Lewisboro Tow

History

Thanks to John Fry, we now know of this area that operated in Lewisboro. Here are his details:

A ski area, funded by the local Lions or Kiwanis club, existed in the Town of Lewisboro recreation park in northern Westchester County in the late 1960s. The stone building on top, housing the rope tow pulley and engine, still exist on the edge of the Pound Ridge Reservation, a popular place today for cross country skiing when there's sufficient snow. There rarely is any more, which is why the ski area could not survive. The two wide trails that took skiers down from the top (I would guess about a 150-200-foot drop) are still there and not overgrown. Occasionally sledders use them in winter. I walk them occasionally with my dog.

The rec park is off Route 35 about a mile east of Cross River, NY, and six or seven miles west of Ridgefield, Connecticut. The hill and the cinderblock building are reached by an easy climb up from the parking lot

A view of the area today.
As you can see, the area is quite overgrown.

A map of the town park, showing the old ski tow at the bottom left. Map is from the Lewisboro town homepage, submitted by Fred. Visit it here.

Fred Jacobson has more information: It is in the existing town park, the base of the old hill is still used today by may sledders, tubers, boarders, every time there is snow. It actually gets quite crowded.

I am 39 and I grew up learning to ski at the Lewisboro rope tow. I had to be 10-12 because I could easily do the ropetow there which was quite primitive. There was no clutch mechanism to make it easy to get on. First you picked the rope up off the ground where it was burning through the snow track, then, You had to let the rope burn through your leather mittens and then slowly squeeze as you started moving. It was very unforgiving.

There was no lift ticket, you had to give the rope attendant at the bottom a dollar each time you wanted to go up. If you fell off (very common) you were screwed and had to hike up or down the rest of the way. It did not stop for you. It was great fun and alot of kids around here learned to ski there. The next big step up in skiing was another half hour north to "BIG Birch", now "Thunder Ridge".

I still use the trail for snowboarding during the winter. I actually learned to snowboard there about 7 years ago by hiking to the top and boarding down. It is a nice trail for the locals. I take my daughter there often when we are lucky enough to have a bit of snow.

Dave Argueso has more information: The last year the tow ran was about 1980, it shut down due high cost to run the tow which was being paid by the Lewisboro Recreation department, no charge to use the tow.

The facts about it, the rope tow was about a 1000 ft in length, both trails were beginner until it exited the woods, where there is a steep face for expert that drop about 50 ft. at pitch of 25 degrees and ski across the infield and back to the tow. Or you could use the crossover trail and return to the tow higher up. The tow itself was modern for its time, it had metal lift towers all the way to the top. I think just before I was old enough to remember, they may have upgraded the tow in the late 70's, which might explain the towers. To this day, the towers still stand, but the rope was removed by the town. It has a northern exposure, so when it did snow it stayed there until it melted or was skied off. It is too bad they never utilized the pond close by for a primitive snowmaking system, because it would have been used more often. Instead they opted for improvements the baseball facilities and installed irrigation systems it.

Sledding was very popular there, people would hike half way up the steep face and use the whole baseball field as their run-out. It was extremely fun, when the baseball field iced up and you could sail all the way across the field at a good rate of speed, but you to had hop off your sled or tube before you ending up in the swamp bordering the perimeter of the outfield. In 1986, the town built a dugout into the hillside and installed fencing preventing anymore sledding or skiing down onto the field after improvement to field were done. There were rumors during the mid-80's to reopen it, but the Rec. department realized the only feasible way for it to work, was to charge a fee to use the tow and the it was immediately dismissed and never considered again.

Lift tower photo: is looking down the towline towards the base terminal, erosion caused by runoff from the new homes built about 50 yards has wiped out the lower portion of the line, this is one of two tower still standing. The tower mounted and bolted to concrete bases, which have broken down over time. The photo was taken about a 1/3 of the way up the towline, many people used to access the tow when the snow melted further down the line.

Runout slope photo: I marked where the trails exited onto the open slope to return to the base terminal. Today a parking lot was built on the runout just in front of the woods. As you can tell the pitch was fairly descent heading back to the tow, most had to traverse or ski onto the baseball field and then pole there way over to the tow. Just after the tow closed in the mid 80's, the fencing and the dugouts were constructed, wiping out any possible reopening of the tow.