Powderhouse Hill: South Berwick's town-owned rope tow, running since 1939

By the time of the January 29, 2025 Seacoastonline article, the hill had already opened five times during the 2024-25 season — "five times as often as all of last year" — after a snowstorm the week before left the snowpack cold enough that, per the club, "none of the snow melted after the storm." A club representative described the decision: "When we made the decision to open (last) Monday after the storm, we looked and said it's marginal but it's better than not skiing." Club president Dan Boyle credited the town directly in the same article: "We owe the town a huge amount, they have really improved the hill through the draining plans." Per NELSAP, the hill's name comes from its history with gunpowder; early settlers Thomas and Elizabeth Butler owned the property beginning in 1698, and William Hardy built the first rope tow on the slope "about 1939" — NELSAP's own word, repeated three times on the page — when the hill was owned by Herbie Day.

Per NELSAP, the town purchased the property in the early 1990s, and "the club and town work in harmony to keep the hill open for the public to enjoy." NELSAP presents two accounts of the tow's power history that the source itself flags as disagreeing: a club history book describes founder William Hardy's original Model A truck engine being replaced in the 1970s by an unnamed air-cooled four-cylinder engine, while separate contributors' recollections instead describe a 1938 Ford V8 truck whose original engine was replaced by a 37 HP air-cooled Wisconsin engine during the club's 1960s era. Either way, per NELSAP, the engine turns "a hard rubber, grooved drive wheel off the truck rear end," powering an 800-foot rope tow from a base with "a small lodge...with a snack bar and wood stove." In 2008 the club built a "drag type" snow groomer pulled behind a snowmobile — "to our knowledge," per NELSAP's own hedge, the first time the hill has been consistently groomed since its inception. Per the same source, the hill connects to hiking trails across South Berwick Water District land toward Berwick Academy, which "has used the convenient loop for cross-country training," and a Girl Scout-established geocaching site sits at the hill's top.

The Sarah Orne Jewett House, per Wikipedia's article on the house, is "a two-story wood-frame structure with clapboard siding," built in 1774 for merchant John Haggins, combining Georgian architecture with Greek Revival elements; it is stewarded by Historic New England. The Jewett-Eastman House, built around 1850 in Greek Revival style, was the childhood home of writer Sarah Orne Jewett and now serves, per Wikipedia, "as a gallery space and as the visitors center for the adjacent Sarah Orne Jewett House," also under Historic New England's stewardship. The Counting House Museum, operated by the Old Berwick Historical Society, is, per the Society's own site, "open June-Oct on Sundays from 1pm-4pm, and by appointment," with free entry. Vaughan Woods State Park, along the Salmon Falls River on South Berwick's western edge, includes the restored Hamilton House and old-growth forest; per Wikipedia's article on the park, the property "was bequeathed to the state by Elizabeth Vaughan in 1949" and is managed by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Hamilton House itself, per Historic New England's own property page, is "a striking Georgian mansion" overlooking the Salmon Falls River and a National Historic Landmark; per Wikipedia's article on the house, it was built between 1787 and 1788.