Sawyer River Skiway
Livermore, New Hampshire
Proposed in the 1960s
Overview
Located west of present day Attitash, the abandoned logging settlement known as Livermore nearly became a big time ski town, as Sawyer River Skiway was proposed for Mt. Saunders (elevation 3,140 feet) and Mt. Tremont (elevation 3,371 feet) in the 1960s. Sel Hannah was involved in surveying the area.
Mt. Tremont as seen from Sawyer River Road (2010)
1950 USGS Topographic Map
Today
There are no known remains of the Sawyer River Skiway.
Quotes
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[M]any former logging sites came under consideration for ski area development. Perhaps the one with the greatest potential that was never built was the proposed Sawyer River Skiway, half a dozen miles north of today's Attitash. There, near the abandoned logging village of Livermore, ski area planners envisioned a major resort on the slopes of Mts. Saunders and Tremont.
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Jeff Leich, "Before The Skier, The Logger"
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The US Forest Service evaluated many locations in the White Mountains for ski resorts in the 1960s. Among them was a site just north of Bartlett that Sel Hannah saw as having "the physical potential for one of the major ski areas east of the Mississippi." This was the eastern exposure of Saunders Mountain, in Hart's Location between the Sawyer River Road and the Notchland Inn. 'Sawyer River Skiways' was the planned name, and it would have had a vertical drop of more than two thousand two hundred feet. Beginner terrain would have extended onto the lower slopes of Mt. Tremont, and a ski touring trail was planned from the summit of Mt Saunders to the abandoned townsite of Livermore.
It is unclear why this 1964 plan did not take shape, but by that time planning was underway for Attitash.
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Jeff Leich, "Sketches of Bartlett NH Ski History"
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Resources
Leich, Jeff. "Before The Skier, The Logger." New England Ski Museum Online Journal. January 21, 2006. http://www.skimuseum.org/page.php?cid=doc24.
Leich, Jeff. "Sketches of Bartlett NH Ski History." New England Ski Museum Online Journal. January 21, 2006. http://www.skimuseum.org/page.php?cid=doc28.
Last updated: December 17, 2012
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