Sugarloaf USA Security Patch — c. 1980s

A vintage Sugarloaf/USA security patch from Carrabassett Valley, Maine, estimated to date from the 1980s or 90s, a triangle with a white merrowed border — a deep purple mountain with a white snowcap at the apex, sugarloaf/usa in white lowercase across its face, and S E C U R I T Y letterspaced in white along a bar at the base. Issued with the uniform, never sold at any counter.

Issued with the uniform. Returned with the uniform, in theory. Never sold at any counter on the mountain.

Sugarloaf sits in Carrabassett Valley, a long way up Route 27 from anything, and in the eighties running security there meant being one of a very small number of people responsible for several thousand visitors in a place with limited options if something went seriously wrong. The nearest real hospital is not close.

Purple is an unusual color for staff issue. Somebody wanted the security crew visible from distance in flat light, which is a practical decision that happens to have produced the best-looking staff patch in the catalog.

Staff patches also carry a small ethical weight that resort patches do not. Somebody worked a season for this, and the fact that it is now for sale means that person is probably gone, or has stopped caring, or had their things cleared out by somebody who did not know what they were looking at. That is true of most of what is here. It is just more obvious on a uniform patch.

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