Tamiment Resort near the Bushkill Falls roadside-Americana vacation strip on the southern fringe of the Poconos hardly counts as a lost ski area, but it was a major part of the Poconos vacation resort history of the mid 20th century, and offers a unique history in and of itself. While skiing was only introduced here in the 1970s as part of a four season activity offering by the resort, Tamiment's story starts much further back. In 1921 the Rand School of Social Science, a politically left-wing activist and educational organization headquartered in New York, was left nearly bankrupt after a series of costly litigations after being caught up in the Red Scare's Lusk Committee for allegedly partaking in "subversive" activities. In search of fundraising, and with the International Garmet Workers Union's example of their successful Unity House retreat, the Rand School founded Camp Tamiment next door in the Bushkill vicinity on the south edge of the Poconos region. Initially envisaged as a nature retreat for urban workers to refresh themselves, the camp retained tax exempt status as the Rand School successfully argued that the primary purpose of the camp was educational in nature. However, over the years the scope of the camp would expand, including more amenities and incerasingly resembling the many other destination vacation resorts around the Poconos marketed to city dwellers in New York and Philadlephia. In the 1930s the Tamiment Playhouse opened to promote the performing arts, and quickly attracted Broadway performers and writers, earning the moniker as the "bootcamp for Broadway".
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| Camp Tamiment as it appeared in the 1920s. |
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The famous Tamiment Playhouse. The playhouse would be closed in 1976.
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| Tamiment evolved into a major vacation resort for families traveling from New York and Philadelphia. |
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The interior of the clubhouse as it appeared in the 1960s. The clubhouse would later double as the lodge when the ski area operated starting in the early 1970s.
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While Tamiment ostensibly shared a common political and social focus as its founding organization, it ultimately was established as a separate entity under the auspices of the People’s Educational Camp Society. And while PECS committed to following Rand’s ideology, the profits generated from the camp gradually influenced board members to turn the facility into what began to appear more and more like a regular vacation resort. Political subjects were downplayed while less controversial activities like swimming, tennis and golf were promoted. In 1947 the resort opened a golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones. By the end of the second world war Tamiment had become a premiere vacation destination for the emerging American middle class in and around New York and Philadelphia. However, this success would attract the attention of the IRS, who argued that Tamiment was operating as a vacation resort, not an educational camp. In 1963 PECS lost its appeal to retain tax exempt status for the facility, even going so far as to move the Rand School’s library to the premises in the attempt. Ultimately the library ended up at NYU, and PECS was forced to divest itself of the resort in 1965. This marked the beginning of Tamiment’s fully commercial history, and PECS, the ostensibly socialist former operators, had ironically left behind one of the largest and most profitable vacation resorts then operating in the country, including over 150 buildings, 300 employees, a theater that could seat 1000 people and a dining room that could seat 1200. Tamiment’s reputation as a premiere venue for the performing arts would continue through the 1970s, playing host to Joan Rivers, Frankie Valli and Gladys Knight and the Pips. And it was in the 1970s that Tamiment made the leap into winter sports becoming a true four season resort, adding skiing to its many attractions in 1972, converting several fairways on the golf course into ski slopes in the winter, and opening the well-appointed clubhouse as a lodge to skiers.
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Tamiment ski area from an advertising brochure, likely in the 1970s. The ski area consisted of the single Hall double chair on a small hill in the golf course.
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In 1982 Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton purchased the resort for 15 million dollars, with the intention of making it the flagship of his new system of national timeshare properties, but by 1987 Tamiment was on the market again. The resort’s best days were clearly behind it. The playhouse closed in 1976. In the 1980s cheap air travel meant that the Poconos were no longer the vacation destination they once were for New Yorkers. Maintenance was defered and the resort deteriorated through the 1990s. Finally, in 2005 the ailing resort was sold to developers Greystone Capital. The firm immediately auctioned off the facility’s contents, and then demolished the resort’s buildings with the intention of building condominiums on the property. However, no development materialized, and the property, once considered to be a pillar of the Poconos tourist industry remains abandoned.
Today there is little to suggest the site once hosted one the premiere vacation destinations in the Northeast. The lakefront walk ends at a set of stairs leading to nothing. The restaurant and clubhouse are still standing, albeit in a heavily vandalized state. The development company likely planned on retaining the golf course as an amenity for their condo development. However, after plans for the development fell through the golf course was shuttered a few years later. The ski operations were very modest, and featured a single Hall double chair servicing a little more than 100 vertical feet on the golf course. Snow was blown from a simple snowmaking system to cover a novice slope, and guests had to walk down from the clubhouse to access the chairlift. The lift was installed in 1972, and ski operations continued up until the resorts closure in 2003. A fire in the drive of the chairlift started after the resort was abandoned caused the haul rope to part, draping the line limply over the towers and dumping several of the chairs onto the ground. Today the lift is still in this state: chairs half on, half off the ground. The entire resort property is very large, and all of it is abandoned. From the top of the lift you realize that this was practically a vacation town unto itself, and all of it is still, empty and quiet now.
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