Smugglers' Notch Resort, Vermont: three mountains, shared ownership

After Tom Watson's health declined, the Watson family sold the resort in 1973 to Stanmar, Inc.'s subsidiary Smuggler's Notch Corp., led by Stanley Snider, per New England Ski History's "Smugglers' Notch" area history page. William P. Stritzler, who had joined the resort as managing director in 1987, purchased it from Stanley Snider in 1996; the Stritzler family owned and operated the resort from 1996 until February 2026, when Bear Den Partners acquired majority ownership of Smugglers' Notch Resort, per The Greenfield Recorder's February 13, 2026 reporting by Madison Schofield. Bill Stritzler remains a minority shareholder, and his daughter, Lisa Howe, serves as an advisor to Bear Den Partners, whose CEO, Jon Schaefer, is part of the family that owns Berkshire East in Charlemont, Massachusetts.

The resort's terrain comprises three interconnected mountains -- Morse, Sterling, and Madonna -- and includes a trail named "The Black Hole," per Wikipedia's "Smugglers' Notch Resort" article.

The Jeffersonville Historic District, encompassing buildings across about 63 acres along Church, Main, Maple, and School Streets plus Carlton Avenue, VT Route 108, and Brewster Avenue, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 10, 1987, according to Wikipedia's "Jeffersonville Historic District" article. Jeffersonville, the largest settlement in the town of Cambridge, was first settled by John Brewster in the 1780s and incorporated as a village in 1827. The Cambridge Meetinghouse, at 85 Church Street, is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Grist Mill Covered Bridge, spanning the Brewster River east of Cambridge village, is also listed on the National Register, per Wikipedia's list of NRHP listings in Lamoille County, Vermont. Boyden Valley Winery & Spirits operates a working farm and tasting room at 64 VT-104 in Cambridge and describes itself on its own site as Vermont's first and only Estate Whiskey Alliance member; as of the winery's own website, its bourbon was still being distilled under contract at Old Glory Distilling in Tennessee, with a move to on-site distilling planned. Smugglers' Notch Distillery, founded in 2006 in Jeffersonville at the foot of Smugglers' Notch, had its vodka named by USA Today readers among the top 10 craft vodka distilleries in the country in multiple years between 2018 and 2023, per the distillery's own website.