Lee, Maine / $3.5 million

Someone could buy this ski hill.

Mt. Jefferson is on the market.

It has 152 acres, 432 vertical feet, three surface lifts, a lodge, tubing, bikes, disc golf, and a pair of working wood businesses. That is enough to get carried away, so we did.

Where we heard about it

Ian Greenwood at POWDER put this sale on our radar.

His August 25 story introduced Mt. Jefferson's listing to skiers and quoted realtor Chelsea Ireland on the chance to carry a 62-year local legacy forward.

Published ask$3,500,000
Land152 acres
Skiable vertical432 ft
Published runs10 to 12

What comes with it

More than a lift and a lodge.

The good, slightly odd thing about this listing is how much business already fits on the property. Winter is only part of it.

  • An operating ski and tubing area with lodge and commercial buildings
  • Two 2,000-foot T-bars and a 600-foot handle tow described by Visit Maine
  • A 9-hole disc golf course, mountain-bike trails, bikes, equipment, and machinery
  • A functioning firewood business and lumber-kiln operation
  • Residential and commercial development possibilities described in the listing

Why this one stays in your head

It already has a life.

Mt. Jefferson has run since the winter of 1964-65. It is the scale of hill where a kid can learn the whole trail map and a regular can know who is working the T-bar.

The 432 feet of vertical will not win an arms race. It does make for repeatable laps, family days, race training, tubing nights, and a mountain that can still feel local.

Voices from the game

Three founders read the listing.

Meet all six founders →

Three surface lifts are three machines with histories. Open the panels, call the people who know them, and start there.

Marisol FrancisThe Liftie

Tubing, bikes, disc golf, firewood, kiln. I like a mountain with more than one way to pay the electric bill.

Camille VanceThe Suit

A hundred and fifty-two acres is room to choose. Some of the smartest acres may be the ones nobody builds on.

Juniper StorrowThe Preservationist

The founders are characters from Ice Coast Revival. The listing details come from the public sources linked below.

Interactive ski hill scenario calculator

Try a version

Start with a hunch.

Tap one. The rough totals change immediately below. These overlap on purpose. A real plan would borrow from all three.

Change the rough numbersBig tap controls. No fiddly sliders.
First, the lifts
Purchase priceThe published ask is $3,500,000
$3.5M
Snowmaking$1.5m for water, power, and pumps, then $125k an acre
6 acres
Trail projects$150k each for drainage, grading, and clearing
2
Base-area work
$1M
Ski days
55
Visits per day
250
Spend per winter visitTickets, food, rentals, lessons, and tubing
$55
Other business grossWood operations, summer use, and events
$300K
Operating costsBefore debt, taxes, and future capital work
90%

Our yardsticks: Mt. Jefferson's recent seasons, the 55-day small-hill benchmark, BigRock's northern Maine capital campaign, and Mad River Glen's snowmaking study. They are useful comparisons, not quotes for Lee.

Questions for the drive north

Things we would want to see in person.

Run the lifts on a cold morning. Listen to them, open the maintenance books, and meet whoever has kept them turning.

Find the water. Snowmaking changes a small hill, but only if the source, power, storage, and permits make sense.

Come back in July. See who is riding, throwing discs, buying firewood, and already using the place when nobody is skiing.

Title, zoning, utilities, insurance, taxes, and environmental work belong with the broker and the right professional advisers.

Where the numbers came from

Read the listing for yourself.

View the current Zillow listing