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Vermont's Lost Ski Areas:
Wildwood Valley Ski Area - Morgan Center, VT.
This e-mail came from Laurel Sheck of South Salem, NY. Thank you Laurel.
I was going through some old, old photos recently and found a couple taken at "The Lodge" (Wildwood Valley), VT. And for some reason I awoke from a sound sleep this morning and googled it, only to find your info. I was surprised to find out anyone had ever heard of it, and stunned to find the lodge had burned down. Your records indicate it only operated from 1967 - 1970; I would have thought it was in business quite a bit longer than that, but I was quite young then.
The photo you have of a house near the old base lodge (Bill Davis?) really blew my mind - I recognized it instantly. I believe it may be the same house as in the attached photo, but I'm not sure, because in my mind there were two houses, at least one of which was referred to as the "A frame". Here is the little bit of information I know: My step-mother, whose name at the time was Barbara Schless, and her 2 children (Heidi and Stephen) migrated to the Lodge from Canada, and Barbara cooked there and helped run the lodge in exchange for room and board. This would have been in the early 1960's. In app. 1964 or 1965 she moved down to Stamford, Connecticut, and in app. 1967 married my father, William Sheck, who had 4 children: Billy, Robby, Hope and Laurel (me). It may be because I was only around 8 or so at the time, but in my memories Barbara took us on vacation to that lodge many, many times during those mid-late 1960's, and early 70's. I do not remember the name of the family that she first worked for there, but I do remember visiting it at one time when it was either owned or run by a family of the last name of Abbott.
I remember the lodge itself as being huge (but again, I was little!). The ground floor was very "lodge-like" with a very large dining room, huge fireplace, exposed beams, etc. There was a commercial grade kitchen there, too. There never did seem to be any paying "guests" except for us! There were several floors upstairs with long corridors and rooms, like any hotel. Oddly, I do not remember an "olympic size" pool, but more of a regular size one that we once ice skated on. Additionally I remember two separate houses, as I said; one an "A-frame" style house, and one a bit bigger. The picture you have is definitely one of them. I never was a skier and thus, at the age of 8, drove a ski-doo all over that property (I can't believe I was allowed to do this!). It was beautiful, and seemed like it had endless acres of fields and woods. I do remember my step sister and step Mother doing some skiing and specifically using the "rope tow" or "T lift" you have pictured, but here I get confused because I have one memory of taking the rope tow to the top of a hill where there was another lodge of sorts, where you could sit at tables and eat and warm up, and they had a view of the ski area. I honestly don't know if this was part of that property or someplace else we had visited while up there.
The photo I am enclosing is from 1970 and you can clearly see one of the 2 houses in the background. My oldest brother, Billy, and my step mother, Barbara, are sitting on the ski-doo. Amazing, such a large place just sort of vanished and went out of business.
Regards, Laurel Sheck South Salem, NY (914) 763-9060.
You can e-mail Laurel at lavenderhill79@aol.com
