The Enterprise came up with some great stuff when Jim Loeb and Roger Tubby were at the helm (I was on the staff from 1951 to 1974), so God only knows who came up with the idea of a winter newspaper, but it turned out to be a hit.

Here was the masthead on Friday, Jan. 1, 1959:

Published Every Friday

During the Winter

By The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Publishers: Roger W. Tubby, James Loeb, Jr.

Schussboomer Staff

Editor — Margaret Wilson

Advertising Manager — M. Wilson

Winter Sports Reporter — Marge Wilson

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I don’t know how Marge Wilson Lamy managed to edit the Lake Placid News and turn out the Schussboomer, but she did it all well. Here are a few highlights and ads from that little edition of 59 years ago.

The headline reads: “L.P. Club Sno Birds Spark Winter Sports.”

“The Sno Birds of Lake Placid Club is a name long associated with winter sports. Organized in 1920 to encourage winter sports participation among members and guests of the Lake Placid Club, the Sno Birds soon became a leading force in the promotion of winter sports in this country.

“A number of national and world champions have carried the Sno Birds’ blue and white colors into competition in skiing, skating and bobsledding. Among them are Art Devlin, the late Francis Tyler, who won the 1948 4-man bobsled title, and Stan Benham who copped the World Bobsled Championships in 1949 and 1950.”

Following is a partial list of coming events:

¯ St. Lawrence Annual Empire State Giant slalom

¯ International Curling Bonspiel

¯ New York State Slalom, Downhill and Combined Races

¯ Junior Winter Olympics — Lake Placid High School

¯ Eastern Seaboard Outdoor Speed Skating Championships

¯ Saranac Lake Winter Carnival

¯ Kate Smith International Ski Trophy Races

¯ New York State Junior Ski Jumping Championships

¯ North American Week — competition in all winter sports

¯ Fifth Master’s Ski Jump

¯ MacKenzie Trophy Races — giant slalom — Whiteface Mt.

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Whiteface manager Art Draper

“Art Draper is a skier’s center manager. Art is interested in the average guy who pulls in with a carful of family or friends for a few days of skiing and asks only good facilities and fair break in weather conditions.

“Art’s main concern is to see that skiers are satisfied when they come to Whiteface.

“Following this line he has established a reputation among the skiing fraternity for accurate and truthful ski reports … the first step in satisfying skiers.

“This is a long-run benefit which Art was determined to develop when his policy of, shall we say, careful terminology, came under fire last year. Now the word among skiers is, ‘If Art says it’s good, you can bet it’s darned good.’

“Art came to Whiteface Mountain after the NYS Legislature approved a two and a half million dollar budget and under his leadership the Whiteface Ski Center came into being.

“Art has an impressive background. Nine years at Belleayre Ski Center, Forest Ranger with the DEC, New York Times Reporter and served with the famous 10th Mountain Division during World War II.”

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Nordic squad spends week here

“Nine young men with their eyes on the Olympic team have just completed a week of intensive training at Lake Placid as members of the USEASA Nordic training camp. They are preparing for the Eastern trial competitions in Nordic Combined events that will determine selection of the Olympic training squad for next year.

“Their mentor, Claude Richter, St. Lawrence University ski coach, called the squad ‘an eager bunch’ and said they have trained very hard during their stay here.

“Art Devlin, who gave the boys additional coaching in jumping, observed that these boys give evidence that the caliber of college jumpers has improved tremendously in recent years.

“The members of the squad are: Frank Noel, Dick Taylor, Joe Pete Wilson, Don Stephenson, Gene Boisvert, Bill Purcell, Mart Paul, Phil Wheeler and Roger Dion.”

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Skiing for everyone

“Lake Placid has the only privately-owned ski lift in the State of New York.

“The center is called Kobl Mountain and is located just across Mirror Lake from town.

“In the addition to the 1500-ft. chairlift, Kobl has a Poma Lift 1100 feet long serving a beautiful little novice slope. The chair lift ride offers a choice of seven trails, two from the top of the mountain and five from the mid-way station.

“The trails are numbers rather than named, although Jack Wikoff, one of Kobl’s organizers, says the center is ‘open to suggestions’ for names of the trails.

“This year the Hotel Marcy moved its rope tow to Kobl (from where?), and has three instructors there. The Marcy guests are transported by the hotel’s facilities.

“Kobl was built last year between September and January. Jack says they have lots of plans for developing the mountain further.

“Justin Westcott of Lake Placid, ‘a skier from way back’, as Jack puts it, will manage Kobl this year. Jack is in charge of the Kobl ski school.”