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HEBRON — In 1870, Governor Joshua Chamberlain sent an emissary to Sweden to recruit immigrants to settle in northern Maine to help revitalize a dwindling economy there. This effort brought 51 Swedes to settle in the area of what is now New Sweden and Stockholm. 
These newcomers brought with them a method of traveling on top of the snow which involved attaching a long board runner to each foot which they referred to as snow “shoes.” Scott Andrews, director of the Ski Museum of Maine in Kingfield, recently explained to the Hebron Historical Society how these “shoes” correlated into the very beginning of the ski sport industry in the state.
Initially these contraptions were useful to the warden service to help catch poachers due to the speed advantage they had over the snowy terrain. Such travel and transportation capabilities soon evolved into the ski sporting industry as well from around 1890 to 1920. The Caribou “Skee” Club formed in 1890 and Poland Spring became the first “winter sports resort.” The Bethel Inn soon followed and Rumford held a winter carnival with ski jumping in 1927. Rumford was the ski capital in the 1930s. Fryeburg soon became a notable rival by introducing the state’s first lift in the form of a “rope tow.” By 1941 there were a dozen lifts in Maine.
Post WWII saw a boom in the ski sport industry here. Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton introduced the first T-bar lift. Sugarloaf Mountain soon followed with one. Pleasant Mountain also started the first chair lift. The state’s first gondola ski lift was constructed in1965 at Sugarloaf Mountain. Fort Kent has become a leading U.S. training ground for the biathlon sport which involves cross country skiing coupled with stops for rifle marksmanship competition.
David Stonebraker, Hebron Academy archivist and historian, briefed the audience on the town’s own ski sites utilized by the Academy. The students participated in cross country as well as ski jumping as early as the 1930s. The first of two rope tow lifts in Hebron was the Earl Brown ski lift which was built in the 1950s on Ben Barrows hill. These sites however have been inactive for decades.
Ski touring trails have recently grown in popularity around the state. This involves local clubs maintaining cross-country trails with occasional warming and resting huts located along these routes. One of the longest of these involves a 195-mile ski-way between Mahoosuc Mountain and Moosehead Lake.
The next Society meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and will feature Ann Gass speaking on the Maine Suffrage Movement. This will be at the Hebron Town Office, 351 Paris Road at 7 p.m. The public is invited.
