Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Silvermine sat on Seven Lakes Drive about four miles west of Bear Mountain, in the Palisades Interstate Park, not far from the Bear Mountain ski jump. A 1930s-era guide gave it 290 feet of vertical and two rope tows, 1,800 and 2,275 feet long.1,2,4
Read the whole historyTodayLift towers, motor shacks and old lights remain on the overgrown slopes. (2018)4,5
Timeline
3 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Silver Mine, 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 Silver Mine
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1962–2015 · 9.4 mi away · New YorkA ski area on Route 17A in Tuxedo, opened in 1962 as Sterling Forest Ski Area, renamed Tuxedo Ridge in 2007, and last open in 2014–15.
- Years not yet collected · 14.8 mi away · New YorkA ski area on North Beacon Mountain by the city of Beacon that grew to three double chairlifts and an advertised 1,000 feet of vertical.
- Years not yet collected · 16.6 mi away · New YorkA small T-bar ski slope with snowmaking and night skiing on Route 416 south of Montgomery, listed in ski guides from 1970 to 1993.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Silvermine sat on Seven Lakes Drive about four miles west of Bear Mountain, in the Palisades Interstate Park, not far from the Bear Mountain ski jump. A 1930s-era guide gave it 290 feet of vertical and two rope tows, 1,800 and 2,275 feet long.1,2,4
In the 1970s guides list three open slopes served by a T-bar, a J-bar and two or three rope tows, with snowmaking, lights on weeknights and about 300 feet of vertical; the 1977 White Book says 350. Its location drew skiers. Silvermine closed in 1986.1,2,3
Hikers still find lift towers and sheaves in the trees, lift shacks with their electric motors, old lights and snowmaking pipe on the hill.4,5
TodayLift towers, motor shacks and old lights remain on the overgrown slopes. (2018)4,5
Sources for this history (5)
- 1skikabbalah.com · Silver Mine
- 2skikabbalah.com · SILVERMINE References
- 3PLATFORM · Making History at Bear Mountain: Family Memories, the Palisades, and an Inheritance Worth Preserving (Robert W. Snyder, July 29, 2019)
- 4NYSkiBlog · Hiking Silvermine Ski Area at Harriman (Brownski, November 16, 2015)
- 5NYSkiBlog · Silvermine Ski Area: Frozen in Time (Brownski, February 23, 2018)
Photos
No photographs of Silver Mine 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 Silver Mine, in their own words.
Facts
Location
41.2948° N · 74.0597° W · New York
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1986 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1986 season. 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