By Dr. Dan O'Keeffe and Mary C. Moro As Told to Toni Anderson-Somme
We would be remiss if we didn't give a special nod to Bill Gluesing, who was given the impressive title, in his heyday, of "Head of G.E.'s House of Magic." An article in The Schenectady Gazette, dated February 20, 1934 called Gluesing "the man credited with 'discovering' North Creek." We 'crickers' might not go that far. After all, we had been enjoying North Creek's natural beauty for quite some time, but we were all certainly grateful for Gluesing vision in recognizing its potential.
The article continued:
...on Saturday late in the winter of'32, he and Vincent Schaefer, G. E.'s now famous snowmaker, rode to North Creek with another ski enthusiast, Robert Cromie, and inquired at the local post office about skiing possibilities on nearby Gore Mountain.
Kenneth Bennett, now president of the North Creek Ski Lift Corp., became interested in the possibilities himself as he showed the visiting Schenectadians around the slopes.
That meeting led to the formation of the Gore Ski Mountain Club, whose New York City branches Gluesing later developed as he toured with "The House of Magic."
And, with his fellow enthusiasts, Gluesing helped to recruit the bulk of North Creek's population in a community enterprise that found the villagers and skiers building the trails that have come to accommodate as many as 4,000 skiers a day.
Gluesing and his fellow-skiers in the Schenectady Winter Sports Club had little trouble in lining up enough skiers for the snow train. From then on, North Creek continued to grow but the ski train died out during the war and an increase in the motoring public kept it from being revived.
Originally, some 50 miles of old logging roads on Gore Mountain served as large a following as do the now secondary slopes served by a 3,200 foot long T-Bar Alpine lift. The higher slopes, which jut above the Barton Garnet Mines, have always been without the benefit of two facilities. Because the beginning of those trails is accessible by auto, they are popularized by North Creek's famous "Ride up and slide down" slogan.
Now, most skiers at North Creek use the four well-developed trails below the mines. These range in length from three quarters of a mile to one and one half miles and are ideal for the intermediate and expert skier.
These trails are serviced by the T-Bar lift, and most of them lead into the "Ski Bowl," open slope area which accommodates as many as 3,000 beginners, novices and intermediates at a time.
A ski hut and ski shop complete the facilities. And that's North Creek as it stands today - "Thanks," officials say, "to those people from Schenectady."
William Gluesing was an inventor and visionary. It is because of these characteristics that he saw the promise in North Creek and Gore Mountain. We think it's safe to say that without that vision, and the enterprise of those "North Crickers" who agreed with him, you wouldn't be reading this little collection of memories, today.
MORE ON BILL GLUESING
We need to learn more about Gluesing's role at GE and the role he played in bringing skiing came to North Creek. Vince Schaefer has written a fair amount about him. As a first step, we'll pull that in.