Lost ski areaMassachusettsNortheast
Pheasant Run
A small ski area on Sheldon Hill in Leominster that grew from two rope tows around 1940 to two T-bars, and had probably closed by 1980.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Skiing on Sheldon Hill, about a mile west of central Leominster, goes back to around 1940, when a Massachusetts winter sports brochure listed two rope tows there. In 1941 the upper tow ran 709 feet and the lower 496 feet, and in the early 1940s the hill was among the first ski areas to offer night skiing.1
Read the whole historyTodayA housing development covers the hill, with grown-in trails behind the houses.1
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Pheasant Run, 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 Pheasant Run
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 12.4 mi away · MassachusettsA very small ski area beside a hotel off Route 117 in Boxborough, with 130 feet of vertical, that ran from the 1970s into the late 1980s.
- Closed 1984 · 13.5 mi away · MassachusettsA family ski area on Mount Watatic in Ashby that grew from a rope tow to T-bars and two chairlifts, closing in the mid-1980s.
- Years not yet collected · 14 mi away · MassachusettsA rope-tow ski area off Martin Pond Road in Groton, first called Priest's, that ran from the early 1960s to about 1980.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 1 page below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Skiing on Sheldon Hill, about a mile west of central Leominster, goes back to around 1940, when a Massachusetts winter sports brochure listed two rope tows there. In 1941 the upper tow ran 709 feet and the lower 496 feet, and in the early 1940s the hill was among the first ski areas to offer night skiing. Over the years it was also called the Leominster Ski Area and Cliff's Cliff.1
Cliff Healy owned and ran the hill. His son Ken took it over and named it Pheasant Run in 1966, when five electric tows served two trails and two main slopes. A Poma T-bar arrived in 1967 and a second T-bar in 1971, and the vertical was 230 feet. The area had probably closed by 1980; one skier who knew it blamed the energy crisis. Houses covered the land in the late 1990s, and NELSAP found only a short stretch of lift line and grown-in trails behind the homes.1
TodayA housing development covers the hill, with grown-in trails behind the houses.1
Timeline
- c. 1940Two rope tows run on Sheldon Hill1
- 1941Guide lists tows of 709 and 496 feet, lit for night skiing1
- 1966Ken Healy renames the area Pheasant Run1
- 1967A Poma T-bar is installed1
- 1971A second T-bar, built by Heron-Poma, is added1
- c. 1980The area has probably closed by this year1
- c. 1990The hill is developed for housing in the late 1990s1
Sources for this history (1)
- 1New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Pheasant Run Ski Area
Photos
No photographs of Pheasant Run 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 Pheasant Run, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.5254° N · 71.7826° W · Massachusetts
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
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