By Karen D. Lorentz
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a three-part series that explores how innovations at Okemo and Killington enabled them to become successful and popular ski resorts that also contributed to the growth of the ski industry in Vermont and the East.
Okemo Ski Area, which debuted Jan. 31, 1956, was built on a mountain that rose to 3,343 feet above the village of Ludlow, a town of 2,415 people. Immigrant Finns and Norwegians had introduced townspeople to skiing and ski jumping and made skis for them, so by the early 1900s skiers were already skinning up to ski down Okemo or engaging in ski jumping contests on its lower flanks. Several athletic clubs sponsored ski meets, winter dances, and carnivals in the 1920s and 1930s. Trains brought members of the famed Appalachian Mountain Club of Boston to the hills and lakes in Ludlow the week of Feb. 19-26, 1921, providing one of Okemo’s earliest President’s Day weeks at the slopes.
Vermont State Forester Perry Merrill added Okemo and the land around the mountain to the state’s holdings, seeing it as a potential recreation area for the Dept. of Forests and Parks. He also promoted skiing as an economic resource for the state by leasing mountains like Mount Mansfield, Killington, Jay Peak, Burke, Smuggler’s Notch, and Okemo to ski entrepreneurs.
The state had purchased 4,000 acres on Okemo in 1935. Avid sportsmen and local businessmen supported the idea of developing Okemo and predicted that Okemo would become the “Best Ski Ground in New England,” but naysayers in the Legislature opposed Merrill’s plans and the state’s spending money on ski areas during the Great Depression so only a few trails, an access road, and camp sites got built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
Then World War II came along to interrupt all ski area development.
In the 1950s, a group of Ludlow leaders eager to attract new business to the town pursued the idea of developing a ski area on Okemo Mountain, and Merrill leased state land on the upper mountain to them. The lower mountain had privately owned parcels that the founders were able to purchase.
Expert skier and architect Andrew Titcomb, who had raced for Otto Schneibs at Dartmouth College and on the 1937 FIS team and helped cut Hell’s Highway, the Taft Trail, and the first run at Sugarloaf, drew up plans for the first lifts and trails. He noted that Okemo’s snow-pocket location with a town at its base made “development of the mountain both appropriate and unique,” stating it was “one of five ski areas in the country with an existing town” at its immediate base. (Aspen, Cranmore, Steamboat, and Breckenridge were the others.)
Mountainside Village
Okemo’s method of funding was to sell stock. But while many areas were started with out-of-state investors, Okemo’s directors chose to sell stock to Vermonters, reasoning that it would be too expensive and time consuming to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because there were limits to the amounts that could be raised via stock offerings, Okemo’s board of directors adopted a policy of buying land to sell for second homes in 1960.
The decision to establish an on-mountain bed base was part of a vision to create a year-round family resort. It made Okemo one of the first ski areas in the U.S. to promote trailside homes and begin a mountainside village with ski-in/ski-out access.
The first construction of five homes began in 1961 and was followed by the development and sale of lots, construction of a base area motel-style ski lodge, and the continuation of land purchases for lot sales. In an effort to balance bed base with expanding mountain capacity, four-bedroom townhomes were built in the 1970s for the mountain, and Trailside Condominiums were built by a private developer. (There were an estimated 200-plus homes and condos with upwards of 1,500 beds in 1978.)
In 1980, Okemo hired Sno-Engineering, a renowned resort planner, to develop a new master plan for the mountain. The 1982 Master Plan noted Okemo’s potential to become a “major destination resort” but also spelled out deficits (inadequate base lodge space and need for replacing Pomalifts with chairlifts) and the need for $8 million in improvements. It also noted the possibility of $2 million in land sales from a 45-acre trailside property the area had purchased!
However, after two notoriously low natural snow seasons, banks were not in the lending mood. Stymied, the board faced the challenge of standing still and losing Okemo’s edge or moving forward with a new owner with the means to make the necessary changes. To go from a shareholder-owned ski area to a private one was seen by the majority of shareholders as a necessary sacrifice and the only way to fulfill the mountain’s potential.
When Tim and Diane Mueller became owners of Okemo, they were aware of the potential for building more ski-in/ski-out condominiums and homes as spelled out in the 1982 Master Plan. With prior experience in building homes in Vermont as well as in operating and enlarging a beach resort in the Caribbean, the Muellers saw the potential for Okemo to be a major New England destination resort.
Undaunted by the $8 million in needed improvements — a hefty sum for a pair of 32-year-olds who didn’t own a golden goose and had never been in the ski business — they put their confidence, energy, and experience into making Okemo a successful resort. They also emphasized customer service to their staff. This resulted in Okemo leading the ski industry in placing a priority on customer service in the early 1980s and gave the area a leg up on the competition.
The Muellers also put a priority on snowmaking and grooming. The area increased its daycare options, expanded its family and ski school programs (one of the first to welcome snowboarding and include snowboard lessons), added more packages, and catered to youngsters by building a halfpipe (the first in Vermont) and new terrain parks. When guests requested more high-speed detachable quads for areas like Solitude Peak and South Face, Okemo obliged.
With the aforementioned on-mountain housing focus, Okemo had built 1,012 units for a total of 6,900 beds on the mountain by 1996, and by 2006 that number had risen to nearly 1,500 units for a total of well over 10,000 beds on the mountain, a record not only in Vermont but in the East as well at that time.
The combination of new lifts and trails along with expanded snowmaking and better grooming, improved service, the addition of the Jackson Gore complex and summer activities, and a huge marketing effort worked in tandem with Okemo’s long-term “family image” and kept skiers and summer guests coming. Families loved the area and the convenience of slopeside housing and the many children’s programs from childcare to ski school.
Profits from real estate fueled mountain growth but these weren’t the only source of revenues as Okemo was profitable from operations, including its ski school, which was innovative and successful starting in its early years. Together, profits were continuously reinvested in the mountain for Vermont’s biggest snowball effect — a meteoric rise to No. 2 in the East for skier visits.
Okemo became so successful that it attracted the attention of Vail Resorts, which was looking to expand its family of mountain resorts to the East. Under Vail ownership since 2018, people have benefited from the Epic Pass and continued upgrades like new lifts.
Karen D. Lorentz is an author of books on Killington and Okemo. She is working on a history of Vermont skiing. Look for Part 3 next week, focusing on Killington.
