Frontenac Ski Area

Frontenac Ski Area in Plymouth, New Hampshire, began in the late 1930s on Stage Coach Hill, a short walk from the village. Plymouth was a main stop for the snow trains that brought skiers up from the cities, and three small areas grew up there before World War II: Huckins Hill, Wendy's Slope and Frontenac. Frontenac took the north side of the hill. A 1939 ski guide listed a 900 foot rope tow, six trails and a 200 foot drop, and the brochure of that year called it the Frontenac Ski Development, a quarter mile from the town center.

The brochure had a pen-and-ink map with trails named Saw Tooth, Laughing Loom, Short Cut and Mail Coach Trail, a Chateau Ski Hut near the top, and a small stagecoach drawing in the corner. By 1942 the guide listed two tows and night skiing. Right after the war, the owners bought Wendy's Slope, the Swiss ski school's hill on the east side, and joined the two at the top. The combined area kept the Frontenac name, with the old Frontenac as the North Slope and Wendy's as the East Slope.

In 1960 Plymouth zoned the land around the North Slope as residential, and that side closed. The East Slope kept going as Frontenac. In 1962 George and Nancy Greer took over from the previous owners, who NELSAP says had included three women whose husbands had died. The Greers closed the area to the public and ran it as a ski camp, where guests learned to ski and race on a private hill. A 920 foot T-bar went in during 1969, and it was among the steepest T-bars in New England.

The camp closed in 1991, as many of its skiers had moved on to bigger areas. Two partners leased the hill in 1994, opened a coffee shop in the base lodge and renamed it Lynx Creek, but that lasted only a season or two. Much of what is known comes from NELSAP's interview with George Greer, so the dates before the 1960s are approximate.