Shawnee Mountain History: The Beginning

Welcome to our series on Shawnee Mountain history! In these posts, we’ll cover the founding and expansion of Shawnee Mountain over the years.

To start off, let’s set the scene: It’s the early seventies and, while skiing is becoming a more popular and accessible winter sport, the big boom of ski resort construction has begun to slow down. Resorts in the west and northeast United States are now established and bustling in the winter months; most existing Pennsylvania ski areas were also already up and running, with small mountains dotting both eastern and western PA. So then, why did developer Karl Hope decide to create Shawnee Mountain amidst the existing competition?

It was actually pretty simple – Hope needed something to round out his summer investments in the Poconos. He owned the Shawnee Inn and golf, had ventures on the Delaware River, and he needed something for guests to do in the winter to make it a year-round business. Hope owned a few small ski areas in the northeast that each consisted of one lift and a couple trails, and he knew that they brought in good winter business. Thus, the idea for Shawnee Mountain was born!

In October 1974, our four original trails began getting cut in and two lifts were installed. Originally, Shawnee was designed as an upside-down mountain, with the lodge and parking at the top of the mountain. Skiers would ski down and take the lift back up to the top to take another run, or to return to their vehicles at the end of the day. The idea behind the upside-down mountain was purely aesthetics; in a largely undeveloped location, at that time you could look out from the top of the mountain and see nothing for miles but mountains and valleys.

Manmade snowmaking had been created and brought to the US decades before, and was an essential piece of the development of the mountain. The snowmaking equipment used in 1975 was large and powerful, and was quoted by the NY Times to “look as if [the snow guns] belonged on the deck of a gunboat.” The system, while large, was inefficient compared to today’s standards and was known to create icy conditions since the snow guns couldn’t adjust to the outside temperatures, creating inconsistent snowmaking.

Read the opening day announcement published in the NY Times on 12/25/75 here.

Shawnee Mountain opened for its first season in December 1975. The first trails were Country Club, The Pennsylvanian (now Upper PA), The Delaware, The Shawnee (now Upper Arrowhead), and The Meadows (which, like it is now, was more of an open area than a trail).

The mountain was designed to work with the existing terrain and followed natural fall lines. The trails were cut with beginners in mind, with wide slopes and a variety of terrain levels.

The Summit Lodge wasn’t quite completed when the mountain opened. That first season, rentals, ticketing, and food service were all operated out of a trailer. Free hot cocoa and coffee were prepared on a hot plate and served to guests from the trailer.

In 1976, you could get an adult lift ticket for $6 and rent equipment for the day for an additional $6. Group lessons were only $4 per person in the Jean-Claude Killy Ski School. The mountain was only open until 4:30pm each day as there were no lights for night skiing yet.

The inaugural season of Shawnee Mountain came to a close in March of 1976. For all intents and purposes, it was a success. Two more seasons would go by before expansion into the base area would begin.

Upcoming: Part 2 will cover Jean-Claude Killy and the development of our ski school program, and part 3 will dive into the efforts required to flip the mountain right-side-up. We will also cover the namesakes of the Hope and Trepp Lodges, our brief foray into Maine skiing, and the summer waterpark of the 80s and 90s. Stay tuned!

Written on: April 5, 2024  |  Written by: Michaela K., Marketing Asst.