Maine’s First Ski Resort Restores Its Original Name After 30 Years

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions or personal experiences.

First it was the 1st ski resort in the entire country, New England's Suicide Six ski resort in Vermont, that just changed its name after 86 years.  Now a month after that, here we are in Maine where Shawnee Peak, Maine's first ski resort is no more, at least in name.

According to US News and World Report, Maine's very first ski mountain in Bridgton, which started as a single trail after the Civilian Conservation Corps carved a single trail back in1936, has decided to return to its original name, Pleasant Mountain.

I'm talking about Shawnee Peak Ski Resort, where so many have learned to ski and grown up with that name.  But now, Ralph Lewis, the General Manager of Shawnee Peak, says the resort is now officially back to its roots as Pleasant Mountain.  It's pretty cool to think that any Shawnee Peak merch you have is now legendary.

It gives me great pleasure to return to our original name and also to know that this ski area is poised for a great future so others may experience what many of us already have.

US News says that Shawnee Peak was a name chosen in 1988 by new owners. They already operated a ski mountain of the same name, named after a Native American tribe that was pushed west by settlers.

Even the Facebook page has already updated, as has the website.

Now that the new owners from Michigan-based Boyne Resorts have owned the resort since October of 2021, they can get the new name going before the ski season officially begins.  Boyne Resorts also owns Sunday River and Sugarloaf resorts in Maine.