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Aroostook County has many more claims to fame than potatoes. For one thing, it’s the first place in New England people used skis.
It started in 1871, when 21 families from Stockholm, Sweden, were recruited by an ambitious diplomat to settle northern Maine. The Swedes had used cross-country skis for thousands of years for transportation, hunting, and recreation, and brought them across the Atlantic to their new home they called New Sweden.
The skis the New Swedenites used were very different from what we use today. For one thing, the skis were two different lengths. The longer ski measured up to 10 feet and was used to glide while the shorter ski was used to push. The skis, which their County neighbors called “Swedish snow-shoes” or “snow skates,” also used just one pole.
Gliding on the snow each winter caught on. Skis began to be manufactured and sold in Maine in the early 1900s, and in 1916 the summer resort at Poland Spring began to stay open for winter sports enthusiasts, offering cross-country skiing and ski-jumping lessons. Soon after, skiing competitions and winter carnivals sprung up across the state in towns like Rumford, Fort Fairfield, and Farmington.
In the early years of Maine downhill skiing, getting up the mountain wasn’t as easy as hopping on a chairlift. Some places had a towrope to help you up the mountain but more often than not you had to trudge up yourself. Skiing in the 1930s often meant using climbing skins made out of animal hide placed over the bottom of the skis to give the friction needed to get the skier uphill.
The ski culture grew steadily until World War II when all manufacturing took a back seat to production for the war effort, including Maine ski boot manufacturer G. H. Bass and Co. The next shoosh-boom to the industry took place 30 years ago, when Maine’s shoe factories, textile mills, and paper mills began to decline, leaving communities with little money to invest in skiing infrastructure. The third blow was electronic: For the past two decades people in Maine and across the country became much less active, choosing to watch TV, play video games, and surf the Internet rather than entertain themselves outside.
In 1999, the Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) was created through a grant from the Libra Foundation and began working to reestablish skiing as a lifestyle in Maine. MWSC, which now has facilities throughout the state, hopes to use winter sports to help combat childhood obesity and boost the rural economies in western and northern Maine. “We have a fairly ambitious goal set out and I think it’s going to take a generation to be able to reflect back and see if we’ve had overall success,” says Maine Winter Sports Center president and CEO Andy Shepard. “We want to create more opportunities for Mainers, especially young Mainers, to have a healthy outdoor lifestyle.”
Besides helping communities build cross-country ski trails, MWSC has provided a curriculum to get kids off the couch and on skis through their Healthy Hometowns Ski Program. And it’s working. Healthy Hometowns is currently located in over 96 communities across the state, impacting thousands of children each winter.
The Maine Winter Sports Center also helps bring money into rural ski communities by hosting high-profile national and international competitions. In 2004, MWSC hosted the Biathlon World Cup in Fort Kent, which brought 20,000 spectators and $5.2 million to the area. The event was also televised and broadcast to 51 million viewers worldwide. This year, Maine Winter Sports Center is hosting the NCAA Championships at Black Mountain in Rumford and the U.S. Biathlon Championships in Fort Kent. The Biathlon World Cup will return to Fort Kent in 2011.
“We’re changing the perception of Aroostook County,” Shepard says. “These events are showing everyone that there is a lot going on in Aroostook County that’s worth celebrating.” Worth celebrating, and worth digging out the snow mitts and ski pants for.
Hills & Trails
Think you have to own a snowmobile to enjoy the outdoors in the north woods, or need to head to western Maine to get in a day of downhill skiing? Shoosh-boom! Read on.
Cross-Country and Snowshoeing
Mount Desert Island
Acadia Park Carriage Roads
www.nps.gov/acad • 288-3338
Cost: Free
Compared to the half million visitors to the park in August 2008, there were just over 10,500 visiting Acadia Park last January. “You’re not likely to see a lot of other people. It’s not like in the summer,” says ranger Wanda Moran. Winter trailblazers like it that way just fine.
Moran says the best place to park your car and access the 45 miles of winter trails is at the parking lots of the Visitor Center, Eagle Lake, or Jordan Pond—which can be accessed via Route 3, Eagle Lake Road, or Route 198.
Orono/Old Town
Dwight B. Demeritt Forest
www.umaine.edu • University of Maine
Cost: Free
The Dwight B. Demeritt Forest has over 15 miles of trails spread out across 2,000 acres of land on Marsh Island. The trails are maintained by Campus Recreation and free to the public.
