@rare.history5: "The entire American ski industry started with a Model T engine bolted to a rope in a Vermont cow pasture. ⛷️ In the winter of 1934, a few people running the White Cupboard Inn in Woodstock, Vermont got tired of hearing guests complain about climbing hills all day just to ski down them once. They rented a pasture on Clinton Gilbert's farm on Gilbert's Hill, and they built something nobody in the country had built before: an endless rope tow, about 900 feet long, running on salvaged wheels made from junked tires and discarded cedar posts, driven by the engine of a Model T Ford truck parked at the bottom. Total cost was around 500 dollars. It opened on January 18, 1934. A seventeen year old named Bob Bourdon became the first person in the United States to ride a mechanized lift to the top of a ski hill. A day on the tow cost a dollar, or fifty cents for a half day. Skiers gripped a moving rope with their hands and got hauled up, which was hard on mittens and harder on shoulders, but it beat walking. Within a few years rope tows were going up all over New England and the idea of skiing changed completely, from something you earned one run at a time into something you could do a dozen times in an afternoon. 🏔️ Gilbert's Hill is still an open pasture. There is a historical marker at the bottom and not much else. Did you ever ride an old rope tow, and how many pairs of gloves did it cost you? #GilbertsHill #Woodstock #Vermont #SkiHistory #NewEngland"

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Sunday 23 August 2026 05:33:33 GMT