Greenville, ME – The lifts at northern Maine’s Big Squaw ski area, overlooking the sprawling Moosehead Lake in the town of Greenville, have been dormant since 2010. A newly formed group seeking non-profit status, however, is looking to revive the lost ski area and bring lift-served alpine skiing back to the region.

Friends of Squaw Mountain has organized to reopen and revitalize the resort. The group is currently working on forming a 503C non-profit organization in an attempt to reopen Squaw’s lower trail system.

From the top, Big Squaw offered 1,750 feet of vertical drop. The current plan, however, is to reopen only the mountain’s 600 vertical-foot lower lift, a fixed grip triple chair servicing novice and intermediate slopes, and allow the expert trails on the upper mountain to remain silent, at least for the time being.

Big Squaw languished since the 1990s under the tenure of an absentee owner based in Florida. After a chair fell from the summit lift in 2004, operations were confined to only the lower mountain, and in 2010 Big Squaw was shuttered for good after the resort fell into a further state of disrepair.

Friends of Squaw Mountain is leasing the ski area for an annual fee of $1. Having raised over $21,000 already, and with dozens of volunteers already working to repair the base lodge, fix broken pipes and get the lift spinning again, the group hopes to bring alpine skiing back to Greenville by January 2013.