Ski Snowpeak

Ski SnowPeak stood beside U.S. Route 322 near Thompsontown, between Harrisburg and State College. Local investors formed the Tusquenita Corporation in 1969, bought the land in 1972 and began cutting trails for a ski area to be called Tusquenita, but the land then sat idle. A new owner bought the corporation in 1978, and a rushed effort in late 1988 put in a quad chairlift, snowmaking and a lodge.¹

SnowPeak opened in early 1989 with 643 feet of vertical, nine trails, a 3,200-foot quad and a 120-foot pony lift, its trails reaching about halfway up the mountain. The slopes faced north, and the Juniata River supplied water for snowmaking. A second phase to the summit would have given it 1,340 feet of vertical, the most in Pennsylvania. Instead, by February 1991 it was in bankruptcy, at least $4.3 million in debt, and it shut down soon after opening.^1,2

Early on February 13, 1994, a fire thought to be arson destroyed the lodge. Potential buyers looked at reopening the area in 1995, but nothing came of it. Visitors in the 2000s found overgrown trails, the lift's concrete footings, lights still in the trees along Cannonball Run, and the top lift house in use as a hunting cabin.^1,2