Topsfield Ski Club

The Topsfield Ski Club ran a rope tow on Wheatland's Hill from the 1950s into the 1970s; one member thought skiing there began in the 1940s, and NELSAP wonders whether it was the Locust Lawn tow, moved from Danvers when Interstate 95 was built. The hill had about 150 feet of vertical, one wide open slope and a narrow trail through the woods.¹

At first an old ambulance-type car powered the tow: it sat jacked up at the top of the hill with one of its wheels driving the rope. In the mid-1960s a member fitted an electric motor from the General Electric plant in Lynn instead. Elected officers ran the club, members paid dues and a dollar each time they skied, and volunteers packed the slope after storms. In the snowy winters of the 1950s and 1960s, with spotlights on the slope, it ran almost every night.¹

The club closed the hill in the late 1970s, most likely over the cost of liability insurance. Visitors in 2002, 2003 and 2017 found the slope still clear, though narrowed by brush, with old tow poles and electrical boxes in the woods.¹

TodayThe slope is still open ground, with old tow poles and electrical boxes overgrown in the woods beside it. (2017)¹