Burr Morse is one of those classic, hard working Yankee entrepreneurs. He grew up on a 240-acre dairy farm in East Montpelier, VT. Like many Vermont farmers, the Morse family had a sugar house and made maple syrup every spring. Because the sugar house was adjacent to a main county road, and only a couple of miles from the state capital, it attracted visitors every spring. Seizing the opportunity, Burr established a store, snack bar and gift shop which soon became a destination for tourists in the spring for sugaring, the summer during school vacation and in the autumn for the foliage. With a wry smile, Burr Morse confesses, “I used to milk cows, now I milk the tourists.”

In the summer of 2000, Morton Trails was asked to participate in an exciting project in New Gloucester, Maine, a town about 30 minutes north of Portland. The Libra Foundation, a large, charitable organization dedicated simply “to benefit the people of Maine,” had purchased the abandoned 1000-acre campus.  This property included two farms and more than 20 brick buildings that had formerly housed the state mental institution.

In late 1993, Morton Trails was contacted by an American consultant working for the South Korean Organizing Committee which had just been awarded the 1997 World University Games. These international competitions are in effect, Olympic Games for college and university students, and typically attract competitors from more than 30 nations. After hosting a very successful Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988, the South Koreans were determined to demonstrate their ability to host a Winter Games as well.