Recently recovered photos from the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Racing Days in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario....

     With much thanks to Paula Orr and the owner of these photos, Gary Becotte and with permission we are able to add an all new HR&J post after many months.  Some of these photos are very rare to me as not many have been taken of these cars, particularly Tom Dow's car and his hauler.  A few other photos were taken from what was called the mezzanine.  The CLE added extra uncovered bleachers on the north side of the covered grandstand a few years after racing started at the CLE in the early 1950's.

The first photo here is of Tom Dow's race car hauler painted to match his car back in 1954.  The picture was taken in the lane-way behind what was the original Dow's Auto Electric which was located at 112 N. May St. later to become Chris' Billiard Hall.  The building still exists today in the same location.  

The building in the background here is the rear of the original St. Stanislaus (Stan's) school which also still exists today....the front of it faces Miles St.  

Tom and his brother built and tuned Tom's #2 car in that building on 112 N. May.  This is also where Tom met Barry Kettering who worked a few years before then for Thorne's Sargent Automotive which was located on the large parking lot on Violet St., before a spectacular fire had destroyed it.

The next photo here is the rear of the old St. Stan's school which can be seen behind the above photo and behind the following photo as well.

Here's is how Tom Dow's car looked in 1953/54.  It was a 1932 Ford 3-window coupe.  The holy grail of the Hot Rod world today.

The building below is the rear of 112 N. May St. as it looks today.  You can see where the centre of the garage area was once opened to a large door where the Dow brothers worked on #2.

The picture on the right is of a very young Tom Dow in racing whites.... well I guess they were white before the races started.

It's interesting to read the newspaper article below from July 29, 1954 to see what was happening at the old CLE 1/2 mile racetrack.  Tom did go on to win the 1954 Championship and carry the trophy home.

 Next:

The following scrap yard photo is the first race car that Walter (Wally) (Walt) Prokosh raced at the CLE grounds in the same era that Tom Dow raced.  The car was sponsored by D & J Stitt Menswear, and Mid City Machinery.  It stood the test of time in 1953 but succumbed to it's injuries and by the end of the year, Wally had a brand new Jalopy to race.

 

Here's Wally's next car...a very nice '37 Ford coupe with the same sponsors and number 55.  Wally did pretty well with this car but destiny would change his future as you will see in the next photo.

Wally was offered a driver's seat in the bright yellow #54 car owned and built by the Abitibi Power and Paper Company of Port Arthur.  This winning car gave Wally a big name in the racing community here in the early 1950's.  It was a 1933 Ford 3-window coupe.  The use here of the wide 5 wheels from Ford's 1936 vehicles helped hold them to the hub at a 10 1/2 bolt circle.  There were less wheel loss from a larger circle and the racing community continued to use the 10 1/2's for decades to come particularly on sprint cars.

Here's a great picture of Wally Prokosh, cig in hand and goggled helmet being very cool with his new jalopy to drive.  This car also had a Ford overhead valve engine which basically put most of the flathead engines back in the pack.

Next:

Smack dab in the middle of these great photos is this very early, circa 1953 photo of Don Marsh's #60 car which I believe was Don's very first stock car, sporting a Ford flathead engine and a yellow and black paint scheme.  Don also did very well in his early years of racing.

 

From the Mezzanine this photo was taken of #77 Clyde Ditmars from Kakabeka Falls leading an unknown driver here coming out of turn 4.  There was consistant great racing at the CLE track in the 1950's and as a kid I dreamed about someday racing a jalopy, but it had to wait until I was older and until Riverview Raceway was built, and by then they weren't called jalopies.

 

Here's another of Wally Prokosh coming out of turn 4 as well with what looks like someone on their lid halfway through the corner.  Not clear but who cares....these are great photos.

 

Here's another of Wally in #54 with #36 further down the track. 

Finally we have Albert Massaro in his Rea's Esso #88 car going the wrong way 👈😂 ....and I have no idea who's driving the blurred car. 

Lastly here is the actual Lakehead Stock Car Club logo which was put to use on literally hundreds of racing jackets from the good old Canadian Lakehead Exhibition days.

All the above photos were copied and edited to make them as clear as we could to bring out the detail. Thanks again to Gary Becotte for the photos and Paula Orr for bringing them to our attention at the Hotrods and Jalopies blog pages.  A couple of my archive photos and a news clip were also added.

......thanks for visiting us again at HR&J, with more new racing posts to come.