“The trails are really beautiful and they’re free and easy to get to,” says Orono resident Janette Landis. The easiest places to access the trails are in Old Town near the elementary school at 576 Stillwater Avenue and at UMaine in Orono, behind the Student Fitness Center.
Fort Kent
10th Mountain Ski Center
www.10thmtskiclub.org
33 Paradis Circle Rd. • 834-6203
Cost: Free
Features:
• Lodge with a great room, kitchen, fireplace, sauna
• 27 wax rooms
• Night skiing
• Stadium with a 30-lane shooting range
• Ski rentals
Winter in Fort Kent lasts seven months and delivers an average annual snowfall of over 7.5 feet. This makes for some great skiing and snowshoeing. With over 15 miles of trails, the 10th Mountain Ski Center has something to offer athletes of all levels. The trails are professionally groomed daily and the loops range in length from half a mile to over four miles.
The club hosts local, national, and international biathlon and cross-country competitions as well as community development programs. This year the center will host the U.S. National Championships.
Presque Isle
Nordic Heritage Sport Club
www.nordicheritagecenter.org
Route 167 • 762-6972
Cost: Free
Features:
• Lodge with dining room, fireplace, great room, showers, sauna
• 26 wax rooms
• Night skiing
• Cross-country terrain park
• Ski rentals and lessons
The Nordic Heritage Sport Club hosts local, national, and international competitive events, most notably the 2006 Biathlon World Junior Championships, which included athletes from 30 different
countries. The club is currently hard at work preparing for the Junior Olympics, which will be held in Presque Isle in March 2010.
Millinocket
Clubhouse and Smith Brook Trails
www.millinocket-maine.net
Northern Timber Cruisers Clubhouse
Baxter State Park Road • 723-6203
Cost: Free. Donations accepted.
Features:
• Light meals from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekends
• Warming hut
Volunteers with the Northern Timber Cruisers Snowmobile and Cross-Country Ski Club groom and maintain about 20 miles of cross-country ski trails in the Millinocket area.
The Clubhouse and Smith Brook Trails start out at the Northern Timber Cruisers Clubhouse parking lot. The trails are groomed with set tracks and are separate from the snowmobile trails. While the trails are well sheltered in the woods, skiers get an occasional view of Mt. Katahdin no matter what trail they choose.
Downhill Skiing and Snow Tubing
Mars Hill
Big Rock • www.bigrockmaine.com
37 Graves Rd. • 425-6711
Cost: $17 to $30. Children under 5 and seniors over 75 ski free. Snow Tube Park: $13 per person.
Features:
• Downhill skiing
• Snowboarding
• Snow tubing
• Terrain park
• Cross-country ski trails
• Snowshoe trails
• Ski and snowboard rentals and lessons
Good news for skiers and snowboarders—Big Rock has been rated one of the best family deals for downhill skiing in New England. Improved snowmaking capabilities, new lifts, and new grooming equipment have made Big Rock a destination in Aroostook County. Big Rock opens January 9.
Hermon
Hermon Mountain
www.skihermonmountain.com
Newburgh Road • 848-5192
Cost: $15 to $25. Children under 4 and seniors over 70 ski free. Snow tubing: $12 per person.
Features:
• Downhill skiing
• Snowboarding
• Snow tubing
• Ski and snowboard rentals and lessons
Hermon Mountain, located 10 minutes outside of Bangor, has been family-owned and -operated for over 20 years. When Mother Nature doesn’t provide the snow, Hermon Mountain will, with its 100% snowmaking and grooming capabilities.
Camden
Camden Snow Bowl
www.camdensnowbowl.com
Hosmer Pond Road • 236-3438
Hotline: 236-4418
Cost: $12 to $33. Children under 6 and seniors over 70 ski free. Snow tubing and tobogganing: $5 per person per hour.
Features:
• Downhill skiing
• Snowboarding
• Snow tubing
• Cross-country trails
• Snowshoe trails
• Ice skating
• Toboggan run
• Ski and snowboard rentals and lessons
The Camden Snow Bowl has been around since the Great Depression. A community-owned ski and recreation area, the summit of Ragged Mountain, at 1,300 feet, gives an incredible view of the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition to its lessons and racing programs for kids and adults, the snow bowl is home to the wild and wooly U.S. National Tobaggan Championships, held every February.
