Sunrise Hill Ski Area

Sunrise Hill Ski Area in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, was a town-run ski slope inside World War I Memorial Park off Elmwood Street. The hill's official name is Sunrise Hill, though many in town know it as Watery Hill, and at 390 feet above sea level it is the highest point in Bristol County. The ski area was dedicated on November 8, 1970, and a bronze plaque at the parking area names it in memory of Pvt. Edward P. Nolan, credited with the work that established the park.

The town's Park Department ran it. There was one lift, a J-bar, which a lift database credits to the builder Larchmont: about 800 feet long on seven towers, rising roughly 150 feet. Lights allowed night skiing. The main run was a wide, sweeping arc of low intermediate pitch, with a second trail beside it. The layout was upside down, with parking at the top, so a skier's first run of the day came before the first lift ride. There was no snowmaking, and a stream crossing the flat runout at the bottom needed more snow than most winters gave.

So the slope opened only when the weather allowed. In early 2001 the parks director said it had run at least now and then for about fifteen years and had last been open four winters earlier, for 27 days. That same January a good snowfall reopened it for night skiing on the J-bar. In 1997 a local Eagle Scout project had wire-brushed and repainted the lift towers and stenciled new numbers on them. The town's own guide says operations continued, weather permitting, into the early 2000s.

The J-bar still stands. Visitors in 2021 found the top station freshly painted, the lights in place, and the main trail and lift line kept clear, with only the bottom grown in. The park around it still has a zoo, picnic grounds and a disc golf course, and the town's trail guide lists the old Sunrise Ski Area as a stop on a walk through local history.