Mohawk Mountain: A 1947 Lease, a Snowmaking Dispute, and the Path to Mount Snow, Butternut, and Sundown

Mohawk's own history page states that "Walt was the pioneer of manmade snowmaking, leading the efforts behind the technology that is used worldwide today" — the operator's own framing of Schoenknecht's role. New England Ski History gives a more granular, and different, account: in the winter of 1949-50, after a snow drought, Schoenknecht purchased an estimated 500 tons of ice from Economy Ice Company and used a chipper to create a snow surface, allowing Mohawk to reopen its Pinnacle Trail and Pine Slope on January 22, 1950 — a manual ice-chipping method distinct from mechanical snowmaking. Separately, on March 15, 1950, Arthur Hunt of Tey Company announced the invention of snow-making machines that could be positioned "at intervals along a trail" using "a pressurized system," explicitly distinguishing his invention from Mohawk's chopped-ice system by stating that, to his knowledge, his company was the first to convert water to snow in an open field. For the 1950-51 season, per New England Ski History, "Mohawk and Split Rock (later known as Big Boulder, PA) boasted the first two snowmaking systems using equipment invented by Tey Manufacturing's Wayne M. Pierce Jr." The system was first tested the night of December 28, 1950, an attempt that "ended inconclusively when below zero cold froze feed lines of the device after only a small amount of snow was produced"; two days later Mohawk announced three snow-making machines had been in operation. Both accounts are published here as each source states them: the resort's own page credits Schoenknecht as snowmaking's pioneer, while New England Ski History's more granular account credits the actual 1950-51 machinery to Tey Manufacturing's Wayne Pierce, with Schoenknecht's own 1949-50 contribution being the manual ice-chipping workaround rather than the machine itself. Mohawk's own history page separately states the ski area "offers 112 skiable acres over 300 scenic acres of state forest" — an operator-stated figure, attributed here to the operator's own page rather than restated as settled fact.

Schoenknecht ordered Carlevaro & Savio chairlifts for the 1960-61 season, including one for Mohawk Mountain, which New England Ski History describes as "the first chairlift installed in southern New England"; Channing Murdock "was hired to manage the upgraded area." Following the 1961-62 season, per that same source, "Channing Murdock departed to start Butternut Basin. A few years later, he acquired the defunct Satan's Ridge ski area, reopening it as Ski Sundown" — tying Murdock's Mohawk tenure to both Butternut Basin, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and, later, Ski Sundown in New Hartford, Connecticut. The Berkshire Edge, in a January 8, 2024 article on Ski Butternut's 60th anniversary, independently corroborates the Mohawk connection: "In 1962, Channing Murdock, a former employee of Mount Snow in Vt., and former manager of Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall, Conn., purchased the property with his wife, Jane Murdock," referring to the Warner Mountain property the couple reopened as Butternut Basin, now Ski Butternut, on Christmas Eve 1963.

An F4 tornado struck Mohawk Mountain at 4:37 p.m. on July 10, 1989, causing $1.5 to $2 million in damage, destroying buildings and toppling lifts, per New England Ski History; initial industry analysis held the ski area might not reopen for a year, if ever, but Mohawk rebuilt in time to open for the 1989-90 season. Mohawk's own history page corroborates the event in general terms: "in 1989, a tornado hit Mohawk Mountain, destroying much of the surrounding forest and damaging the lifts and structures." The same 1989 tornado outbreak also destroyed most of nearby Cathedral Pines, a Nature Conservancy preserve elsewhere in Cornwall (see below). In the fall of 1991, the State of Connecticut agreed to allow night skiing at Mohawk under a fifteen-point list of requirements, added that winter in part to help pay off tornado-related debt, with alcohol remaining banned on the state property. Schoenknecht signed a new 30-year lease with the State of Connecticut starting January 1986, providing up to 1.85% of gross revenue to the state; a further 30-year lease began in January 2017, per the same source. Mohawk's own page states Walt opened the mountain "the same year his daughter, Carol Lugar, was born," and that "today, Mohawk Mountain is still family owned and operated with Carol as co-owner and president"; New England Ski History separately notes that Walt was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1980s and that Carol Lugar returned to help him manage the area.