'Magic Carpet' brings skiing ease to Emery Park

920-foot-long moving walkway, completed this year, provides ski enthusiasts, snowboarders with easy & effortless way to get back uphill

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Friday joined Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Daniel Rizzo at Emery Park in South Wales to inspect the newly installed “Magic Carpet,” a 920-foot-long conveyor system/moving walkway that skiers and snowboarders stand on for a five-minute ride up the hill after their downhill run. The $850,000 investment replaces the over 50-year old T-bar system that previously brought skiers back up hill, but had reached the end of its life expectancy.

“The installation of the ‘Magic Carpet’ ensures our Emery Park ski hill will be open for decades to come and I know that downhill skiers and snowboarders will greatly appreciate that,” Poloncarz said. “When paired with free skiing here, the advantage of the ‘Magic Carpet’ ride will bring many more people here to try the hill and enjoy some winter fun. I thank Commissioner Rizzo and his team for their work in getting this project completed this year.”

Rizzo added, “The addition of the ‘Magic Carpet’ will greatly boost skiing and snowboarding interest here at Emery Park, and is just another way we work to make park experiences better for our visitors in all seasons. This is the longest ‘Magic Carpet’ in the world, and we are proud to have it here in Erie County for our residents’ enjoyment.”

For more information on winter sports in Erie County parks, visit http://www2.erie.gov/parks/index.php?q=winter-sports.

Emery Park History

Josiah Emery owned 175 acres of land in the Town of Aurora, and his descendants lived and worked on this land for more than 100 years. In 1925, The Parks Commission purchased the land from Helen B. Emery, forming Emery Park. Emery Park had an abundance of attractions from the beginning – a rock garden, an amphitheater (original capacity 600), formal gardens, stone arch footbridge and Emery Inn (established in 1926, it was the former home of the Emery family, but was used as a museum and restaurant). The park contains 69 structures, 95 percent of which were built in or before 1935. Emery Park today has evolved into a 489-acre Erie County park.