I wish I could remember more about this incredible eight-page edition. Every inch crammed with locally written stories and another section about winter sports in the Tri-Lakes.

Hard for me to believe the size (measurement) of the newspaper. Open the paper to look at pages 2 and 3 and your arms stretch 34 inches. As the price of newsprint went up, the size of the newspaper went down. Open any edition today to pages 2 and 3 and your arms will stretch 22 inches.

My job in 1954 (I worked at the Enterprise from 1951 to 1974) was setting type on a linotype machine. The guys who “made up” the pages, locking the type and ads into a steel chase on a steel table had a painstaking amount of work to get out the Enterprise six days a week. It was all hot type and printed on a big rotary press in the bowels of the old Enterprise building at 76 Main St. Sometime in the future I will attempt to explain what it took to get out one edition.

We must have worked many nights setting type in advance to be used in this special edition. So the following will be many excerpts from many stories, some longer than others, that will hopefully give readers an overview of the effort put into this one copy of the Enterprise

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Beginning skier has big chance

By Fran Sullivan

L.P. Ski Instructor

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“Skiing is for everyone. The fun and sport of this unequalled outdoor recreation is not limited by your height, weight, age or sex.

“Lake Placid has a lot of advantages for the beginning skier. It has several fine slopes with tows which make the going up easier and the coming down oftener.

“It has good ski shops where you can buy or rent the right kind of equipment. And what is just as important, it has lots of beginners scrambling up and down the slopes and gathering around the fireplaces at night to compare their experiences.

“Within easy distance of the village are three centers with ski schools which are open all day, every day — Fawn Ridge, Alpine Lodge and Scott’s Cobble. Competent instructors offer lessons at all of the centers and each has a warming hut and snack bar. There are beginners’ slopes at each center.

“As soon as you have your ski legs, you may want to try the slopes at Whiteface Mountain Ski Center.”

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U.s. Eastern Ski Assoc. Founded in S.L.

By Thomas B. Cantwell

Member Saranac Lake Ski Club

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“The United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association was born one winter evening in 1922 at Saranac Lake following the Adirondack Ski Championships held at the Blood Hill Jump. [The Blood family owned the jump property where the Lake Flower Apartments are now located.]

“A group of contestants and officials gathered at the Berkeley House discussing skiing in this country. Sparked by the organizing ability and enthusiasm of Fred Harris of Bellows Falls, Vermont, now famed for his Dartmouth College Outing Club work, the men present saw the need for a governing body to regulate the increasingly popular sport of skiing.

“Among the skiers present were Dr. Willard Soper, who learned the sport in Europe and taught the youth of Saranac Lake each winter; Ned Stonicker, the head of the telephone company in Saranac Lake, and William Distin Sr., whose son was Captain of the Dartmouth ski team and a member of the Olympic Squad in 1948.

“Later the great apostle of skiing, Harry Wade Hicks, of the Lake Placid Club, consulted with the group of founders of the association and joined them to become a booster for organized skiing.

“Charter members were the Brattleboro Outing Club, Nansen Ski Club, Norsemen Ski Club, Saranac Lake Ski Club and the Sno Birds of the Lake Placid Club.

“The first president, Fred H. Harris served as head of the organization until 1927. At that time, Mr. Hicks was elected and served as president for one year. The late Dr. R. S. Elmer, president from 1928 until 1946, saw great gains in membership of the association due to the tremendous interest in the sport as a result of the 1932 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.”

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Saranac Lake skiers — 1892

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“Skiers came to Saranac Lake for the first time in the winter of 1892. John R. Booth, of Ottawa, who rented a Saranac Lake cottage, brought a pair of skis on one of his winter visits. At the request of Burr Gray of Saranac Lake, Napoleon Bailey, a carpenter at Branch and Callahan’s Mills, made additional pairs of skis which were used for several years.”

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“Art Devlin of Lake Placid, Art Tokle of Chicago and Keith Wegeman of Camp Hale, Colo., were virtual certainties to win places today on the U.S. ski jumping team.

“They were the leaders yesterday and will make their final three leaps today. A field of 14 are competing for four places on the American team.”

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“The two areas of Whiteface Ski Center have a combined capacity of 1,000 skiers per hour.

“A T-bar lift and three rope tows carry as many as 700 skiers an hour to the top of four level trails.

“From the lodge, skiers are taken by trucks and caterpillar-driven vehicles to the heated shelters at the upper level. Here they find two rope tows for transportation to the top of five downhill trails.

“An adaptation of the caterpillar tractor, called a ‘Sno-Cat’ originally developed for the military use in snow country, is used to carry skiers from the 2,000 level to the upper level at 4,000 feet.”

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“The ski season will officially open at Paul Smith’s College tomorrow. The College is holding an invitational 15 kilometer cross country meet which has been sanctioned by the U.S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association. The meet, open to both Class A and Class B skiers, is being held in conjunction with the first tryouts for the F.I.S. cross-country and combined groups.”