Peapack Ski Area

Peapack Ski Area in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, was a one-rope-tow hill on Route 206 in the Somerset Hills, about two miles north of the junction with Routes 202 and 287. A local history project notes that the hill sat in Bedminster Township, and that Peapack Ski Tow simply sounded better. The area's own flyer, from around 1980, called it the first ski area in New Jersey and said it was established in 1939, though the same local history page notes that Craigmeur in Newfoundland, New Jersey, may have started in 1936 or 1937.

The founder was Melvyn Blaufuss, who grew up on a farm in the Peapack Valley. According to the Mr. Local History Project, he leased the land while still in high school, cleared it himself and rigged the first tow, driven by an old car engine with a three-speed transmission. The rope ran around a tire rim and was held up by hubs on a telephone pole. A truck engine later did the pulling. When the land came up for sale in the 1950s, Blaufuss and a partner, Eric Hammarstrom, bought it. His mother sold tickets.

The hill was small and the snow was natural only. The c.1980 flyer lists a 750-foot rope tow, a 200-foot vertical drop, 850 skiers an hour, two slopes, three or four trails through the woods, a ski jump, night skiing and a ski school with four instructors. The local history write-up says the true drop was nearer 140 feet. There was no lodge. Skiers parked at a pull-off on the highway, and a small hut served as the snack bar. Night skiing meant three or four dollars for an evening of rope tow, and the rental skis came out of the back of an old station wagon.

It closed in February 1986. A local newspaper reported that the insurance company had cancelled the owner's liability coverage with no warning, and that without coverage he could not open. The land was sold to developers. Houses stand on the slope now, and a street called Ski Hill Drive is the main trace left.