Lost ski areaMassachusettsNortheast
Ski Watatic
Closed after the 1984 season. A 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.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Skiing on Mount Watatic began with a rope tow, perhaps in the 1930s or around 1940. Mt.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe former ski area is conservation land open to hikers, and the grown-in trails and some old structures can still be found.3
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Ski Watatic, 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 Ski Watatic
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1962–1967 · 4.8 mi away · New HampshireA small rope-tow area in New Ipswich, also known as Kidder Mountain, that ran from 1962 to 1967.
- Years not yet collected · 9.9 mi away · New HampshireA college ski hill in Rindge with a rope tow, a ski jump and open slopes, used from about the mid-1960s to the early 1980s.
- 1937–2001 · 9.9 mi away · New HampshireA ski area on Temple Mountain in Temple and Peterborough, New Hampshire, that ran from the winter of 1937–38 until 2001.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Skiing on Mount Watatic began with a rope tow, perhaps in the 1930s or around 1940. Mt. Watatic, Inc. was formed in May 1964, and the area opened with a T-bar for 1965–66, serving two trails and a slope; a second T-bar probably followed a year later. Snowmaking and night skiing came in the late 1960s, and the trails reached the summit, for 550 feet of vertical.1,2,3
A beginner double chair replaced rope tows for 1980–81, and a summit double was also in place by the early 1980s. Ten acres of snowmaking were added for 1982–83, which New England Ski History thinks may have been the last season; NELSAP and Wikipedia say the area closed in 1984. Competition from larger areas nearby, including an expanded Wachusett, is blamed. Attempts to reopen it, one in 1988 under the name Ski Adventure, came to nothing.1,2,3
Vandals burned the base lodge in July 1997. In 2002, as a cell tower was planned for the summit, two towns, two land trusts and the state paid $2.5 million to protect about 281 acres, including the summit, as conservation land.1,3
TodayThe former ski area is conservation land open to hikers, and the grown-in trails and some old structures can still be found.3
Timeline
- 1964Mt. Watatic, Inc. is formed in May2
- 1965Opens as a T-bar area for the 1965–66 season2
- 1980A beginner double chairlift is installed for 1980–812
- 1984The area closes, per NELSAP and Wikipedia; NESH suggests 19831,2,3
- 1988An attempt to reopen as Ski Adventure fails1,2,3
- 1997Vandals burn the base lodge in July1
- 2002About 281 acres, including the summit, become conservation land2,3
Sources for this history (3)
- 1New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Mount Watatic Ski Area
- 2New England Ski History · Mt. Watatic Ski Area History
- 3Wikipedia · Mount Watatic
Photos
No photographs of Ski Watatic 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 Ski Watatic, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.7038° N · 71.8903° W · Massachusetts
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1984 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1984 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain