: $5.

1964/65 season: New lodge opens. 

1965/66 season: Ski Club established. 

1966: Efforts made to develop Bennington ski hill; title and money issues stop project.

1969: Ownership of Bennington area changes to Onset Corporation.

1969/70 season: Onset Ski Area, Bennington opens, named after beloved racehorse of Mr. Verro, one of the resort owners. 

1970: Crotched Mountain Development Corp., Francestown, is bankrupt.

1970: Crotched Mountain Ski Area and adjacent recreational/residential property in Francestown sold for $350,000 at bank foreclosure; changes hands again for $486,393. Tim Gannett takes over management.

1972: Crotched Mountain Ski Area adds two new trails, Scott’s Run race trail and Willette’s Run.

1974: Tim Gannett takes over ownership of Crotched Mountain, Francestown.

1975/76 season: Crotched Mountain and Onset issue reciprocal tickets. 

1977: Onset Ski Area, Bennington, sold at auction; renamed Bobcat. 

1978 : Bobcat sold at auction to investors, including Waterville Valley’s Tom Corcoran.

1979: Tim Gannett partners with others: Crotched Mountain East in Francestown and Crotched Mountain West in Bennington now operate as one resort.

1980/81 season: Two trails connect Crotched Mountain East and West ski areas.

1980 to 1990: Skiers flock to Francestown and Bennington ski areas.

October 1990: $7.6 million debt leads to bankruptcy. Crotched Mountain East in Francestown closes for good. U.S. Cellular purchases part of Crotched Mountain East and West from Town of Francestown at auction.

2000: U.S. Cellular donates most of Crotched East to Town of Francestown for conservation

March 27, 2001: Lodge at Crotched Mountain East is demolished.

2002: Terry Schnare and Donald Hardwick buy remaining portion of Crotched West from Town of Bennington, sign 50-year lease to Peak Resorts.

2003/2004 season: Peak Resorts reopens newly rebuilt Crotched Mountain in Bennington. The $10 million investment includes new lifts, trails, snowmaking and lodge.

2019: Vail Resorts acquires ownership of Crotched Mountain ski area and continues to operate it today.