A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THIS AUGUST 2nd, 2020....rain date Aug. 3rd

MARK AUGUST 2nd ON YOUR CALENDAR......rain date August 3rd

The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition has announced the event of the year for 2020. This is the CLE's 130th Anniversary year and what a crazy year it has been. The CLE wanted to give something back to the public for all the years of support and hold this spectacular get together utilizing all the Covid-19 Rules and Regulations and approved by the Thunder Bay Health Unit. This free admission Celebration is proudly presented by Half-Way Motors, and with the support of other organizations and businesses we are able to hold this historic festivity.

Click on the poster to view it in its entirety, and feel free to right click on the poster, to save it and to share it. Tell everyone.

One final note - Donations in support of Our Kids Count will be gratefully accepted.

Thunder Bay Co-op, The Bear, The Bottles, Horse and Buggies and Divco's....thanks to Niels Maclam!

It was with great pleasure that we met Niels(yes that is the correct spelling) and Chris Maclam while on vacation this past winter.  When we got home we had a great conversation about old photos and what came up was a story about a couple of photos from Minnesota Dragways in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.   The two pictures included Niels’ 69 Camaro and were taken in 1971.  These pictures will appear in a later blog post.......which led to the following.............

Co-op Building as it stands today
with remnants of the past! 

AND...........while talking about old pictures in general it so happens that Niels is the grandson of Niels C.(Chris) Hanson who was manager of the Thunder Bay Co-op Dairy from the early 1930’s until the late 1960’s(except for a couple of years).  The Co-op dairy was located on the corner of Secord and Queen Street right behind the present day Tim Horton’s on North Memorial Ave.   Niels had some incredible photos to share with me as you will see.

Love the old snub-nose Divco trucks

to the left of this staff photo.....if you

know anyone in this picture,

please let me know by email.

A 1936 Ford Coupe and a late 1940's

Pontiac parked out front - look closely

in the green square behind the horse

wagon, is a model "A" Ford Coupe.

Niels C. Hanson(more favourably known Chris Hanson) was hired by Thunder Bay Co-op in the early 1930’s as superintendent and by 1932 he was its manager, and with his reorganizational talents slowly got the dairy back to prosperity it once had known.

When you enlarge this you can read "Universal Auto Parts"

on a sign in the distance...Universal was on Fort William Road

Chris Hanson’s first brain child was the first ever "Iced Milk Rink" built in the winter of 1939 using surplus skim milk from the dairy and implemented by Helen Hietanen on behalf of the dairy.  It was located on the east side of Memorial Ave., between Queen and Lisgar Street.  The Milk Rink was featured in news articles and broadcasts across Canada and the USA and was also on “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not”.  The rink was so popular that it re-opened in 1940 as well.

Bottles from my collection

Approximate present day site of the

Milk Rink!

Co-op purchased the milk delivery business from Fred Scollie in Fort William, with stables built on Southern Ave in Fort William, and in 1947 a new barn and garage was completed at the Secord and Queen property.  Chris Hanson’s second brain child was the milk bottle shaped building at the Lakehead Exhibition Grounds, and from here the dairy sold milk and ice cream during fair week.  I remember you could buy half a brick of ice cream for 10 or 15 cents.  The well-known logo “Meet me at the Bottle” was printed at the top.  The bottle building became the meeting place during fair week  for friends or if you lost your children or whoever.  A similar smaller bottle was built on top of the dairy plant with the well known Co-op label on it as well.

No one really knows who the bear or trainer was in these photos with the bear.....probably just someone who was entertaining at the CLE with a trained bear.  Does anyone know who the sales person is?  Niels, these are incredible shots!

Click on all of these pictures(some twice for super size)to enlarge them!

This is a closeup of the inside of the
Co-op Bottle Building showing all the
5 cent prices!

A few more Co-op
items from my collection

With all the modernization completed by the late 1950’s, Chris retired and had offered his expertise elsewhere, but in about 1964 with board of directors in disagreement over the way the dairy was being operated, Chris Hanson returned to try to help out again, however new government rules and regulations governing proper storage for milk products, many farmers chose to close their own businesses rather than go into debt.  By March of 1969 Thunder Bay Co-op was sold to Palm Dairies and the staff went to work for Palm.  Niels Chris Hanson officially retired in 1970.

 Many Thanks to Niels Maclam for his own story and photos and also to Wayne Pettit and Dave Maclean for letting me use much of the above data from their very informative “Milk Bottles & Dairies of Thunder Bay and Area 1906-2003” available for purchase at the Thunder Bay Museum.
Be sure to click on all photos once then twice for super size to view best!

A Huge Then and Now at the Fairgrounds.........1955 to 2010

Here is some more interesting data about our CLE...The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds.  The following two photos are before and after photos.  The first one was taken in 1955 and the second one was extracted from Google Earth and a relatively current photo of about 2010.

