Remeber when just the start for Gunstock

"Remember When?" was just the start.

Gunstock Mountain Resorts effort to draw people into the 70-year history of the publicly-owned outdoor recreation area by displaying hundreds of old black and white photographs and newspaper articles over the weekend was a success but represented just the proverbial tip of the icreburg. The attic of the original lodge building contains boxes with perhaps as much as 100 times more memorabilia — including perhaps 5,000 35-mm slides of the people who have contributed to the mountain's history.

The original blueprints for the lodge — which opened as Belknap Mountain Recreation Area in time for the start of the 1937 ski season — are also upstairs, along with a large "working" model of the resort that used to be taken around to ski shows as a promotional device.

The model probably hasn't seen much light of day in the past 20 years, noted General Manager Greg Goddard, who credits Marketing Director Bill Quigley with the newfound interest in Gunstock's history and its very direct connection to several generations of Belknap County residents. Quigley, who has been at the mountain just a couple of years, began going through the boxes in the attic in an effort to learn more about his place of employment and he has since come to learn that the attic contains perhaps the most complete history of an American ski area to be found anywhere.

Thorughout its history, Quigley, notes Gunstock has had only one base lodge building and one owner, which mades it very unusual.

Friday afternoon and Saturday morning found any number of people bending over an array of folding tables looking at photographs and writing on little yellow post-it notes provided to help the resort identify people in the vintage pictures.

"Is that me?", asked David Stamps, pointing to a freckle-faced, teenage face in a photograph that included a ski jumping trophy as if it could possibly be anyone else.

Judy Buswell was thrilled to find her sister — Nancy Simonds — in a couple of 1950s era photos and she recalled that the now retired Harvard professor was a "snow queen" at Gunstock while at Laconia High School.

There were, of course, a lot of faces that most anyone could have identified. Olympic ski medalist Penny Pitou, not surpisinly, was in many, along with members of her family. The collection included photos of her toddler son, Christian, who is now president of Pike Industries.

Quigley said the slow but steady effort to digitize all of the memorabelia in the attic has begun and will be working with the Thompons-Ames Historical Society to create historic displays for the lodge's Cantina.