Jug End Ski Area
South Egremont, Massachusetts1947-1983
Browse Jug End Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Jug End was the winter side of a Berkshires resort built around a showpiece dairy barn, and its slope had about 350 feet of vertical drop. The resort also offered a pool, tennis courts, a toboggan chute and an 18-hole golf course. Choose a style below, and the full Jug End 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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Jug End Ski Area History
Jug End Ski Area in South Egremont, Massachusetts, was the winter side of Jug End Barn, a resort on the northeastern slope of Mount Sterling in the southwest corner of the state. The barn itself went up in 1928 as a showpiece dairy barn on Major Hugh Smiley's land, and Smiley turned it into a hotel after the 1934-35 season. He opened it to the press and the New Haven Railroad in December 1935, with skiing, a rifle range, a bowling alley and an indoor tennis court, and snow trains brought skiers up from the city. The Depression ended his run, and the property was sold in January 1939 to Robert Lexow, who was in his mid-20s.
Rope tows came after the Second World War. Jug End Barn, Inc. took over the resort in the summer of 1947, and the rope tow was ready for the 1947-48 season, for a time open only to hotel guests. By 1950 there were three tows, and in June of that year the resort bought the nearby G-Bar-S Ranch, which later became a ski area of its own. Dick MacDonald became president and general manager in 1957. That fall Jug End put in one of New England's first snowmaking systems, covering the lower 1,000 feet of the slope. A new base lodge with a cafeteria, ski shop and first aid room followed in 1958, and a T-bar was installed for the 1961-62 season. The hill stayed small, with about 350 feet of vertical drop, and the resort leaned on its other attractions: a pool, tennis courts, a golf course that reached 18 holes in 1972, a toboggan chute and a guest list that was known to skew single.
The 1970s brought debt. MacDonald and his wife sold their stock in 1976 to Joseph and Kendra Bruno of Pennsylvania, and the back taxes, deferred maintenance and a run of poor winters piled up. The pool closed in 1979, the tennis courts in 1980, and the resort stayed shut for the winter of 1981-82. It filed for Chapter 11 in August 1983 and closed soon after. The state of Massachusetts now holds the land as the Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Management Area, and the Appalachian Trail crosses it. A visitor in 1987 found the barn and silo standing empty, and the old slope is still fairly clear of trees.