Berkshire East: a failed 1953 club, a 1961 relaunch, and the Schaefers' Bear Den Partners

Berkshire East completed a 291-foot-tall wind turbine near the top of the mountain during the winter of 2010-2011, per New England Ski History, and added a solar farm in 2012. The resort's own dedicated renewable-energy page states: "Powered by a 500kWh solar facility and a 900kWh wind turbine, Berkshire East is the only ski area in the world to generate 100% of our electricity from on-site renewable energy" -- attributing that figure to the resort's own page rather than restating it as settled fact, because the page's text labels both installations' capacity in "kWh," a unit of energy rather than power, which a correctly labeled capacity figure would give in kW or MW. A separate Berkshire East overview page states, in wording the dedicated renewable-energy page does not match, that "Berkshire East is the first ski area in the world to generate 100% of our power from on-site renewable energy" -- the overview page says "first," the renewable-energy page says "only," and the resort's own two pages are not reconciled with each other. Per that same renewable-energy page, the turbine's tower stands 277 feet tall with three 91-foot blades, a hub height of about 195 feet, and a maximum rotation of 27 rpm; the solar array consists of 1,800 panels across a 10-acre field mounted on 90 solar trackers, 24 panels per pole, which the resort's page states "produce 35%-45% more electricity than a fixed panel." The same page states the resort "has a signed agreement with a company pioneering the development of Micro Pump Storage solutions," a planned water-based storage system it describes as working like "a really big, non-toxic, renewable battery" -- a signed agreement, per the resort's own wording, not a completed installation.

Bear Den Partners, the ownership group led by Jon Schaefer of the family that owns Berkshire East, closed on its purchase of Burke Mountain Resort in Vermont on Friday, May 2, 2025, for $11.5 million, per SAM (Ski Area Management), a sale approved by the overseeing Florida receivership judge. Bear Den Partners then acquired majority ownership of Smugglers' Notch Resort in Vermont, as reported by the Greenfield Recorder on February 13, 2026; the resort's previous owner, Bill Stritzler, remained a minority shareholder, with his daughter Lisa Howe serving as an advisor to Bear Den Partners going forward. Separately, per the Greenfield Recorder's March 24, 2026 report, the Schaefer family announced on March 23, 2026 that they were transitioning ownership of Berkshire East itself, together with Catamount Mountain Resort, to Bear Den Partners LLC -- an announced transition rather than a completed sale at the time of that report. Jon Schaefer, Bear Den Partners' CEO, called it "an evolution for my family, not an exit," and the article states that Berkshire East's and Catamount's leadership would remain the same.

Mohawk Trail State Forest, per Wikipedia's article on the forest, spans the towns of Charlemont, Hawley, and Savoy, covers more than 7,700 acres, and was established in 1921 when the Commonwealth purchased the land to preserve its scenic beauty and historic associations; about 612 acres are classified as pre-settlement forest, with eastern hemlocks approaching 500 years old, and two Civilian Conservation Corps camps operated there in the 1930s. Bissell Bridge, a covered bridge over Mill Brook in Charlemont, was built in 1951 as a near-replica replacement for an earlier covered bridge dating to about 1881; per Wikipedia's article on the bridge, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 2004, and is described as the first covered bridge built in Massachusetts in the 20th century. The "Hail to the Sunrise" statue in Mohawk Park, Charlemont, was created by sculptor Joseph Pollia and dedicated before more than 2,000 people on October 1, 1932, per Wikipedia's article on the statue; it was commissioned by the Improved Order of Red Men to honor the peoples of the five Mohawk Nations, and its base pool contains 100 inscribed stones from Red Men tribes and councils across the country. Zoar Outdoor, based in Charlemont since 1989 per its own About page, offers whitewater rafting, kayaking, and canoeing on the Deerfield River along with related instruction and certification courses.