Mt. Agamenticus Ski Patch (Caricature Logo) — c. 1960s-70s

A vintage Mt. Agamenticus ski patch from York, Maine, estimated to date from the 1960s or 70s, arched-top with a blue merrowed border on a cream ground. The figure on it is a caricature of a Native American — pink skin, a long nose, a single feather in a headband — running forward with a tomahawk raised. AGAMENTICUS in blue beside a red A at the base.

Listed as a record of what the hill printed, not as a thing to celebrate. Agamenticus is an Abenaki place name, and the mountain ran this mark into the seventies before the ski area faded out. It is here because taking it out of the record does not take it out of the history.

Agamenticus is a 690-foot hill about six miles from the Atlantic, and for a stretch of years it supported a genuine ski area with a chairlift on it. Six hundred and ninety feet. You can see the ocean from the top.

That was not considered absurd at the time. If a hill had enough pitch to slide down and a road to get to it, somebody would try, and a surprising number of those attempts worked for twenty or thirty years. The sport was not yet organized around vertical feet and snowfall averages. It was organized around whether there was somewhere to go on Sunday.

The area closed in the mid-seventies and the summit is conservation land now, with a road up it and a view. The mountain is entirely still there. The lift is not.

As for the axe: no idea. He seems pleased about it.

Coastal Maine in winter is a strange place to ski and was never going to sustain a lift operation forever.

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