Dec 14, 2003 3 min read

LIGONIER, Pa. (AP) – Efforts to sell and reopen the historic Laurel Mountain Ski Resort have again been delayed – this time, due to the death of an executive of the company that announced last month that it was buying the resort. Owner George Mowl said he’s canceled plans to open the slopes next week in Ligonier, about 55 miles east of Pittsburgh. Now that won’t happen until at least next month and Mowl said he’s had to lay off workers and will refund money that people have already spent for season passes.

In November, HomeSpan Financial Group Inc. of Petersburg, Va. announced it was buying the historic resort, once an early-20th-century playground for western Pennsylvania’s well-to-do. But less than two weeks later, HomeSpan’s president, John Jones, died of an aneurism.

Still, Mowl and HomeSpan officials said they’re confident the deal will get done in time for the resort to open next month.

“I feel confident that we’ll be able to hit the heart of the season,” said Louis Wargo, Homespan’s acting president.

The ski area lies within the Laurel Mountain State Park, a 493-acre expanse with elevations from 1,300 to 2,800 feet. The ski resort boasts one of the largest vertical drops in Pennsylvania.

Before World War II, about 60 acres were owned privately by the exclusive Rolling Rock Club, where the ski resort now lies. In earlier years, skiers were carried back up the mountain in horse-drawn sleighs, not chairlifts.

The land was given to the state in 1962 by Richard King Mellon, the conservationist chairman of Mellon Bank, and passed through several concessionaires before being closed completely between 1989 and 1998, when Mowl cut a deal with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Mowl promised to rebuild the resort in exchange for a lease through at least 2033, and says he’s invested some $4 million building a modern lodge and increased snowmaking capacity. But a succession of fair-weather winters played havoc with Mowl’s plans, because he had limited cash to ride out the slow years.

Mowl said that mounting debt forced him to send the few remaining employees home this week, though he hopes they’ll be rehired when the resort opens next month.

“I couldn’t wait anymore,” Mowl said. “All my people were working for nothing and we had groups (of skiers) waiting.”

Sales of season passes and group outings have all been canceled. The checks used to pay for them were never cashed, so customers will get all their money back.

While those sales were projected to infuse $100,000 into the resort, Mowl said the resort’s uncertain future kept him from tapping into those funds.

“I didn’t want to be responsible for spending people’s money and then not open,” Mowl said.

HomeSpan will assume the long-term lease and other details of the arrangement will stay the same because the resort will be sold in its entirety, said DCNR spokeswoman Gretchen Leslie.

Before he died, Jones said that work at the resort this year would be mostly maintenance, though a possible expansion of the facilities and slopes could occur in the future.

The black-diamond Upper Wildcat slope run feeds expert skiers into the double-black diamond Lower Wildcat below. Operators said it is the steepest continuous ski slope in Pennsylvania.

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On the Net:

Laurel Mountain: http://www.skilaurelmountain.com/