Skiing at Gore Mountain dates back to 1934. Located 235 miles north of New York City in the Adirondacks, it’s one of three ski areas operated by the State of New York.
But why is it called Gore? After the American Revolution, mapping of the lands that made up the new United States began in earnest. States were divided into counties, and counties into towns. But what worked out on a surveyor’s drafting board didn’t always work out in the field. Sometimes the shape of a particular piece of land didn’t fit into a neat layout of square and rectangular towns. Or sometimes the land was too rugged to survey.
Under these circumstances, a surveyor would designate this odd-shaped piece of land between towns a “gore.” Similarly, in tailoring, a triangular or trapezoidal piece of cloth, used to make a pattern conform to a curved shape, is also called a “gore.”
Back in the early years of the 19th century, the land to the west of North Creek, in Warren County, New York, was determined to be made up of a large number of steep mountains. Putting off closer inspection to a later date, the area was labeled the “Gore,” and the mountains found there were called the “Gore Range [of] Mountains.”
—Bob Soden
