Burke Is More Than a Mountain — It Is a Community

by Scott Wheeler

The Burke Mountain Ski Area has come a long ways in its 50 years of life.

When many people today think about the community of Burke they automatically think of skiing—decades of skiing on Burke Mountain. But when Phyllis Burbank of West Burke thinks of Burke she remembers the men and women who worked the farm fields that once dotted Burke’s countryside, and who worked in the stores and other businesses that once flourished in the shadow of Burke Mountain.
“A lot has changed over the years,” Burbank said, thinking back to the days when she worked side by side with her parents and siblings on their hill farm that offered views of the yet undeveloped mountain. Many of the farms are now gone as are many of the businesses, forcing many people to leave town to shop and work. But Burbank, who served as Burke’s town clerk during the late 1970s and early 1980s, emphasized that the community is far from down and out. For that matter, she said that time has done a lot to heal divisions that once existed between the people of West and East Burke and all points in between.
“At one time they were antagonistic toward one another,” Burbank said, “but as the world got smaller they have come together.”
The West Burke native is also the author of a historical book about her beloved community. The title of the book provides a bit of insight into the author and her pride in her community and belief that Burke is far more than a ski community. The book is titled Burke, More Than Just a Mountain.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a vital role in developing Burke Mountain. This photo of CCC Camp 232 in Burke was taken in 1935. Willoughby Gap is seen in the background.

“I see Burke as something more than just a mountain,” Burbank said. “There were farms, mills, and just about everything else.” She fondly remembered the hard work that went into her family’s farm labors—planting and digging the potatoes, harvesting the corn, baling the hay, and combining the oats.
It appears that she, and the other folks that live in the shadow of the 3,267-foot Burke Mountain, will see even more changes in the future, as the Florida-based Ginn Company breathes new life into the ski area that has called the mountain home for
50 years.

Skiers have enjoyed the slopes and views of Burke Mountain
for more than 50 years.

“I think the ski area will bring some big changes,” she said. “I’d hate to see it get too overpopulated.” She doesn’t keep it a secret that she likes what Burke once was, and doesn’t mind what it is today. Yet, she realizes that with time come changes.
Burke, which rests at the foot of Burke Mountain, was chartered in 1782. During the early half of the nineteenth century life flourished in the community. Farms, factories, and businesses sprang up where there was once only wilderness. By the mid-1800s people were already looking toward the Burke region as a source of recreation and leisure. In 1860, Joseph Hall, a man who had helped build a carriage road up New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington, hacked a small road to the summit of Burke Mountain. Then in 1912, East Burke native turned millionaire businessman, Elmer Darling, who owned the mountain at the time, built a picnic area, camp, and a tower atop the mountain.
More changes were to come in 1933, when during the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began the painstaking construction of an auto road up the mountain. Campsites and a fire tower were also built. The toll road was completed in 1935 and was named Merrill Highway, in honor of state forester Perry Merrill—a man who worked tirelessly to bring a number of Vermont ski mountains to life. This included Burke Mountain and also Jay Peak Ski Resort, the Northeast Kingdom’s only other ski mountain, located about 50 miles to the north. The tower toppled during the Hurricane of 1938, but was replaced with one made of steel.
Thinking back to her childhood, Burbank said she has vague memories of the trip up to the CCC camp with her father. He had an agreement with the government to provide the camp with potatoes. She told how the family dug the potatoes from their field and loaded them into their Model A Ford and drove approximately five miles up to the camp. Being a young girl at the time, she has very few memories of the actual camp.

The mountain isn’t the only thing that has changed over the years,
but the way we get up and down the mountain

