‘A Town Built by Ski Bums’ tells the story of Carrabassett Valley [Video]

PORTLAND, Maine — In 1958, a couple named Irv and Edna Judson opened a motel near Sugarloaf Mountain, the second tallest peak in Maine and the home of a ski area whose main lift at the time was a T-bar.

Judson’s Sugarloaf Motel billed itself in advertisements as “Your home away from home,” with “Dancing-TV-Excellent Hunting & Fishing” and a “Knotty Pine Dining Room.” Rates, which included breakfast and dinner, ranged from $7.50 to $9.50 per night.

Times certainly have changed, and the story of how this particular community grew and evolved is told by Virginia M. Wright in her new book, “A Town Built by Ski Bums – The Story of Carrabassett Valley, Maine.” 

Carrabassett Valley is one of the youngest towns in the state, created in 1972 out of the unincorporated townships of Crockertown and Jerusalem. It had the advantage …