Kolan
Family Tow
Queensbury, NY
Mid 1960's
Thanks to Kathy Pennucci, we now know of this semi-private area that operated in Jeremy's town of Queensbury! Here are her details:
"I lived on Lynnfield Dr. in Queensbury from 1962-1967. One of our neighbors, Andy Kolan on Owen Ave., had a rope tow in the back yard! All of the kids in the neighborhood spent every waking moment either sledding or skiing at the Kolan's. As I recall, it was even lighted for night skiing.
If no one was outside when you got there, you
just knocked on the door and handed the electric cord in through the window and
Mrs. Kolan would plug it in for you. Can
you imagine a whole neighborhood of kids using a rope tow, pretty much
un-supervised, everyday all winter? I
don't remember anyone ever getting hurt but no one would dare do this these
days.
I'd love to see that back yard now. We moved away when I was 12 and I can't even make a guess as to how long the tow was or how much vertical drop there was. While I probably also skied at every area within 100 miles or so from Glen's Falls, I think I can say that I learned to ski in the Kolan's backyard. I've often wished that I could have given my kids the same experience of learning to ski in the Kolan's back yard. But they learned to ski at Cochran's in Richmond VT, which seemed almost as small and homey."
I checked out this neighborhood in 2001....while there are some small hills in people's backyards on that road, none has a vertical of 50 or more. This was definitely a small area!
If you have more information on this area just let us know.