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http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090217/NEWS04/902170339/1050/NEWS03
WOODSTOCK — Seventy-five years after changing the face of winter sports, a snow-covered hillside continues to draw skiers who have made the pilgrimage to gaze upon and sometimes ride a piece of history.
Gilbert's Hill, two miles north of downtown Woodstock on Route 12, was the site of the first motorized rope tow in the United States. Russell Gilbert, 84, of Wallingford, was 9 years old in 1934 when his father, Clinton Gilbert, entered into a partnership with Robert and Betty Royce, owners of the White Cupboard Inn, to construct the device to drag skiers up the nearly 500-foot hill.
"They ran a rope around the wheel of a jacked-up jalopy at the foot of the hill," Gilbert recalled. "On a warm day, the rope would stretch and there was no way to tighten it except for all the skiers to pitch in and move the jalopy down the hill."
Sherman Howe, founder and president of Friends of Woodstock Winters — a group dedicated to preserving the town's winter sports history — said the differential on the original Model T burned out within weeks and by March 1934, Gilbert and the Royces were using a tractor to propel the tow.
Despite a shaky start, the tow revolutionized the way people approached skiing. Within two years, Howe said, Woodstock had no fewer than six rope tows.
In addition to opening up the sport to people who might have been averse to hiking up the hill after every run, it also opened the eyes of a young Russell Gilbert.
"They were strange and exciting times for a young farm boy," Gilbert said of the many Ivy League outing clubs who made the trip to his father's hill. "The whole world came pouring into the pasture behind the house."
The tow also ignited Gilbert's love of skiing.
"From then on, as I was growing up I lived on skis," he said. "I wore my ski boots to school and when I got home I jumped in my skis."
Clinton Gilbert took over the rope tow operation from the Royces in 1936 and operated it until 1952. While no longer there, the tow's 28-year run cemented Gilbert's Hill in winter sports history. In 1964, the Division for Historic Preservation erected a marker on the shoulder of the highway and today people are welcome to come and ride the hill.
In 1965, Alfred and Lucile Appel, both now 97 years old, bought the 120-acre property and several years ago their son and daughter-in-law, John and Jeannine Appel, joined them.
"There are people who come here just to say they've skied it," John Appel said. "We had one guy come here who was on a mission to ski all the mountains in Vermont."
While the tow is long gone, there are tracks from people who are willing to hike up the hill to take a piece of history.
"Sometimes people ask, sometimes they don't. It's OK either way," Jeannine Appel said.
WOODSTOCK — Seventy-five years after changing the face of winter sports, a snow-covered hillside continues to draw skiers who have made the pilgrimage to gaze upon and sometimes ride a piece of history.
Gilbert's Hill, two miles north of downtown Woodstock on Route 12, was the site of the first motorized rope tow in the United States. Russell Gilbert, 84, of Wallingford, was 9 years old in 1934 when his father, Clinton Gilbert, entered into a partnership with Robert and Betty Royce, owners of the White Cupboard Inn, to construct the device to drag skiers up the nearly 500-foot hill.
"They ran a rope around the wheel of a jacked-up jalopy at the foot of the hill," Gilbert recalled. "On a warm day, the rope would stretch and there was no way to tighten it except for all the skiers to pitch in and move the jalopy down the hill."
Sherman Howe, founder and president of Friends of Woodstock Winters — a group dedicated to preserving the town's winter sports history — said the differential on the original Model T burned out within weeks and by March 1934, Gilbert and the Royces were using a tractor to propel the tow.
Despite a shaky start, the tow revolutionized the way people approached skiing. Within two years, Howe said, Woodstock had no fewer than six rope tows.
In addition to opening up the sport to people who might have been averse to hiking up the hill after every run, it also opened the eyes of a young Russell Gilbert.
"They were strange and exciting times for a young farm boy," Gilbert said of the many Ivy League outing clubs who made the trip to his father's hill. "The whole world came pouring into the pasture behind the house."
The tow also ignited Gilbert's love of skiing.
"From then on, as I was growing up I lived on skis," he said. "I wore my ski boots to school and when I got home I jumped in my skis."
Clinton Gilbert took over the rope tow operation from the Royces in 1936 and operated it until 1952. While no longer there, the tow's 28-year run cemented Gilbert's Hill in winter sports history. In 1964, the Division for Historic Preservation erected a marker on the shoulder of the highway and today people are welcome to come and ride the hill.
In 1965, Alfred and Lucile Appel, both now 97 years old, bought the 120-acre property and several years ago their son and daughter-in-law, John and Jeannine Appel, joined them.
"There are people who come here just to say they've skied it," John Appel said. "We had one guy come here who was on a mission to ski all the mountains in Vermont."
While the tow is long gone, there are tracks from people who are willing to hike up the hill to take a piece of history.
"Sometimes people ask, sometimes they don't. It's OK either way," Jeannine Appel said.
