Lost ski areaMassachusettsTaconic MountainsNortheast
Jug End
Ran 1934–1983. The ski slopes of the Jug End Barn resort in South Egremont, skied from the mid-1930s until the resort's bankruptcy and closing in 1983.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Jug End stood in South Egremont, in the far southwest corner of Massachusetts. Hugh Smiley built a large barn there in 1928, and the Guilder Hollow Club opened a ski run for guests in the 1934–35 winter.1,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe land is Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Management Area, 1,191 acres run by the state, with a loop trail and part of the Appalachian Trail.2
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Jug End, 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 Jug End
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1935–1964 · 12.6 mi away · MassachusettsA state forest ski area above South Lee, cut by the CCC for snow trains in 1935, that ran with rope tows on and off until the 1960s.
- Opened 1948 · 18.5 mi away · MassachusettsA small ski hill with a double chairlift at the Eastover resort in Lenox, run from the late 1940s into at least the mid-1990s.
- 1936–2020 · 28.3 mi away · MassachusettsThe Springfield Ski Club's ski area in Blandford, run by the club from 1936 to 2017 and by Ski Butternut's owners until it closed in 2020.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Jug End stood in South Egremont, in the far southwest corner of Massachusetts. Hugh Smiley built a large barn there in 1928, and the Guilder Hollow Club opened a ski run for guests in the 1934–35 winter. Robert Lexow bought the property in 1939, and the Jug End Barn resort kept going through the war. Its first rope tow went in for 1947–48, a snowmaking system, among New England's first, in 1957, and a Mueller T-bar for 1961–62. The hill grew to six trails on 350 feet of vertical.1,3
Dick MacDonald became president in 1957, and the MacDonalds sold the business to Joseph and Kendra Bruno in 1976. Debt mounted through the mid-1970s; the pool closed in 1979, the tennis courts in 1980, and the resort stayed shut for the 1981–82 winter. It filed for Chapter 11 in August 1983 and closed for good. The state took over the land in 1994.1,2
TodayThe land is Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Management Area, 1,191 acres run by the state, with a loop trail and part of the Appalachian Trail.2
Timeline
- 1928Hugh Smiley builds the barn that gives the resort its name1
- 1934The Guilder Hollow Club opens a ski run for 1934–351
- 1939Robert Lexow buys the property1
- 1947First rope tow installed for the 1947–48 season1,3
- 1957Snowmaking added, one of New England's first systems1
- 1961A Mueller T-bar is installed for 1961–621,3
- 1983Chapter 11 filing in August; the resort closes for good1,2
- 1994The state acquires the property2
Sources for this history (3)
- 1New England Ski History · Jug End History
- 2Wikipedia · Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Management Area
- 3New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Jug End Barn
Photos
No photographs of Jug End 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 Jug End, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.1478° N · 73.4513° W · Massachusetts · Taconic Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1934–1983
Closed after the 1983 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain