Richmond Hill Ski Area

Richmond Hill Ski Area in Richmond Furnace, Pennsylvania, sat on the edge of Route 75 in Path Valley, about four miles north of Fort Loudon and near Cowans Gap State Park. Ray and Evelyn Baumgardner of Greencastle started it in 1962 as a family project, beginning with a warming hut and a rope tow on rented ground. The tow first ran off a tractor's power takeoff and was later switched to an electric motor. They eventually bought the land, and in 1963 they added an A-frame ski shop that Ray built in Greencastle and hauled to the hill.

The hill was small, with a trail through the woods, a straight downhill run and a few other slopes, served by the rope tow and a homemade T-bar. Ray built the T-bar's drive from an old truck with the bed removed, its differential turned to spin the bull wheel and its gearshift setting the lift speed, with an old ore car full of rocks keeping the cable tight. He tried snowmaking with a converted orchard sprayer, then with a diesel compressor, and finally bought used electric snow machines from a bankrupt ski area in Virginia and rebuilt them. Brochures sold it as Winter Fun for the Skiing Family.

The lodge took the longest. Starting in 1964, Ray raised a 40-by-80-foot log building from 90-foot poles bought at a military surplus sale, setting each one with a homemade gin pole while Evelyn ran the winch. A stone fireplace big enough for half a railroad tie, a terrazzo-style floor and eleven rooms upstairs followed, and the lodge was finished in 1969, with the old A-frame joined on as the ski shop. In 1986 the Waynesboro Record Herald called the place a haven for novices and families, and the lodge was rented out for parties, reunions and overnight ski groups, which kept the business afloat.

The area closed in 1990. The snow machines went to Ski Liberty and Roundtop, the lifts were sold for scrap, and the property was sold. Visitors in the 2000s found the log lodge still standing and the old trails still visible beside Route 75.