Origin of Ski Area Names - List

conrad

We've had a few threads about ski area names over the years.
Is the Ski Area's Name Important?
The "worst name for a ski area"

Let's try to classify the origin of ski area names. Make a note if it is of Native American origin and I will add a star next to it (i.e. Wachusett Mountain). I'll get things started with a few I know. There also could be other categories I didn't think of so let me know.

Named after the mountain or hill:
Sugarloaf
Big Squaw (mountain now called Big Moose)
Black Mountain Maine
Eaton Mountain
Mount Abram
Pleasant Mountain
Mount Jefferson
Pinnacle
Saddleback
Powderhouse Hill
Cannon Mountain
Crotched Mountain
Tenney
Wildcat
Bromley
Burke
Jay Peak
Killington
Mount Snow (also fits under named after person and marketing as well)
Stratton
Wachusett* Mountain
Blue Hills
Plattekill, NY (located near Plattekill Mountain, also bordering Plattekill State Forest)
Hunter Mountain, NY
Gore Mountain, NY (named after and is a survey term meaning a triangular piece of land)
Elk Mountain, PA (official name is Elk Hill)
Blue Mountain, PA

Named after other nearby mountain or hill:
Baker Mountain (located on Pierce Hill, but the real Baker Mountain is close by - must be a back story)
Quoggy Jo* (named after the mountain that the ski club's original ski area was located on)

Named after the town, city, or region:
Camden Snow Bowl
Hermon Mountain
Waterville Valley
Bolton Valley
Stowe
Nashoba* Valley
Otis Ridge
Bradford
Blandford
Toggenburg, NY (likely named in honour of the Toggenburg goat and the region of eastern Switzerland of the same name)
Shawnee* Mountain, PA (likely named after Shawnee on Delaware or directly after Indian tribe, though isn't confirmed)

Named after other geographical feature:
Sunday River
Smugglers' Notch
Mad River Glen
Kicking Horse, BC (Kicking Horse River, Kicking Horse Pass)
Song Mountain (possibly named after Song Lake)

Named after person or family:
O'Connor
Titcomb Mountain
Cochran's
Pats Peak
Mittersill
Bousquet
Ski Ward
Woods Valley, NY
Perfect North Slopes, Indiana (Owner's name is Perfect)

Named after a corporation / organization / ownership entity:
Caribou High School Ski Hill
Middlebury College Snow Bowl
Princeton Ski Bowl, NY (NELSAP)
Montage Mountain, PA

Named after a cause:
Veterans Memorial Ski Area

Fictional name / marketing name / catch all:
Big Rock
Lonesome Pine Trails
Lost Valley
Powder Ridge, CT
Berkshire East (name changed so their mountain appeared first on the Mass ski reports)
Ski Bobcat, NY
Jack Frost, PA
Catamount, MA/NY (alternate name for mountain lion)

Multi Category:
Saskadena* Six (Abenaki for "The Standing Mountain," also on "Hill 6") (Originally Suicide Six)

lotsoskiing

Geography: Mad River Glen

NewEnglandSkier13

Let's work through the Maine ones as far as I know. I'm not including ones which have already been mentioned.

Named after the mountain or hill:
Baker Mountain
Big Squaw (the mountain's official name has since been changed to "Big Moose")
Black Mountain
Eaton Mountain
Mount Abram
Mount Jefferson
Pinnacle
Saddleback
Spruce Mountain

Named after the town, city, or region:
Camden Snow Bowl
Caribou High School Ski Hill
Hermon Mountain

Named after other geographical feature:
Quoggy Jo (named after the mountain that the ski club's original ski area was located on)

Named after person or family:
O'Connor
Titcomb Mountain

Fictional name / marketing name / catch all:
Big Rock
Lonesome Pine Trails
Lost Valley
Powderhouse Hill

conrad

Nice. I went through and double checked those, and it's hard to believe, but Powderhouse Hill was called that before it became a ski area according to a 1918 topo map. Also note that Baker Mountain is actually on Pierce Hill, but it makes me wonder if the ski area originally was located on Baker Mountain which is closer to town. Lastly, I could not verify that Spruce Mountain is a real mountain from topo maps. If you look at NewEnglandSkiHistory, we me be able to guess that it was named after Spruce Mountain Road. But maybe Spruce Mountain was a local name for the hilly area before. All the other ones were solid.

