Thunderbolt Ski Museum Opens In Adams Visitor's Center

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
02:32PM / Sunday, October 07, 2012Print Story | Email Story

Original Thunderbolt Ski Runners Steve Nowicki, 90, Art Bourdon, 89, Donald Linscott, 88, and George Verow, 93, cut the ribbon the new ski museum at the Adams Visitor's Center.

ADAMS, Mass. — The storied history of the Thunderbolt Ski Trail is now preserved in the Adams Visitor's Center.

The Thunderbolt Ski Runners cut the ribbon on the new museum that honors the trail down the east side of Mount Greylock. The Thunderbolt was home to the state championship in the 1930s and was considered one of the most difficult trails in the state.

The new display in the Adams Visitor's Center includes vintage skis, boots, clothing, pictures, film and awards from both the heyday of skiing in Adams to modern races held annually.

At the ceremony four skiers from the 1930s cut the ribbon: Steve Nowicki, 90, Art Bourdon, 89, Donald Linscott, 88, and George Verow, 93.

According to Town Administrator Jonathan Butler, the Thunderbolt Ski Runners have eyed creating the ski museum for a few years now. When the Berkshire Visitor's Bureau moved out of the center, they had a location.

"If anyone had the creditability to do this in Adams or anywhere, it was this group," Butler said of the idea that many thought would have been impossible.

The revitalization of the Thunderbolt race has "put Adams back on the map," Butler said, and the museum helps build on that history. There are only about half dozen or so ski museums in the country.

The Thunderbolt Ski Trail was originally cleared as a public works project. It quickly became known for the annual world-class race that attracted top skiers from across the country and Europe. The trail fell into disrepair after World War 2. In 2008, the Thunderbolt Ski Runners revived the race and the trail.

Of those 1930s downhill trails, the Thunderbolt is the only one that is still in the same state that it was then.

"The Thunderbolt is a time capsule. It truly is like going back in time," Blair Mahar, who headed the effort to not only bring the historic race back on the trail a few years ago but also the museum, said at Sunday's ribbon cutting. "Only the Thunderbolt exists as it did in the 1930s."

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Letter: Progress Means Moving on Paper Mill Cleanup

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, February 11, 2026

To the Editor:

Our town is facing a clear choice: move a long-abandoned industrial site toward cleanup and productive use or allow it to remain a deteriorating symbol of inaction.

The Community Development team has applied for a $4 million EPA grant to remediate the former Curtis Mill property, a site that has sat idle for more than two decades. The purpose of this funding is straightforward: address environmental concerns and prepare the property for safe commercial redevelopment that can contribute to our tax base and economic vitality.

Yet opposition has emerged based on arguments that miss the point of what this project is designed to do. We are hearing that basement vats should be preserved, that demolition might create dust, and that the plan is somehow "unimaginative" because it prioritizes cleanup and feasibility over wishful reuse of a contaminated, aging structure.

These objections ignore both the environmental realities of the site and the strict federal requirements tied to this grant funding. Given the condition of most of the site's existing buildings, our engineering firm determined it was not cost-effective to renovate. Without cleanup, no private interest will risk investment in this site now or in the future.

This is not a blank check renovation project. It is an environmental remediation effort governed by safety standards, engineering assessments, and financial constraints. Adding speculative preservation ideas or delaying action risks derailing the very funding that makes cleanup possible in the first place. Without this grant, the likely outcome is not a charming restoration, it is continued vacancy, ongoing deterioration, and zero economic benefit.

For more than 20 years, the property has remained unused. Now, when real funding is within reach to finally address the problem, we should be rallying behind a practical path forward not creating obstacles based on narrow or unrealistic preferences.

I encourage residents to review the proposal materials and understand what is truly at stake. The Adams Board of Selectmen and Community Development staff have done the hard work to put our town in position for this opportunity. That effort deserves support.

Progress sometimes requires letting go of what a building used to be so that the community can gain what it needs to become.

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