Cranmore Mountain Resort, New Hampshire

Cranmore Mountain Resort is located in North Conway. Currently, it is one of New Hampshire's most successful resorts.

It was founded in 1937 by a group of businessmen, led by Harvey Dow Gibson of Fryeburg, Maine, who wanted to establish North Conway as the ski capital of the world. Picking land on Lookout Mountain, they began the construction of a small ski resort there.

Cranmore probably would have faded into obscurity if it wasn't for Hitler and the German annexation of Austria, where Hannes Schneider had created his ski school. Schneider was an outspoken critic of the Nazis, and they stripped him of his title in 1938. Gibson arranged for Schneider's release to the United States.

Schneider Arrives in North Conway
Schneider and his entire family left the train and walked under an archway of ski poles, held by 150 schoolchildren enrolled in the Eastern Slope Ski Club Junior Program. After lunch, Schneider made his first turns at his new home. "Well, Herbert," Schneider said to his son, "It's not St. Anton, but we're going to love it here." From that moment on, Schneider and Gibson worked to build Cranmore into a premier ski resort destination.

(As legend has it, Schneider saw Mount Washington and said "Ah! The mountain!".)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Uses material from the article Cranmore Mountain Resort.