By Tom Eastman
Back when it started, Black was known as Moody’s, as farmer Edwin Moody had his farmhouse which took in some lodgers and a hill behind the house. In 1935, he and local inventor George Morton and Phil Robertson of the local electric company at Goodrich Falls hydro-electric dam put up a tow, and soon skiers were flocking to the place.
“Phil [Robertson] needed a day time power customer because they were dealing with hyrdo-electric — that’s part of the story behind the lift at Moody’s. They could not turn off the river, obviously, and it made sense to try and develop a big customer during the day that would counteract the draw they needed for the nighttime when everyone would be turning on their electric lights,” notes Jeff Leich of the New England Ski Museum. (He added that Robertson played a pivotal role in the valley’s ski history: after putting up the lift at Moody’s, he later worked at Cranmore Mountain as general manager for 25 years for Cranmore developer Harvey Dow Gibson (1882-1950), and then went on to become a founder at Attitash, where “his vision of the Cog Monorail never took fruition,” said Leich. Still, think of the link there: the Shovel Handle, the Skimobile, and the Cog Monorail — all part of valley ski history.)
In fall 1936, Bill and Betty Whitney bought the farm, and renamed it Whitneys’ (that’s a possessive plural, Betty always said, because it took two people to make a go of the ski and innkeeping business).
That 1936-37 season was the same first winter for Carroll Reed’s Eastern Slope Ski School, the American branch of skimeister Hannes Scchneider’s ski school in St. Anton, Austria. Although they skied on a combination of frozen sheep manure and smashed apples at the nearby golf course of the Eagle Mountain House for much of that first winter, the ski school was a resounding success, and the area then known as the Eastern Slope Region was on its way to becoming a ski resort.
The following winter, Bill Whitney retrofitted Black’s rope tow by turning the bullwheel horizontal so it would not slip off so easily. He also ordered 72 shovel handles from Sears Roebuck — he attached the handles to the slippery rope, making it easier for skiers to hang on. Henceforth, the lift acquired a nickname — the Shovel Handle. Today, the Shovel Handle Pub at Whitneys’ carries on the old tow’s name.
In 1948, Bill and Betty teamed up with Stanley and Halsey Davis to expand their ski area’s trails to Black.
Now owned by the Fichera family, Black harkens to its roots as a family-friendly, affordable area that offers classic New England skiing on sunny, meandering trails that all give beautiful views of the surrounding landscape.
Sheltered from the prevailing northwestern winds, Black’s sunny slopes are a delight on days when other resorts can be windy and cold. (more…)
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