Deb J ordan and the late “Doc” Blanchard at the Black & White Affair at the Sugarloaf Inn in 1985. (Laura Dunham photo) “It’s a capital mistake to theorize before one has data,” a quote made by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, headed Page one of the Feb. 27, 1981 Sugarloaf and Rangeley Lakes Irregular, Vol. 14, No. 5.

Sugarloaf announced that lift ticket prices were being lowered for a five-day period (and possibly longer if the snow refused to cooperate). The rates were $10 for an adult all-day pass, $8 for a half-day, $7 for junior all-day, $6 for junior half-day, $45 for adult five-day pass and $30 for juniors. The article concluded with, “Look for ‘81 to be the year spring came twice, folks, once in February and again in April.”

An informational meeting, conducted by

Sue Davis, was held to discuss the fate of the Stanley School and

Webster gym. An article on the town warrant asked voters to approve the purchase of Webster gym and a specified portion of property that included a corner of the Stanley School. If voters approved the warrant, the school would then be torn down. Davis was urging the warrant be rejected and both buildings purchased from MSAD #58 with a view to preserve and renovate the Stanley School. It was being suggested at the time that Webster gym be converted into municipal offices.

The new slate of officers for the Dead River Area Historical Society was: Patricia Wyman Simpson, president; Ise Marie MacDonald, Vice President; Jerome V. Hopson, Treasurer; Ruth Myhaver, Secretary; and Thomas L. MacDonald, Historian and director.