Belle Mountain Ski Area

Belle Mountain Ski Area in Hopewell Township, near Lambertville, New Jersey, sat on a bluff above the Delaware River on Valley Road, a short drive from the Pennsylvania line. Accounts disagree on when it began. NELSAP's page says it opened around 1966, one contributor there recalls two rope tows running from 1965, another says 1964, and the county park listing says only the late 1960s. The Mercer County Park Commission ran it and subsidized it, and the Trenton shop Lange's first ran the rentals.

Skiing was on the north slope, with a vertical drop usually given as 175 to 200 feet. The first lifts were two rope tows, one to the top and one for beginners. A double chairlift of about 786 feet went in around 1969, although some recall it running in the early 1970s. A late brochure lists a 1,000-foot double chair, a 1,000-foot main rope tow, a pony hand tow, a beginner rope tow, a snack bar, rentals and a base lodge with a warming room. Locals called the hill the Belle Bump, and many people learned to ski there before moving on to larger mountains.

The 1994/95 brochure bills it as Central New Jersey's Winter Playground and says Mercer County owned it and a private company operated it. Per NELSAP, a management company ran it for its last three years under a five-year contract that the county ended two years early. Warm winters, rising costs and county losses reported at roughly $70,000 to $100,000 a year over those last years ended it. The last skiing was in early 1997 by one account, and the area officially closed in 1998, with other sources calling 1997 or the 1997-98 winter the last season.

Today the hill is Mercer County parkland still called Belle Mountain. The base buildings were boarded up, and remnants of the chairlift, rope tow bases, snowmaking pond and light poles were still visible in the 2000s. Sledders and walkers use the slope, though a county ranger has reportedly ticketed sledding near the parking lot.