Tanglwood Ski Area
South Tafton, Pennsylvania
Shop Tanglwood Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. Tanglwood had an upside-down layout, with the lodge on top of the mountain and a view over the lake, and runs named Deer Run, Big Bear, Flying Squirrel and Sly Fox. A 1976-77 rate sheet lists a weekend adult lift ticket at nine dollars. Pick a style below, then read the full Tanglwood history 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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Tanglwood Ski Area History
Tanglwood Ski Area in South Tafton, Pennsylvania, stood on Paper Birch Mountain south of Lake Wallenpaupack, three miles north of Interstate 84 off Route 390. The hill was first called Paper Birch Ski Run, and a 1965 trail map and reader memories place that name in the 1960s. Readers put the switch to Tanglwood, spelled without the second e, around the 1969-70 or 1970-71 season. The period patches, brochures and signs all use that spelling.
The layout was upside down for a ski hill. The lodge sat on top of the mountain with a view over the lake, and the runs dropped about 415 feet from a 1,750-foot summit. A 1970s brochure map shows four lifts: a 2,600-foot chair lift, two T-bars of 2,600 and 1,400 feet, and an 800-foot beginner lift. Trails carried animal names such as Deer Run, Big Bear, Flying Squirrel, Wildcat, Sly Fox, Weasel and Panther. The brochures advertised snowmaking, night skiing Wednesday through Saturday, a ski school, and homesites on the mountain with access to the slopes. A 1976-77 rate sheet lists a weekend adult lift ticket at nine dollars and a Tanglwood Motor Lodge next door.
The area also gave the neighborhood a logo, a big maroon swash T with a snowflake in its curl and a skier beside it, printed on brochures and sewn on a patch labeled Tanglwood in the Poconos. In a 2011 report, an auctioneer said the area had run for about 40 years before it closed for the 2007-08 season. It reopened for 2008-09 and 2009-10, reportedly lost about $50,000 in that last season, and stayed shut in 2010-11. A buyer picked it up two days before an April 2011 auction, and the owners began selling off the lifts and grooming equipment in 2012.
In 2012 the Tanglwood North community association voted to buy the 85-acre site, which had been vandalized and used for dumping. A reader says the old lodge was later torn down after a fire. The nearby housing community still goes by Tanglwood North.