NewEnglandSkier13

conrad;c-49390 wroteNice. I went through and double checked those, and it's hard to believe, but Powderhouse Hill was called that before it became a ski area according to a 1918 topo map. Also note that Baker Mountain is actually on Pierce Hill, but it makes me wonder if the ski area originally was located on Baker Mountain which is closer to town. Lastly, I could not verify that Spruce Mountain is a real mountain from topo maps. If you look at NewEnglandSkiHistory, we me be able to guess that it was named after Spruce Mountain Road. But maybe Spruce Mountain was a local name for the hilly area before. All the other ones were solid.

Interesting, thanks for checking them out!

Betsy

Burke - Town and Mountain
Jay Peak - Town and Mountain
Middlebury College Snow Bowl - maybe in town/city/region category? The ski area is in the town of Hancock and named after the College, not the town.
Bolton Valley - town
Cochran's - person/family

conrad

I think maybe we'll broaden the "Named after a corporation" category to include other ownership entities like Middlebury College, if that sounds good. I hadn't thought of that scenario.

Remski

Sounds great!

lotsoskiing

Not New England, but one of my favorite family-named ski areas is Perfect North Slopes, Indiana. Owner's name is Perfect.

Perfect

trackbiker

conrad;d-3258 wrote Shawnee Peak (no longer owned by Shawnee Mountain Corp.)

Shawnee is the name of a northeast Indian tribe.

rickbolger

Bousquet to person or family

IBRAKEFORTBARS

Toggenburg, outside Syracuse, was likely named in honour of the Toggenburg goat and the region of eastern Switzerland of the same name. I believe their old lodge had a stuffed Toggenburg goat in it.

IBRAKE

NELSBEER

Mount Snow Vermont... located on what was known as Mount Pisgah (a biblical reference) was renamed to use the name of the farmer who had owned much of the hill Ruben Snow. Seems to fit the sport pretty well... although Mount Rube might be fun too. The SNOW BARN actually was Snow's barn!

ceo

conrad;c-49390 wroteNice. I went through and double checked those, and it's hard to believe, but Powderhouse Hill was called that before it became a ski area according to a 1918 topo map.

Most likely refers to gunpowder. There's a Powderhouse Park near my house in Somerville MA, which has no skiing (though it's a popular sledding hill), but is named after a stone structure originally built as a windmill in 1703, that was used to store gunpowder by the colonists, and was raided by the British in the run-up to the start of the American Revolution.

ceo

Mittersill was named after Schloss Mittersill in Salzburg, Austria, which was owned by founder Baron Hubert von Pantz (how's that for a name?) before he fled the Nazis.

powderstud

ceo;c-49412 wroteMittersill was named after Schloss Mittersill in Salzburg, Austria, which was owned by founder Baron Hubert von Pantz (how's that for a name?) before he fled the Nazis.

And Cannon was named after something that Baron von Pantz, a notorious womanizer, was known to offer certain of his guests.

(Actually, isn't Cannon Mountain named after a rock formation on the mountain which resembles a Cannon?)

BTW, Baron von Pantz's autobiography, "No Risk, No Fun!: The Reminiscences of Baron Hubert Von Pantz" is incredibly entertaining and quite funny. It's well worth a read for anyone interested.

ridgerat

Otis Ridge-Otis ma.

joshua_segal

lotsoskiing;c-49396 wroteNot New England, but one of my favorite family-named ski areas is Perfect North Slopes, Indiana. Owner's name is Perfect.

Perfect

I may have told this before on SJ: I assume the full name of the owner was Clyde Perfect.
When I went to Perfect North Slopes when I lived in Cincinnati, I got lost and stopped to ask directions to Perfect North Slope. He replied, "Oh, you mean Clyde and Glide." and then he gave me the (correct) instructions.

riverc0il

powderstud;c-49415 wrote(Actually, isn't Cannon Mountain named after a rock formation on the mountain which resembles a Cannon?)

Yes, the mountain had its name changed to Cannon named after a rock formation shaped like a cannon (not within the ski area boundary). But the ski area was named after the mountain, so I don't think the geographic feature counts.

Also named after the mountain include Wildcat, Tenney, Killington (town name also), Stratton, and Bromley.

conrad

Updated the list. Good catch trackbiker on Shawnee being of Native American origin. Also, fun fact the town of Killington was formerly known as Sherburne when the ski area was founded, so we will definitely put that under mountain. Gotta have a Mount Snow to confound everything! Could go in three categories.