Ironwood Ridge Ski Area

Ironwood Ridge Ski Area opened on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1967, in Pompey Hollow in the town of Pompey, New York, on Oran-Delphi Road a few miles west of Cazenovia. Five local skiers started the project in July 1967 on a steep hill behind one partner's home, and with help from friends and neighbors they cleared the trails themselves in about five months. The area took its name from an ironwood tree that marked the southwest corner of the property.

The hill was steep for Central New York. An electric T-bar about 1,800 feet long climbed close to 500 feet, small J-bar lifts served the beginner slopes, and a two-story cedar lodge with a sundeck looked out over the bottom of the hill. A 1969 contest drew more than 700 entries and gave the trails names such as Main Street, Deer Run, Meander, Ridge Runner and Iron Will, with Softy for the beginner slope. That fall a rope tow was added at the summit to carry skiers across the flat top to Main Street. Snowmaking was fed from a pond at the base, and night skiing ran from the first winter.

In January 1972 Ironwood Ridge was set to host a televised professional race with $20,000 in prizes, but warm weather and a lack of snow called it off. The mid-1970s were hard. A zoning dispute closed the lodge bar in 1974, the hill ran only a few weeks around Christmas that year, and in early 1976 it sat closed and for sale. Skiers were back on its slopes later in the decade.

By early 1984 the ski center had not run in several years, and after the operating company's bankruptcy the 72-acre property was offered at a foreclosure sale. A few years later the local paper was already calling it the former Ironwood Ridge ski area.