The Ski Museum of Maine in cooperation with the Kennebec Historical Society presents a slide show and lecture on the history of skiing in Maine
Maine’s skiing history dates back to 1870, farther than that of any other New England state. A Mainer wrote America’s first book on skiing. A Maine company built the world’s tallest ski jump and the first chairlift in the East. Several Maine manufacturers were leading producers of skis in the mid-20th century. Two dozen Maine skiers have competed or coached at the Olympics. Maine hosted five World Championship or World Cup-level competitions between 1950 and 2009.
These are a few facets of a narrated digital slideshow produced by the Ski Museum of Maine. The show, titled “Down-Mountain and Cross-Country: 140 Years of Skiing in Maine,” will be presented at ski clubs, historical societies, libraries, civic organizations and mountain resorts across the state.
More than 130 photos some more than a century old have been assembled from the Farmington-based museum’s collections and other sources, including several of the state’s leading historical societies, ski clubs and individuals.
The narrator is Scott Andrews, a Portland-based ski journalist and museum director, who gathered the photos and performed the research.
