Tom's Tow
Highmount, NY
Year's Operational Unknown

Thanks to Woody Bousquet, we now know about this lost area in Highmount. Below is more information from Woody and images of this area. All images (except the aerial view are courtesy of Woody). Click on most images for their larger version.

Tom's Tow ski area was built and run by Benjamin T. (Tom) McCanna. I bought three old ski patches (2 Belleayre, 1 Simpson's) from Tom on eBay earlier this year. We've been in touch a few times since. The Catskill ski brochure he photocopied for me (see right) indicates that his J-Bar lift was 1000 feet long. Unlike today where every detail of a ski area is planned to the nth degree, Tom ordered his J-Bar cable factory-spliced in one big loop. He stretched it out from the top terminal to figure out where the bottom would go. Tom also told me that he made his J-Bars himself by bending water pipes he'd bought from Montgomery Ward's.

Aerial view of the area just below Belleayre, 1993. Much of the slope had grown in by then.
Drive of the J-bar, Fall, 2010.

View of the liftline (see foundation). Fall, 2010.
Snow packer, Fall, 2010.

If you have more information on this area just let us know.

Last updated: March 10, 2011

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