Bud Titcomb shows his form in 1942. (Photo courtesy Farmington Ski Club.) FARMINGTON — Maine's skiing history goes back farther than any other New England state. A Mainer wrote America's first book on skiing. A Maine company built the world's tallest ski jump and the first chairlift in the east. Two Maine manufacturers were leading producers of skis in the mid-20th century. Two dozen Maine skiers have competed or coached at the Olympics. Maine has hosted five ski, snowboard and biathlon competitions at the World Championship and World Cup level.

These are a few facets of a narrated digital slideshow recently produced by the Ski Museum of Maine. The show, titled "Down-Mountain and Cross-Country: 140 Years of Skiing in Maine," will be presented Monday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Ski Museum of Maine, 109 Church St. in Farmington. The museum will open at 6 p.m. that evening.

Approximately 150 photos —some more than a century old— have been assembled from the Farmington-based museum's collections and 35 other sources, including several of the state's leading historical societies and skiing organizations.

Photos to be presented cover the entire span of skiing in Maine, from the founding of Aroostook County's Swedish Settlement in 1870 to presentday happenings all over the state. Locations that were historically important to the development of skiing include Aroostook County, Auburn, Bethel, Bridgton, Carrabassett Valley, Farmington, Fryeburg, Poland, Portland and Rumford. Competition subjects include ski jumping, crosscountry, alpine, freestyle and biathlon.

Many of Maine's most prominent skiing figures hail from central and western Maine. The Farmington Ski Club, founded in 1936, is one of the state's oldest. Developing Titcomb Mountain in the 1950s and 1960s was part of a statewide skiing boom that is a central theme of the show. A dozen vintage photos from Titcomb's early days will be presented.

The narrator will be Scott Andrews, a Portlandbased ski journalist and museum director who assembled the photos and performed much of the research. Andrews has written on skiing in Maine and New England in newspapers and magazines for more than 20 years and is a contributor to Skiing Heritage, the official journal of the International Skiing History Association.

"Skiing has been part of the Maine way of life since the late 1800s, offering recreation and competition to both residents and visitors," says Andrews. "The museum's objective is to feed the passion of Maine skiers and to illustrate the significance of our sport to our state's lifestyle and economy."

"Down-Mountain and Cross-Country: 140 Years of Skiing in Maine" is sponsored by the Ski Maine Association and the Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Club.

Megan Roberts is the Director of the Ski

Museum of Maine in Farmington.