Betsy McDonough
and I found the area in April, 2000. Here it is...with the rope tow going
up through the pine trees on the right. Notice the plane at the end of the
airstrip.
Many thanks to Mark O'Connor who filled us in with lots of information on Kallander Hill, which was also known as Private Property Keep Out No Trespassing Ski Area on Massachusetts lift Inspection sheets. This was mainly a private ski area for family and friends, and was owned by Peter Kallander. At one point, when the a state lift inspector arrived, they asked him what the name of the ski area was. According to Kevin Thomas, after some back and forth, Peter called it "Private Property Keep Out No Trespassing Ski Area".
Mark's write up is below, with details on the ski area and what is left today:
I
actually once owned the farm that included the hill that the ski slope was on
(long before I bought the property though). I was there with Peter Kallander,
its owner operator, on what was likely the last occasion the rope tow was
operational on that site. I think it was in the fall of 1983. Peter was the guy
that built the lift and owned several hundred acres including the mountain.
Peter was a pilot of wide-body jets for Delta Airlines. He had a small private
airport on the site (with grass north-south and east-west runways), and the
run-out for the ski slope ran across the east-west runway over toward
Stoneybrook golf course a few hundred yards away. Peter built that golf course
with his dad when he was younger on another part of the property. It was a small
9 hole par 3, which is the golf equivalent of his small ski slope. They sold the
golf course at some point I believe. Here's the Airline Owners and Passengers
Association link to the private air strip, which is still in operation:
http://www.aopa.org/airports/09MA.
Peter died in March 1997.
Here is his obituary from
Worcester Telegram and Gazette:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Peter+Kallander,+Aviation+enthusiast.-a0160488364
| Kallander Hill, which it should be referred-to as, was north facing, and had two purposes. In the summer and the fall, Peter told me if the conditions were right, he would take his plane up the hill and take off. I never saw him take off on that side of the hill because my property was a few hundred yards south and west, and the ski slope faced pretty much due north. I did, however, help Peter clear the west side of the mountain in 1983. At that point he hadn't been operating the lift in the winter for a number of years. The lift was an old farm vehicle with its drive-train intact. I did see it, and I think we may have fired it up that day to see if it was still working properly. He showed me how it operated because he knew I was a life-long skier and had learned at a place like this in Dudley Mass near Nichols College, and at Mount Tom and Maple Valley. The rope was attached to one of the back wheels with its counterpart at the bottom. He'd just start it up and run it for his kids and their friends. I don't recall him ever saying if it was ever a commercial venture for Peter. It was likely just for his kids and for locals. Peter was a popular guy around town and had been the president of his class in high school. |
|
We cut down a number of cedars that fall weekend, and I took them to use for a
fenced-in paddock that I was going to build off my barn (which I never got
around-to). Peter then had a west-facing runway on Kallander Hill that could be
used when the winds came from the other direction. I don't believe anyone ever
skied on that, although I had planned to try it. My estimate is the hill had a
vertical of at least 200-250 feet.
On that day Peter gave me the history of the mountain that I note here. Over the
next year I did see him take off from the part of the hill we cleared. I think
he did that as a practice exercise for having to take off or land in
extraordinary conditions. He had a house on Moosehead lake in northern
Maine, and would fly up
there regularly.
Around the time I moved away a few years later he had purchased an amphibious
plane (either a Lake or a Seabee), with a large prop high and behind the
cockpit. I did see him taking off and even doing the last part of his landings
on the side of the mountain with that and its predecessor plane, sort of like
touch and goes. It was an amazing site for me and all the other neighbors that
could see it. I think he bought the rear prop plane because there wasn't enough
prop clearance on the west facing hillside given the steeper grade.
|
Here's the Terraserver overhead pic (found by Betsy). The location of the plane is noted, as is the rope tow line. |
Peter also told me that the mountain
was his retirement, so that would explain why he never tried to develop
it into a commercial ski area, as he did with the golf course. He was
going to build houses on it. Clearing the portion on my side was likely
a part of that strategy. It was pretty steep, and I didn't quite
understand how he was planning to do that. I also didn't completely
realize how big the mountain was. But he had been seeing it from all
angles during his years of flying around it. About 15 years ago he did that and there must be 60 high-end homes/condos on it now, most with magnificent views. It's a high density development with 2-4 units in each structure. They've also made major topographical changes, taking off at least 100 feet of vertical and creating a large plane for the area where the homes are now. Here's a link to the Google Earth view of my old property, with the Kallander property to the west and north. |
Pre-development, there was a north-south runway where Kallander Drive now is.
Where Kallander Field now is, that was the runout for where he would climb the
mountain's west side with his plane, on the run that we cleared. The Kallander
Hill ski area was just to the west of where
Carriage Lane enters the
development on the north side. But it looks like they must have taken millions
of yards of fill out of there. Much of that could have been used to develop much
of that part of Southborough and framingham where Staples, Bose,
CA, EMC and many other
companies now have major facilities.
The area looks nothing like it did then.
Peter Kollander was instrumental in founding the Southborough Open Land
Foundation (www.solf.org).
The attached SOLF Newsletter pays tribute to him and describes his
contributions, including land near where the ski slope once was. The picture on
their web page is of Peter and his grandson.
Thanks Mark! We hope to have some historic views of this area soon.
Last updated: Nov 10, 2011
