Tanglwood was a small ski area in the Poconos, catering mostly to families. Tanglwood was an “inverted†resort, with the lodge located at the top of the mountain. Two double lifts and one beginner tow serviced skiers and snowboarders, while another tow lift serviced Tanglwood’s snow tubing area. Tanglwood offered night skiing on certain nights of the week. Tanglwood had been in operation for more than forty years, but went through some rough patches in the late 2000s. The ski area was closed for the 2007-2008 winter season, but obtained new owners in 2008. However, the ski area was closed once again for the 2010-2011 winter season. DCSki moved Tanglwood to the “Lost Ski Areas” section in early 2014, as it does not appear likely Tanglwood will re-open in the near future. Beginning in 2012, the owners of Tanglwood began to liquidate ski area assets such as chairlifts and groomers.
You may view an archive of DCSki’s previous Resort Profile for Tanglwood here.
Tanglwood had a vertical drop of 415 feet and 35 skiable acres. 9 trails were available, with the longest clocking in at 0.75 miles. Tanglwood had four lifts (including two doubles), and a lift capacity of 3,160 skiers per hour. A terrain park and tubing park was offered, the latter services by two rope tows.
Tanglwood’s address is 192 Paper Birch; South Tafton, PA 18464, and the ski area was located at a latitude of 41.416213 and a longitude of -75.16717.
I grew up skiing at Tanglwood- it was a great place to learn to ski, and very family oriented. It was defintelty small, but I was still sad to see it had been closed up. The trail map shown was the final one. If you look at the satellite images, you can ski another trail that was cut to the right of Weasel called Panther. It was a black that was made specifically so the developer could sell "slope side" housing. It had its own t-bar to service it since it wasnt connected to any other run. It also didnt have any snow making on it, so it was only open two or three times when there was enough snow. The tubing run used to be part of Big Bear, which was the longest trail there and ran from the tubing area all the way to the bottom of the mountain. There was a T-bar on the upper part of Deer Run that they used for ski lessons. I also remember Sly Fox being one of the more dangerous runs- it had a very sharp switchback on it and new skiers who didnt know how to turn sharply would end up in a tree.
I skied "Paper Birch" as a young teen with my older brothers in the late 60's befor it was renamed Tanglewood. Looks like the main road to the lodge is still named "Paper Birch".
I never got to Paper Birch growing up but did ski and work at Tanglewood while in college. It was a nice little place and is too bad it did not survive.
When did the name change from paper birch to tanglewood?
I learned to ski at Tanglewood. In the mid-70s the central Pennsylvania YFC, youth for Christ, would have an event they called Snow camp. The first year in the winter of 74/75 we skied at big Boulder. And on my first run I collided with another of my classmates and sprained an ankle. The next year, we skied at Tanglewood. There I learned the Earth quaking skill of snow plowing.
After I graduated I attended two or three years as a assistant. When we went skiing and I saw kids who did not opt for the lessons but who I knew hadn't skied before I would take them aside and offer them free lessons. I explained to them how I had sprained my ankle my first year without taking lessons and how valuable learning to snow plow would be. So we had many lessons of eight to 14 or 15 people and I'm sure many went on to ski from our lessons as well as they did from the paid lessons.
As a intermediate skier myself I somewhat stayed away from the Black diamond run straight off of the chalet they had built jumps and bumps in it and though it was fun to watch more experienced skiers bounce from bump to bump I didn't feel I was there yet I believe the right side of that slope was relatively bumpless and I did traverse that area a few times. I have lots of pictures of skiers but most of them are of the campers, our Snow camp participants, and few of the facilities themselves. There was always a good atmosphere in the chalet both from the staff and the other customers on the slopes. I think they got a kick out of watching the kids fall down and get back up. Anyhow very good memories and a good slope.
In the mid-70s and early 80s I don't think there were two chairlifts. The chair lift on the left side (looking down from overhead) that goes from the clear bottom to drop it s skiers off above the chalet I can't remember. When we had snow camp the weasel was generally off-limits to us. I think that was one way they allowed two or three busloads of students to ski on the small ski slope and still accommodate their customers.
On second thought it may have been in the last year or two, I recall a lift shack in the area to the right of the other main lift(looking from the chalet). Looking down from overhead above it would have been on the left.. But I can't remember ever being dropped off above the chalet. Maybe someone knows what year that second lift was installed. Or maybe my recollection isn't accurate.
The older double chair manufactured by Hall is now at Kissing Bridge, NY, and is now called the "Tanglewood Double". Not sure what happened to the later 80s Borvig.
The HOA for Tanglewood community bought the property which was separate from the development a few years back and demolished the lodge after a fire and to clean up the illegal dumping that was taking place on the mountain. The original part of the lodge went up in the 60s when the area was still Paper Birch. A shame that its all gone now.
I think the name changed from Paper Birch to Tanglewood in either the 69-70 or 70-71 season. A large "group" of us moved from POCO North. Many great memories.
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