Amherst-Bedford Ski Area
Bragdon
Farm
Amherst, Nh
1936-early 1970's
|
The Amherst/Bedford ski area
operated at the former Bragdon Farm in Amherst, NH from 1936 in the
early 1970's.
The Bragdon Family operated the area. Several nearby schools trained at
the hill, which also had night skiing.
The area was located on
Route 101 on the Amherst/Bedford border. Today, the area is growing in,
but still visible.
State
Senator Peter Bragdon's grandfather owned and operated this ski area,
and Peter provides us with the following detailed history of the area:
The Amherst-Bedford Ski Tow
operated from 1936 to the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, with the
exception of “the war years”, on Bragdon’s Hill on State Route 101 in
Amherst, NH.
The ski tow was started in 1936 by Amherst farmer Orson Bragdon, Sr.
The Bragdon farm consisted of several hundred acres of land, part of
which was a large hill in Amherst with fields at its base in Bedford,
informally known as Bragdon’s Hill.
As the story goes, the idea
for a ski hill at this location came from a relatively famous skier of
the day who either lived nearby or who had friends and family living
nearby. |
Above: An aerial
shot in 1998, showing the slopes nicely. These have grown up greatly in
7 years to the below picture, taken in 2005. |
|
This Google Earth Image of
the ski area in 2005 shows the above slopes have grown in tremendously.
Click on image for larger version. |
(Cont.)
In 1936 a used 1930 Ford Model A convertible was purchased for $25 from
Clark’s garage (itself a unique part of Amherst’s past) in Amherst
village. The car was driven up to the top of the hill (from the back
side of the hill, which was all fields and pastures) where the frame was
cut in half with a hacksaw - no fancy tools back then! The front half
was then bolted onto a frame made up of 6x6 timbers which was fastened
to chestnut posts driven into the ground. The remnants of the Model A
were connected to a pulley system that pulled a 1,200 foot loop of rope
up the hill.
A small shed was built at the bottom of the hill for the lower operator,
and the engine operator had a roof over his head by 1938. A larger shed
was built close to the highway for ticket sales and concessions.
Since the property was used as
farmland, the hill and field were relatively free of trees. However,
being in New England meant there were a lot of rocks to deal with. The
field at the base of the hill was free of rocks, as it had been used for
agriculture for decades. The hill, however, was used only as a pasture
for the dairy cows. The rocks on the hill were dug up by hand and then
rolled down the hill, where they were put onto a sled towed behind a
truck. On at least one occasion, the truck was disabled by an errant
rock rolling down the hill and hitting the battery. |
The operation was run by the entire
Bragdon family, including Orson and his wife, Helen, and their six children.
The work included running the engine, taking tickets, selling homemade snacks at
the snack shop built at the base of the hill, etc. At least one of the Bragdon
children met their future spouse while working at the ski tow.
It seems that the ski tow was a relatively safe operation. Mr. Bragdon’s oldest
son, Robert, could only recall one incident where somebody had to be taken to
the hospital. He drove his flatbed truck, with the injured girl riding in the
back, all the way to Manchester. She checked out okay at the hospital, probably
having suffered more from the ride to Manchester than from the fall itself.
Sometime in the 1940s or 1950s a new trail was cut to the right of the main
trail. A ski jump of sorts was then fashioned on that trail. It does not seem
that trail was operated very much, as trees had overtaken it by the 1970s.
In the late 1960s, thought was given to installing lights at the ski tow,
however the project never really got started and the ski tow shut down shortly
thereafter. The ski tow operator, Orson Bragdon, Jr. then went on to operate
the Twin Tows ski area in Milford until it closed. The ski hill was still used
for sledding for another ten-or-so years after the ski tow closed, and was even
frequented by hang gliders in the mid 1970s.
The hill is now owned by the town of Amherst as part of it’s Bragdon Farms
conservation area. Another, smaller hill on the property on the other side of
Route 101 is still used for sledding, but the original ski area is now
overgrown.
If anybody has a chance to take current pictures,
NELSAP would love to see them!
Many NELSAP readers remember this
area:
P. Van-Ham
contacted NELSAP with some more information:
"Yes, there was a lift operating there. I never skied it myself, but do
remember riding by with my parents and stopping to watch. I know for sure
that it was operating in 1971 and was used by the Derryfield High School
(Manchester; www.derryfield.com). I think it closed a couple years
after that and suspect that it opened in the mid sixties. There was a
central tow facing east on the north side of Rt 101 with a trail on either
side. This is all growing in now, but the wide open field at the base is
still there. My estimate is about 150 ft vertical.
Bill McKeller:
Bragdon's Hill was a slightly bigger hill several miles east of Amherst
on Rt. 101 at the Bedford town line. It had lights for night skiing. I remember
my brother Bruce and I taking ski lessons from Annie Middleton there in the
60's. During the early 70's I was on the Derryfield School Ski Team and we
trained there and also held some of our ski meets there, at night usually.
In 1974 a group of us known as the New England
Bushwackers learned to Hang Glide there. We flew there all year long since it
was a poor snow year. I recall that on Thanksgiving day in 1974 we had over 300
cars lined up on Rt. 101 watching 12 of us hike up and fly down. This was the
first hang gliding anyone had seen and the result was many illegal parking
tickets handed out by the state and local police after the motorists ignored the
police demands to not park there. Shortly after that dozens of No Parking signs
were erected and remained there for years. We used to fly there all night when
there was a full moon and an east wind.
Bill Keefe:
The easterly slope at
Bragdon's Farm in Amherst, New Hampshire is
still pretty visible. The Milford High School (MASH) ski team used that slope
for training races in the early 1970s. The tow was gone by then (or wasn't
operating). I can recall at least one training race there in 1971 or 1972. The
slope was still clear and had a good pitch. The main attraction for the ski
team, however, was the price, 0, and the hike up was good exercise.
David Bailey: I just discovered your web site and share a fascination
for the subject. It was located on the north side of Rte 101 facing east just
over the Bedford line in Amherst on property owned by the Bragdon Family who
were prominent farmers. Family members still live on the property. It was a
single rope tow and existed until the 70's (?) I believe. The slope can still be
seen even though it is overgrown with saplings as it remained clear for many
years. I don't know when it opened.
Jim Pasqualoni: If you are traveling east, the former ski area, which I
believe was run by the Amherst Town Recreation Department, sits to the left of
Rte. 101. The area can still be made out as a former ski hill, but it is no
longer cleared. There is a sledding hill just opposite the road, but this was
not the ski area operated by the town. I'm not sure of the dates involved, but
I believe that sometime during the late 60's or early 70's, the Amherst town ski
hill, along with the rope tow, was moved to a location on Brook Road, in the
Northern section of town. I believe there was just the single rope tow, and the
hill had a fairly steep grade.
Steve Biddle: I don't know too much about the area except that it
contained cows in the summer and skiers in the winter. I skied it only once when
the rope tow was operating, that must have been around 1968 or 1969. At the time
I was only about 8 and the place seemed huge to me.
Tomcatm:
As a kid I remember this area. It was on the right side of the road if you are
heading toward Amherst on route 101 west. It had a rope tow but I don't
remember it ever running. As kids, by brother and friends would climb the hill
and ski down. It was pretty steep. You can still see where the ski area was as
the trees aren't grown as tall on the slope. There is now a sliding hill across
the street.
If you have further information on this lost area, please
email us, thanks!
Last updated: Dec 17, 2006
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