“There was more liability. These places needed to have more insurance. It became expensive to maintain, had to put in snowmaking and grooming and compete with all these larger resorts up north. And that kind of eventually led to their demise across the area.”-Jeremy Davis, New England Lost Ski Areas Project.
Massachusetts has one hundred and seventy-five lost ski areas due to consolidation, rising costs, and climate change. This has left many spots abandoned, but some spots, like Sweatt Hill, have been repurposed. WBZ 4 Boston caught up with Jeremy Davis of the New England Lost Ski Areas Project (NELSAP) to show off a former ski hill from Wrentham, Massachusetts.
The ski hill was open from 1963 to around 1982. The hill was serviced by a j-bar and had several trails and multiple glades. The vertical drop of the ski hill was two hundred feet. Since its closure, Wrentham has turned Sweatt Hill into a recreational area. This park includes hiking trails, ball fields, and various remnants of the ski hill. These include an old chimney to a lodge, the lift towers to the J-Bar, and the old ski trails. Click here to learn the detailed history of the hill from NELSAP, and the video tour of the mountain with Jeremy Davis is below.
Image/Video Credits: WBZ 4 Boston, Sweatt Hill
