Eaglecrest Ski Area web site , Juneau Empire/Mac Metcalfe - article, Bob Janes - Juneau Ski Club history information

Excerpt from Eaglecrest Ski Area web site history page:

In the early 1930's rope tows were springing up all over the country, including Juneau . In 1932 a portable tow with 1,000 feet of quarter-inch rope was installed in the Upper Perseverance Trail area, on Alexander ( Sandy ) Smith's mining claim. There was a 200 yard grassy area in his front yard, which became the first real "ski hill" in Juneau . Skiers could be towed 500 feet up the slope for a great downhill run! Later, Sandy Smith was to become the first president of the Juneau Ski Club when it was formed in 1935.

Excerpt from a December 20, 2001 Juneau Empire article by Mac Metcalfe:

You would never guess by looking at it, but a muskeg- and tree-covered, windswept hill just above the junction of the Perseverance and Granite Creek trails is the birthplace of Eaglecrest, Juneau's recreational ski area. This hill was the site of Juneau's first mechanical ski operation in the early 1930s.

The "proprietor" of the ski site was an 80-year-old prospector named Alexander "Sandy" Smith. Smith lived in a cabin near the trail junction where skiers were invited in to warm up and sip coffee. Nearby, a motor bolted to a toboggan operated a rope tow that pulled skiers to the top of the hill.

Smith was working a mine near Granite Creek, said Tom Stewart, a retired Superior Court judge who has skied in Juneau since the early 1930s. After skiing down the hill, many skiers would continue down what was then Perseverance road, said Stewart, 82.