Where Kids Dream Of Flying | Satre Hill in Salisbury, CT

Tucked into our town is a classic ski jump, a link back to when children grew up impatient for winter, because then they could climb the steps to their local jump and take off, soaring like wild birds, just as their parents once had.

Only a handful of places still retain this tradition, and nowhere is ski jumping so ingrained into a community as it is on Satre Hill, where the sport dates back to 1926 and where just two winters ago, a Junior Olympics competition was held. This year the site will be hosting an Alpine Ski Jumping Winter Carnival, January 25-27, as well as the 87th Annual Jumpfest & Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping Championships, February 8-10.

The hill remains a place that locals donate money and effort to upgrade and where youngsters still look upward above Main Street. “It’s almost like Brigadoon,” a local man told a radio reporter last year. “You don’t even notice that the ski jump is in town until you put the snow on it. It’s dark and brown against the hillside. And people come out of the woodwork to pack the tower, to volunteer, to do all the little things you need to do, and it happens. It’s magic.” Salisbury Winter Sports Association, 80 Indian Cave Road, Salisbury, CT. 860-435-0019; jumpfest.org