Please note - this area is on private property - please respect the privacy of the owners and do not visit this lost area, thank you.

We have heard from the current owners of this area who are going to be sending us plenty of information and current photos of the area, so stay tuned for a much larger update.

Thanks to Laurie P, who first found the following information about the Summit Ski Tow:

I went to Holden, MA to do some ski research. While in the library browsing microfilm of the local paper I stumbled upon this ad (on left). The librarian told me there was a street in Jefferson called Summit Street and that a horse farm and riding school is now located there. She told me how to get there. I got kicked out of the library at 4:00 because it was closing (small town library). I went up the hill which was fairly steep to see if I could find any evidence of the ski area. I asked one of the workers at the farm, but she told me I would have to talk to the owner and he was not there.

NELSAP recently wrote to and heard back from James Nawn, the son of the former owner/operator of the Summit Ski Tow. Here is what Mr. Nawn had to share with NELSAP.

    "Yes, your letter does bring back my old memories of our Summit Ski Tow Area, a true family project. Our ski tow was in operation in the years 1945 through 1955. It was founded and constructed by my dad, William Nawn, Sr. and I at the time was a student at St. John's Prep and Georgetown University. My dad operated the Eagle Lake House, a New England Country Hotel and tavern in the Jefferson Village of Holden.
    Dad owned 140 acres of land in Jefferson that had been in the Nawn family for one hundred years. His mother, Ella Nawn, operated a famous New England hotel, called The Summit House. It had 65 rooms and was destroyed by fire in 1917. Was never rebuilt. This land was vacant for many years. The land was set up on a steep hill.
    In 1945, he and I decided to construct a ski area.We had a 1000 foot long ski run and installed a rope tow. It was operated by a power take off from a farm tractor rear wheel which we had on the property!
    We installed lights on the ski hill and tow for night skiing. It was popular. We also constructed a 100' x 40' ski lodge house. It had a large stone fireplace inside and the entire building was of field stone that came from our stone walls all over the land. The building had a flat roof. It was rustic and beautiful in Field Stone.
    We had a restaurant inside the building, bathrooms etc.
    In the early years the cost for an all day ski ticket was ONE DOLLAR! After a few years the price went up to $2.50.
    We were open every night of the week and days on Saturday and Sunday. We would average 50 to 70 people on nights, and on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6pm 200 people would ski. Of course we had to depend on snow storms, we had no snowmaking equipment. We had a ski instructor and we rented ski equipment also.
    My mom Grace and my two younger brothers Bill and Paul also helped out with the operation. In 1950 my mom and dad built our new home on this property. My dad passed away in 1963 and my mom sold the property in 1967 to a Parker family, that at the present time still own the house there.
    Our house is still on the property as well as the beautiful Field Stone building with the big stone fireplace. The people may have added a second story on the ski lodge's flat roof!"

Laurie also found out from the Holden Library that William Nawn was was aided by "Mitch" McLaughlin, an engineer at the Norton Company in Worcester. Mr. McLaughlin later became one of the original pioneers up at Snow Valley Ski Area in Vermont.

Here are some photos of the area courtesy of the Holden Library (thanks to Laurie for getting these).