Lost ski areaNew HampshireNortheast
Copple Crown
A small T-bar ski area on Copple Crown Mountain in Wolfeboro, opened for the 1965–66 winter beside a housing development and closed in the 1970s.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Skiing on Copple Crown Mountain goes back at least to the winter of 1939–40, when a downhill trail or slope was cut there. A company, Copplecrown Resort, Inc., was formed in July 1963 and soon advertised a ski area.1
Read the whole historyTodayThe housing association uses the old base facilities, and the T-bar still stands among the overgrown ski slopes.1
Timeline
6 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Copple Crown, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Copple Crown
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Opened 1961 · 2.3 mi away · New HampshireA family ski area in Brookfield with a double chairlift and T-bars that opened on the last day of 1961 and closed in the late 1980s.
- Closed 1984 · 17.9 mi away · New HampshireA hotel ski area at Weirs Beach on Lake Winnipesaukee, with a double chairlift and night skiing, that ran into the early 1980s.
- Closed 1992 · 19.1 mi away · New HampshireA small family T-bar area in Moultonborough with a 370-foot drop, open to the public from about 1970 until 1992.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Skiing on Copple Crown Mountain goes back at least to the winter of 1939–40, when a downhill trail or slope was cut there. A company, Copplecrown Resort, Inc., was formed in July 1963 and soon advertised a ski area. Clearing was under way in March 1964 for a planned 1964–65 opening, but the state suspended the company's filing in January 1965.1
The area finally opened for the 1965–66 season with a Buhler T-bar rising 500 vertical feet and a rope tow, run by M. Lee Shibles of Ogunquit, Maine. NELSAP, which dates the start to 1966, counts seven trails and slopes, night skiing and two rope tow learning areas beside the T-bar, on a drop of 400 to 500 feet. An upper mountain area was planned. Town & Country Homes of Reading, Massachusetts, bought the development in January 1973, and NELSAP says the slopes mostly served the homeowners and their guests.1,2
No source gives a last season. New England Ski History says operations likely turned sporadic after 1973 and may have ended in the mid-1970s; NELSAP gives both the mid and the late 1970s, and blames poor weather and high insurance rates. In the late 1980s an 18-hole golf course, Perry Hollow Golf and Country Club, was built on the mountain.1,2
TodayThe housing association uses the old base facilities, and the T-bar still stands among the overgrown ski slopes.1
Timeline
- 1939A downhill ski trail or slope exists on the mountain by 1939–401
- 1963Copplecrown Resort, Inc. is formed in July and advertises a ski area1
- 1964Trails are being cleared in March for a hoped-for 1964–65 opening1
- 1965Opens for the 1965–66 season with a Buhler T-bar and a rope tow1
- 1973Town & Country Homes buys the development in January1
- c. 1980Perry Hollow golf course is built on the former ski mountain2
Sources for this history (2)
- 1New England Ski History · Copple Crown Ski Area History
- 2New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Copple Crown
Photos
No photographs of Copple Crown we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Copple Crown, in their own words.
Facts
Location
43.5387° N · 71.1252° W · New Hampshire
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1965 · the year it closed is not yet collected
Closed for good; the year it closed is not yet collected. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain