Pheasant Run Ski Area
Leominster, Massachusettsc1940-c1980
Order Pheasant Run Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. The hill on Sheldon Hill had two lighted rope tows by 1941, and Ken Healy renamed it Pheasant Run in 1966. Runs were named Bobcat, Jack Rabbit and Flying Squirrel, and in the late 1960s an adult ticket cost $3 on weekdays and $4 on weekends. Browse the styles below, and the full Pheasant Run history is further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
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Pheasant Run Ski Area History
Pheasant Run Ski Area in Leominster, Massachusetts, stood on Sheldon Hill off Exchange Street, about 40 miles west of Boston and 20 miles north of Worcester. The hill was skiing long before it had the pheasant name. A 1941 state winter sports guide listed it as Sheldon Hill, with two lighted rope tows, one about 709 feet long and one about 496 feet, so it was already open for night skiing. Local recollections credit Cliff Healy with running it in those years, when people called it Cliff's Cliff and the Leominster Ski Area.
Cliff's son Ken Healy renamed it Pheasant Run in 1966, and a Boston Globe item that November described it as new. The mountain-history site NELSAP thinks that was more likely a relaunch of an existing hill than a first opening. Ken Healy went on to run it until it closed. In 1967 a T-bar about 1,420 feet long went in, with a listed vertical of about 220 feet, and a second T-bar of about 1,535 feet followed in 1971. Five rope tows, a snack bar with a fireplace, a ski shop, a ski school, a snowmaker and night skiing every night filled out the list.
The hill was small and aimed at beginners and intermediates. A 1969-70 ad listed about 25 acres, a base elevation of 520 feet and six named runs, among them Bobcat, Jack Rabbit and Flying Squirrel. Adult tickets were $3 on weekdays and $4 on weekends, with night skiing at $2, and the ski school was directed by Hugo Helmer. A mid-1970s brochure showed the area with two T-bars and three rope tows and pitched it to lawyers with a joke about size. People who skied there remembered racing on the area's team, learning through town recreation programs and Tuesday night college outings, including a 1978 Florida Night when an orange got you in for two dollars.
The last listing came in a 1979 Eastern Ski Map, and the area had probably closed by 1980. Former racers blame the energy crunch and thin snow winters. Housing development began on the hill around 1995, and by 2001 only short stretches of old trail were still visible behind the houses.