Burrington Hill Ski Area
Whitingham, Vermont1957-1974 public; private use to about 1978
Order Burrington Hill Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Chet Page ran this Whitingham, Vermont, hill with a 1,000-foot rope tow and a homemade Stabil platter lift, about 200 to 240 feet of vertical in all. When nearby Mount Snow called itself the largest ski area in the world, Burrington Hill answered by calling itself the smallest. Browse the styles below, and the full Burrington Hill history is further down. 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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Burrington Hill Ski Area History
Burrington Hill Ski Area in Whitingham, Vermont, was a small family hill just off Route 100, a few miles south of Jacksonville and near the birthplace of Brigham Young. Chester "Chet" Page, a New Jersey hardware and oil businessman who took up skiing in his mid-forties, bought the old Blake farm there in 1956. He cut trails with a bulldozer, turned the barn into a snack bar, and opened in early 1957 with a single 1,000-foot rope tow. From the upper trails skiers looked out over Lake Sadawga and its floating island.
For the 1958-59 season Page put in a Stabil lift, a homemade platter lift built by Bill Jenkins. The rubber disc on a pole never let go of the cable, so riders grabbed it on the move and swung it between their legs. Only a handful were ever built. With a beginner rope tow beside it, the area had about 200 to 240 feet of vertical and five to seven narrow trails, among them Birch Run, Skid Row, Town Road, Old Town Road and Little Bear. Adult tickets were $2.50 in 1963.
Page did most jobs himself, from lift mechanic to ski teacher, and groomed with homemade rigs. The farm offered skating on the pond, tobogganing, rooms in the farmhouse, and from about 1967 a heated outdoor pool kept open in winter. The skiing bear on the area's patch came from a bear cub Page rescued from a tree during a forest fire. When nearby Mount Snow called itself the largest ski area in the world, Burrington Hill answered by calling itself the smallest. Page said the place broke even three times in about a dozen years.
On March 4, 1974, Page sold most of the property to Edward Tanny, a Connecticut jewelry store owner, who kept it as a private family hill rather than a public area. State lift records show the platter lift still inspected until the 1977-78 season, after which it closed for good. Houses now sit on parts of the old trails, and the rest have grown in.