Pine Top Ski Area
West Greenwich, Rhode Island1965-1980
Order Pine Top Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Pine Top ran two T-bars and a rope tow on 280 vertical feet of Escoheag Hill, with snowmaking and night skiing to get around Rhode Island winters. Hikers still find concrete T-bar footings and snowmaking pipe on the overgrown runs. Browse the styles below, and the full Pine Top 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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Pine Top Ski Area History
Pine Top Ski Area in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, ran on the north face of Escoheag Hill in the village of Escoheag, the address it used on its ads and trail maps. It opened for the 1965-66 season, and the Providence Journal later reported that the Olympic downhiller Bill Beck, who grew up in South Kingstown, took the first run, on snow thin enough that grass showed through.
Two T-bars, each about 2,100 feet long, and a rope tow served 280 vertical feet and four runs: Falls Run, Red Rooster, Beck Slope and Pine Topper. Rhode Island winters were not reliable, so the hill leaned on snowmaking, and it lit the slopes for night skiing. The base had a ski shop with rentals, a cafeteria and a ski school that grew to about 20 instructors by the early 1970s. Howard L. Hamel managed the area, and in 1968 it was one of four ski hills the state tourism office promoted under the slogan Drive Less Ski More, alongside Diamond Hill, Ski Valley and Yawgoo Valley.
Poor snow years in the late 1970s cut into business, and a summer motorcycle park did not make up the difference. Pine Top was still listed for the 1979-80 season and closed around 1980. A former owner later told the Journal that Rhode Island's climate was simply not suited to skiing. Vandals burned the base lodge in the 1980s.
The hill is now state land in the Arcadia Management Area. The North-South Trail crosses the old parking lot, and hikers who climb the overgrown runs find concrete T-bar footings, snowmaking pipe and the shell of a warming hut in the woods.