Ski Haystack Patch (Shield) — c. 1970s-80s

A vintage Ski Haystack patch from Wilmington, Vermont, probably late 1970s or early 80s, featuring two black skis standing on end beside a yellow arch — a mountain reduced to one stroke, or a letter, depending on how long you look at it. Pointed shield, silver-grey ground, gold merrowed border, SKI HAYSTACK in black italic across the bottom.

Haystack opened in the 1960s in the Deerfield Valley as a public mountain — buy a ticket, ride the lift, same as anywhere. It spent its later years as a private club, which is a fate that has befallen a small number of American ski areas and which changes the nature of a place completely.

This patch is from the part where anybody could go. That distinction is worth more than it looks: a public mountain generates souvenirs by the thousand because thousands of people pass through it. A private one does not, because members do not buy souvenirs of their own club.

So the objects stop. There is a date after which no more of these were made, and everything in circulation now comes from before it.

There is no judgment in this listing about what happened to Haystack afterward. The facts are complicated and contested and not ours to settle. What is not in dispute is that for a long stretch it was a public mountain in the Deerfield Valley and anybody could ski it.

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