Lyndon Outing Club

Lyndon Outing Club dates to at least 1926, when the first Winter Carnival was held in Lyndonville, per New England Ski History's Lyndon Outing Club page. The club was formally organized in late 1936 or early 1937, with Milton Kerr as president, and grew to 106 members by the winter of 1936-37. On January 2, 1938 the club debuted a lighted ski slope on Oscar Baril's farm near Fletcher School, headlined by national ski jumping champion Clarence Olesen. The club installed a 10-horsepower, 375-foot electric rope tow on December 23, 1939. In 1947 the club relocated to Shonya Hill on land provided by the Shonyo family; a new 800-foot rope tow debuted there in mid-December 1947, with Fred Hansen, later the designer of Mount Sunapee, assisting in selecting the site. During the 1961-62 season, club members built a 1,600-foot T-bar lift to mark the club's 25th anniversary, dedicated with a week-long carnival of races, a ball, a torchlight parade, and fireworks in February 1962. After the T-bar was struck by lightning around 1982, the club secured an $18,000 town loan to purchase a replacement T-bar from Stowe. The club is run strictly by volunteers, who handle lift operation, concessions, and grooming. A T-bar malfunction forced a mid-winter shutdown in 2011; volunteers restored the lift in time for the 2011-12 season. In 2021 the club received a $26,000 grant from the Northern Forest Center to support mountain bike trail development. The ski area sits on Shonya Hill, east of Lyndonville village.