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Butternut
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
| Overview |
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Butternut: Summit Area | East Area | Highline Area | Overbrook Area | West Area
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| Summit Area - 1963 - Open |
The Top Flight Quad area on the 2009 trail map |
After a series of ownership changes involving G-Bar-S Dude Ranch, Jug End Barn, and the Barrington School, Channing and Jane Murdock purchased the defunct G-Bar-S Ranch ski area in 1962 and formed Butternut Basin, Inc. in 1963. That April, the Murdocks ordered a new Carlevaro & Savio double chairlift.
Climbing 926 vertical feet, the 3,837 foot long chairlift featured 18 towers and was designed to transport 1,000 people per hour. At a purchase price of $83,585, the lift would service top to bottom skiing (the original G-Bar-S ski area had rope tows on the lower half of the mountain) for the first official year of Butternut Basin, 1963-64.
Thirty years later, the chairlift was upgraded, reusing the original towers, to a Garaventa CTEC fixed grip quad, becoming at the time one of only two Southern New England ski areas which such a lift. Less than two years later the Top Flight Quad was severely damaged by a 1995 Memorial Day F4 tornado. Though the ski area suffered over $2,000,000 in damage, it was able to rebound and reopen the lift for the 1995-96 season.
The Top Flight Quad (2002)
The Top Flight Quad (2003)
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| East Area - 1964 - Open |
A late 60s Butternut Basin trail map showing the East Area |
Due to large crowds during it's first year of chairlift operation, the Murdocks opened a new 2,200 foot trail and installed a T-Bar for the 1964-65 season to help bridge the gap to the next chairlift installation.
In 1981, the T-Bar was sold and replaced with a used Mueller double chairlift (originally installed circa 1961 at Mt. Cathalia, NY), called "Granny's Double." Two additional trails were added in the complex.
In 2005, a new 2,078 foot long, 416 vertical foot Doppelmayr CTEC fixed grip quad chairlift ("Cruiser Quad") was installed, replacing Granny's Double.
Granny's Double (2002)
The Cruiser area on the 2009 trail map
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| Highline Area - 1968 - Open |
The Butternut Basin trail map after the 1968 Highline expansion |
In it's first major expansion since becoming Butternut Basin, the Murdocks moved forward with a significant investment in helping to accommodate increasing crowds.
A new 1968 Carlevaro & Savio double chairlift (Highline Double), climbing 650 vertical feet over a run of 3,200 feet, was installed, serving two new intermediate trails to the west of the summit chairlift.
In addition, the base lodge was expanded by 2,500 square feet and the snowmaking coverage increased to 42 acres.
In 2004, the Highline double was replaced with a fixed grip quad chairlift.
The Highline area on the 2009 trail map
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| Overbrook Area - 1975 - Open |
The Overbrook area on the 2009 trail map |
An increasing skier visits, Butternut looked to expand terrain, uphill capacity, and base area facilities. A $500,000 expansion was announced for the 1973-74 season, however it wouldn't be until 1975 in which a new lift was actually installed.
In 1975 a new Thiokol triple chairlift was installed via helicopter to the west of the main mountain, 3,320 feet long and climbing 721 vertical feet. Serving new terrain, the lift was the first triple chairlift installed in the state of Massachusetts.
A second base lodge was opened in 1979 near the new area, designed by Butternut skier Lo-Yi Chan of Prentice, Chan & Ohlhausen.
The Overbrook Triple
The Upper Lodge
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| West Area - 1980s - Cancelled |
A Google Earth rendering of the area west of the Overbrook complex |
On November 22, 1983, the Murdocks purchased 135 acres of land west of Butternut for $350,000. Part of the purchase included a pond for snowmaking water. In addition, Murdock speculated on constructing new trails and "two more major chairlifts."
In the subsequent decades no net new chairlifts have been installed (three new quad chairlifts were replacements of existing lifts), so it is thought the plans were shelved.
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| Resources |
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Butternut - NewEnglandSkiHistory.com
Ski Butternut - official site
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| Feedback |
Do you have any additional information about Butternut?
Last updated: May 18, 2011
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