Shawnee Peak Patch (Sun & Moon) — c. 1990s

A vintage Shawnee Peak patch from Bridgton, Maine, estimated to date from the 1990s, round with a red merrowed border on a white ground. A blue triangular peak fills the middle with a single white trail curving down its face, a yellow sun throwing red rays at the left, and a small gold crescent moon hung at the upper right. SHAWNEE PEAK in blue beneath.

The sun and the moon on the same patch is not decoration. This mountain runs the largest night-skiing operation in Maine, and for a very long time that was the entire proposition: lights on a hill an hour from Portland, open until nine, so that a person with a job and kids could still get eight runs in on a Wednesday.

The destination resorts get the photographs. The small lighted hills got the students. Almost everybody who learned to ski in southern Maine learned it in the dark, under lights, on a slope they could reach after work.

A logo that puts the moon on equal footing with the sun is a mountain that knows exactly what business it is in.

Embroidered on twill, merrowed edge. Photos are the condition report.