The end of World War II brought big changes to the Vermont ski industry. With the war over, Americans, including Vermonters, were ready to move on with their lives. They also wanted something to break up the boredom of the long winters. Skiing was nothing new to Vermonters. For years, virtually every community had a small ski area, some of them little more than small hills. Many hills required skiers to reach the top under their own power, while others had primitive forms of lifts such as a rope tow.
No longer satisfied with the hillside ski areas, and as part of a skiing craze that was sweeping the nation, Vermonters began to look to the bountiful supply of mountains that towered around them. This frenzy that included Vermont was fed, in part, by returning members of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. During training and in war, these soldiers had skied some of the most challenging peaks in this country and in Europe. They could no longer settle for the community ski areas of their youth. Instead, they wanted to continue to experience the adrenalin rush of shooting down a true mountain.
The early pioneers of the mountain ski areas, that would later become some of the finest ski areas in the state, had their hearts and passions in the right place, but most of the ski areas had to grow through the process of trial and error. The pioneers learned through their mistakes. Burke was no exception.
Many people enjoyed skiing, but Burbank wasn’t one of them. “I wasn’t a skier, I was a worker,” she said proudly. “On a farm you worked six or seven days a week. We didn’t have much time for recreation.” When she did have time on her hands during the winter months, she said she’d spend it with friends. Because of her lack of interest in skiing, she said she paid little attention to the happenings on the mountain, the cutting of the trails, and building of the lifts.
In addition to building the road up the mountain, the CCC is credited with building primitive ski trails on the mountain. Skiing and snowshoeing became popular activities on the mountain. The first official ski race on the mountain was apparently held in 1937, almost 20 years before the ski area opened. That race was held on the newly built toll road.
People began seriously talking about transforming the mountain into a ski area during the 1940s, not only for the recreational enjoyment of locals, but to attract tourists to this economically depressed section of the state. By the early 1950s that dream began to weave its way into reality. The year 1953 was a transformation year for the ski area. That year, 13 men formed the Ski Burke Mountain Inc.: Milton Kerr, Kermit Grant, Allen Facteau, Frank Duggan, Herbert Gallager, Gerbert Gregory, Kenneth Hazard, Richard Roades, Robert Lewis, Ronald Moulton, John McHarg, Crawford Davis, and CV Akley. The group sold stocks to raise money, and Senator G.S. Newell was able to convince the state to appropriate $10,000 to build trails and another $7,500 for a warming hut.
In 1954, a Tucker Sno-Cat carried skiers to the summit of the mountain so they could ski back down. From then on, it was no looking back. A Poma lift, the first of several lifts, was installed in 1955 to carry the skiers up the mountain.

The double chair lift was installed in 1964.

On February 12, 1956, the community, along with various dignitaries including Governor Joe Johnson, celebrated the official opening of the ski area. The following is an excerpt from an article in the February 13, 1956 issue of the Caledonian-Record, a newspaper still reporting the news from its St. Johnsbury office:
Governor Dedicates Ski Burke Project;
Sees Great Future
The Ski Burke Mountain Inc. Area is now officially open to the public. The dedication of the area Sunday attracted nearly 1,500 persons, according to the park officials, and among them were many state officials including “Skiing Governor Joe Johnson.”
Governor Johnson, who made his last public appearance before leaving for Florida last night for a month’s vacation, made the dedication complete by taking the first ride up the 4,880 foot Poma lift after it resumed operation as part of the dedication ceremony, and skiing down. The ride up the lift and the journey down the toll road were completed without mishap.
The master of ceremonies for the event was Clarence Akley, clerk of the Ski Burke organization. Akley welcomed the many guests to the area starting with the introduction of Governor Johnson.
Governor Johnson complimented the various persons who have made the area possible and said that the Burke development was one of the most beautiful in the state. He pointed out that with a development of this sort financial problems were inevitable but he felt sure with the progress that has been made that the area could handle these problems. He assured the state’s backing and support wherever and whenever possible.
Little did the governor know just how many financial problems the ski area would have during its first 50 years of life. Maintaining financial solvability has become increasingly difficult.
In the mid-1960s, Ski Burke sold to a group of local residents who formed Burke Mountain Recreation, Inc. In time the company became known as Burke Mountain Enterprises, which then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990. A German man’s plans for the ski area fell through in 1991. Hopes rose when a group of foreign and domestic investors formed Northern Star Ski Corporation 1995. Under this corporation it was a time of growth and renewed hope Five years later, Burke Mountain Academy, the United State’s oldest and most acclaimed ski academy, which has generated many world-class skiers, operated the ski area until the Ginn Company bought it in November 2005.
“Each time somebody bought it they had big ideas, but the money was too little and too late,” Burbank said. They just couldn’t make a go of it. She said from what she can tell, the Ginn Company is not in short supply of money, and is willing to spend it to do what other operators tried but failed to do—develop the area into a first class ski area and a four season resort. She feels some trepidation about this. Although she wishes the company well, and hopes that they bring good jobs to the community, she also hopes they don’t move too fast and make too many changes too quickly.
As for the future of Burke, the ski mountain, and the Ginn Company, Burbank said, “I’ll take a wait and see approach and see what happens.”