Marble Mountain

Marble Mountain was New York State's first attempt at a major ski area, on the north side of Whiteface Mountain near Wilmington, first called the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center. Planned in the 1930s beside the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway, it needed a state constitutional amendment, passed narrowly in 1941. War and material shortages delayed it, and a planned 9,000-foot chairlift gave way to surface lifts. A 3,300-foot Roebling T-bar was finished in October 1948, the first skiers came down on Christmas Day, and Governor Thomas Dewey attended the formal opening on February 19, 1949.¹

The site was its undoing. Prevailing winds over the isolated summit blew the snow away and scoured the trails, and the area lost money from the start. Its lodge burned in May 1951 and was rebuilt. In 1957 the state paid for a new ski area around the corner, today's Whiteface, dedicated in January 1958. Marble then handled overflow crowds on weekends and holidays and closed for good after the 1960 season; its lifts were taken down and sold.^1,2

The log lodge now houses the State University of New York's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, a hiking trail follows the old T-bar line, and Whiteface's ski patrol still uses a shed called Porcupine Lodge.¹

TodayThe lodge is the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center's base, and a public hiking trail follows the old T-bar line. (2015)¹