Telling the story—early lift service in Stowe, Vermont.

Capturing a little piece of history.

Thanks everyone for following, reading and commenting on my posts! I hope to have the Sunrise on Top of Mansfield available soon.

In choosing which illustration to post this week, I realized that I missed a timely opportunity last week. Ooops! February 7, 1937 was the day that Mt. Mansfield in Stowe, Vermont first began lift service with a rope tow on the Toll House slope. In 2017, I was commissioned to design a poster and sticker that would be used to commemorate 80 years of lift service. So, it’s a week late, but this week I will feature Early Lift Service. And don’t forget, it’s all around us, #spreadbeauty!

The story behind the first lift.

Stowe has been connected to winter sports dating back to at least 1921, when forester and landowner Craig Burt helped to organize the first Winter Carnival aimed to boost the town’s economy during the winter months. About 12 years later the Bruce Trail was cut. This lead to the Ranch Camp and was the site of the first ski race at Mt Mansfield in February of 1934. Construction of the Barnes Trail (later known as Nose Dive trail) started soon after. Skiing in those days was rugged business. These trails had no lift access, your only option to access them was to ski or hike them.

A single ride on the rope tow was 10 cents. A full day ticket was a dollar, and a season’s pass was five dollars!

As noted previously, the first lift serviced skiing opened on the Toll House slope on February 7, 1937. Wesley Pope had originally set up this rope tow in Jeffersonville, Vermont, but the snow didn’t cooperate in that area and it was soon abandoned. In 1936 he was contacted by Burt to purchase the lift. In December of 1936 Pope and Burt began installing the 1,000 ft rope tow. The rope tow was powered by a 1927 Cadillac engine. A single ride on the rope tow was 10 cents. A full day ticket was a dollar, and a season’s pass was five dollars! Sepp Ruschp moved to Stowe the same winter the rope tow was installed. He and Burt would work together over the next few years to cut more trails, open a second rope tow and on Mt Mansfield and in 1940 open the first chair lift at Stowe. This chairlift was considered the longest and highest at that time…and the rest is history, as they say.

A little more about the illustration.

Shortly after the illustration was completed but before the commemorative event, I was contacted by the publisher of The Stowe Guide. They were asking to use the illustration for the cover of the Winter 2017/2018 magazine. They were doing a story about the 80th Anniversary of lift service. I was beyond excited to have my work featured! There was a small write up about me in addition to the story. I was not living in Vermont at the time and I had to enlist my Vermont friends and family to grab as many copies as they could when it came out.

After the great press from the cover and the poster, I knew that this would be one of the illustrations I would print for my own inventory. I removed the wording, resized and formatted and about a year later it was available as a print and greeting card. Both are still available today.

Get your prints (and greeting cards) HERE

I replenished my greeting card inventory this week, so if you are someone who enjoys writing notes and retro mailing them, check out my greeting cards. See you back here next week for another story or two.