Powderhouse Hill

The town of South Berwick owns Powderhouse Hill; per Seacoastonline's January 29, 2025 report, it is operated by the Powderhouse Hill Ski Club, roughly 30 member families with Dan Boyle as club president at the time, while Friends of Powderhouse Hill — under the umbrella of SoBo Central — runs the concession stand. Per the same article, the hill operates "Wednesday and Friday evenings as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoons, when snow allows," with the Marshwood high school ski team using it on other nights; rope tow tickets were $5 at the time of that report. By publication, the hill had already opened five times during the 2024-25 season — "five times as often as all of last year" — after a snowstorm left snow that, per the club, "none... melted after the storm"; a club representative said, "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: "We owe the town a huge amount, they have really improved the hill through the draining plans." Per New England Lost Ski Areas Project (NELSAP), the hill sits "on Agamenticus Road where it intersects with Route 4 in South Berwick, Maine," and the Powderhouse Hill Ski Club was "incorporated December 14, 1964," per Maine state incorporation records. 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 "about 1939" — NELSAP's own repeated word — when the hill was owned by Herbie Day. The town purchased the property in the early 1990s, and, per NELSAP, "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 it itself flags as disagreeing: a club history book has Hardy's original Model A truck engine replaced in the 1970s by an unnamed air-cooled four-cylinder engine, while contributors' own recollections instead describe a 1938 Ford V8 truck whose engine was replaced by a 37 HP air-cooled Wisconsin engine during the club's 1960s era. 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," per NELSAP. 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. 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," per NELSAP, and a Girl Scout-established geocaching site sits at its top.