Winter Sledding Hill, Small Ski Area or Park, North America, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Winter Sledding Hill, Small Ski Area or Park, North America, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Winter Sledding Hill, Small Ski Area or Park, North America, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-B1AE40

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Sometime in the 1950s, a group of people discovered that a modest snow-covered hillside cut through a stand of conifers was all the infrastructure a winter outing required, which was largely true. The hill is ungroomed, the run terminates in a flat area that appears to be a parking lot or lodge clearing, and at least one person has already reached the bottom and is sitting in the snow working out what comes next. A low wooden fence marks the kind of boundary that no one building a proper ski facility would have considered adequate, which suggests this was not a proper ski facility. The woman in the bright blue coat near the center of the clearing represents the 1950s ideal of dressing for winter recreation as though it might be photographed, which it was. The man in olive standing near the picnic table by the lodge has the posture of someone who decided some time ago that watching was an equally valid form of participation. In an era before liability waivers, groomed terrain parks, and helmet mandates, the entire arrangement operated on the principle that a hill, some snow, and the general willingness of children to slide downward were sufficient conditions for an afternoon well spent.

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