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History of Oak Mountain

Oak Mountain was founded by the Town of Lake Pleasant in1947. Before it was called Oak Mountain it was called Oak Hill. Lake Pleasant renamed it when they built it into a ski center so that it wouldn’t sound funny to ski on a hill. The town would auction it off to the highest bidder who would be able to lease it for those 3 years.

One year Thomas Novosel, a lumberman, leased Oak Mountain from the Town of Lake Pleasant. Then it was put up for sale and he bought it and it has been in the Novasel’s family ever since.

Oak Mountain was a success. Buses from New York City would bring up people to go skiing on the weekends.

Oak Mountain put in the T-bar in 1947. The motor of the T-bar was used to hoist cables up on the Golden Gate Bridge before they bought it. They never had any real problems with it; it always ran smoothly until they took it out in 2000.

The main lodge of Oak Mountain was originally used as a place for skiers to rent skis. When they added on the two wings though, they changed it into a food court and resting place for skiers. The basement became the ski patrol office and the rental department. Behind the lodge was a warming hut that rented out skis and sold food. It burned down on Halloween night in 1967.

Oak Mountain is now making a new lodge for skiers and it will also be a year round restaurant. The old lodge will have a room for ski patrol and instructors and a room for the rentals and an office. The downstairs will be turned into a storage area and they are hopefully going to build on a garage for the groomer.

The Germain’s are working hard to make Oak Mountain a year around business and these are some of the things they are trying to do. In the summer they hope to hold a farmers market once a week and maybe an antique car show. They are also letting the town make a biking trail that hooks on to Nova Special. A few years ago they also had a tower built on top of the mountain that is used as a cell phone tower, a radio station, a Niagara Mohawk pager, and a Speculator Ambulance tower.

Scribner’s Mountain

Scribner’s ski slope was a ski area located near Melody Lodge at what is currently known as Page Hill. The land that Scribner’s ski slope was on was owned by the Scribner’s family. The Scribner’s family had a house in Speculator which is now gone. The ski slope was run and maintained by the township of Lake Pleasant. To get to the Scribner’s ski slope you had to walk approximately one quarter of a mile from the road. To purchase a lift ticket you would pay fifty cents. In those days fifty cents was worth a lot more than it is today. The lift that brought the skiers up the hill was a rope tow. It had a small slope in front and a large, winding slope in the back. At the bottom of the slope was a lean-to that provided shelter for the skiers. Through its history, the lift at Scribner’s slope was operated by many different people. One man by the name of Gerald Buyce operated the rope tow after World War Two. Scribner’s ski slope closed in the late 1940s.