Blandford Ski Area
Blandford, Massachusetts1936-2020
Browse Blandford Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Members cut trees and moved rocks by hand to clear the slopes on the Persson farm, using a nearby schoolhouse as a warming hut, and by 1982 the trail map listed 24 trails on a 465-foot vertical drop. The hill ran its last day on March 8, 2020. Choose a style below and scroll down for the full Blandford history. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
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Blandford Ski Area History
Blandford Ski Area in Blandford, Massachusetts, was built and run for more than eighty years by the Springfield Ski Club. The club grew out of a group of Springfield hikers and skiers in the early 1930s and was incorporated in November 1936. After trying leased ground at Mt. Toby, the members settled on the Persson farm in the hills between Russell and Blandford, a stretch of corn stubble and cow pasture they first rented for the winter months. They cut trees and moved rocks by hand to clear the slopes, ran a rope tow up the hill, and used a nearby schoolhouse as a warming hut. In 1941 the club bought the land.
An ice storm early in the 1942-43 season knocked out power to the tow, and the club shut the area down for the rest of the war. Skiing likely resumed in 1945-46, and the club kept growing on volunteer labor, with work days that drew hundreds of members. The Massachusetts Turnpike opened in 1957 less than a mile from the summit. By the 1960s Blandford had seven rope tows and a second base lodge, and the club held races, a February Jubilee with a torchlight parade down the slopes, and summer picnics. A bell at the base marked the ski school meeting place.
The first chairlift, the Glade double, opened in the 1969-70 season, followed by the Broadway double chair, the Broadway T-bar and, late in the 1970s, the North double chair. The 1982 trail map lists 24 trails on a 465-foot vertical drop, with names like Fanny Hill, Schoolhouse, Chipmunk, Yodler, Racing Trail, Blueberry Run and Put's Peril. Lights went up for night skiing in 1998-99, after Mt. Tom closed and left Blandford as the last ski area in Hampden County.
Aging lifts, debt and falling membership left the club insolvent in 2017, and that September it sold the area to the owners of Ski Butternut. Lift repairs cancelled the 2017-18 season. The hill reopened as Ski Blandford on December 15, 2018, and ran its last day on March 8, 2020. Later that month the owners announced it would not reopen, citing continued losses and the uncertainty of the COVID-19 shutdowns. The chairlifts were still standing idle in 2022, and there are no known plans to reopen.