The changes are very dramatic, and the only two buildings shown in the photos that existed then and today are the CLE Coliseum shown in light blue in both photos, and the CLE Auditorium that is used mainly for Bingo games today.  The following is what the circled items used to be.

• The lime green shows the main part of the midway and was accessible by crossing the river by a walking bridge.
• The red shows where the walking bridge was.
• The dark blue in the centre of the picture is the Grandstand and entertainment stage.....this was also used as the judges stand for the stock car races.
• The pink rectangle in the lower centre was the "Welcome to Port Arthur" arch talked about in this blog before.
• The purple rectangle at the bottom was the "Super-Sonic car wash".  This building is still used today for a number of different businesses.
• The Street along the bottom of both pictures is May Street, and on the left side of the old photo, Memorial Ave starts just left/north of the river.  The trees along both sides of Memorial Ave., planted in memory of fallen soldiers during WWI and WWII have since been removed for street widening etc.  I would like to see the city re-plant those trees along Memorial Ave and re-dedicate Memorial Ave to what it was meant to be, a "memorial" to fallen soldiers of both wars!! 

In this new photo there are a number of geographical changes.  The largest being the widening of the river and also the re-routing of the river somewhat.  This was done to alleviate flooding problems from both the McIntyre and Neebing rivers to homes and business east of Fort William Road.  Another was the "Dorothy Dove" building roof shown with a white roof at the bottom right of the old picture, and the changes noted to the roof in the new picture shown in blue just to the right of the Yellow Auditorium building.  The race track, grandstand, and all the barns that fan out between the Coliseum and the Grandstand were all torn down to accommodate our new Golf Dome and Silver City Theatre both shown in the centre of the new photo.
My personal thought is that the CLE and midway should be moved to a better place, such as the Thunder Bay Agriplex or maybe Current River Park, since the grounds have been pretty much taken over by the movie theatre and the dome.
Click on the photos to enlarge...........JUST MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT!!!  ...and an old picture showing how it was.

The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition....coming soon....but not like it was!

A number of emails in the past month for requests about photos of the milk bottle that was once in our fairgrounds brought a number of childhood memories flooding back.

This first photo was taken from a calendar that our museum put out a few years ago. It's not great but shows the Co-op Dairy milk bottle with people lined up to purchase a half brick of ice cream for probably a dime or a quarter back in 1947.
A kid could easily get lost in the vastness of the midway, displays and booths that dotted the large landscape at the time, and you could easily find your mom or dad by saying "meet me at the bottle".
Here is another of the wonderful Brill Bus photos taken from the turn-around between Fort William and Port Arthur. The bus turn-around was just north of the corner of Northern Ave. and Fort William Road. Circled, you can see the milk bottle which was always a well known landmark at the CLE grounds. Remember changing buses if you were going farther than the CLE from either Fort William or Port Arthur?

Not a great clipping taken in 1962 but you can see how large the midway used to be. The left photo arrows and ovals are as follows: Yellow - Northern Ave., Orange Oval - CLE Coliseum, Yellow Diamond - The Grandstand, Green Oval - CLE Auditorium(bingo hall now), Pink Arrow - Memorial Ave., Purple Oval - Super Sonic Car Wash, Red Oval - Welcome to Port Arthur Arch, Blue Arrow - Fort William Road.
The configuration of the river was actually changed when the new floodway was created.
The Google Earth photo next to the B&W one is: Yellow Oval - CLE Coliseum Bldg., Green Arrow - Northern Ave., Pink Arrow - old Super Sonic Car Wash building(no car wash but the building is still there), Red Arrow - Memorial Ave., Black Arrow - Fort William Road.
I hope I haven't missed anything, and I'm sure you will all notice other things in the pictures.

This photo shows approximately where the track would be today, over top of the golf dome, with the grandstand taking up half of the Silver City movie theatre. the markings aren't as clear as the other photos but noted as follows: A - Silver City, B - Golf Dome, #1 - CLE Coliseum, #2 - Dorothy Dove building, Purple arc - this is where all the cattle barns were, Orange rectangle - would be the grandstand, large red oval - would be where the track was(the end was very close to the river where many stock car jockeys ended up), E - Northern Ave., Pink 2-way arrow - Memorial Ave, Green Arrow - Fort William Road, and finally C - Intercity Plaza.
When the Royal American Shows came to town for the CLE, it was a childhood event to be topped by nothing else each summer. A number of midways came here but the Royal American Shows was the largest and best that I remember.

These photos were taken here in Fort William in August of 1958 mostly up and down Northern Ave., adjacent to the fairgrounds. Look at those kids - they are so excited(I remember it well)!

The bumper cars and the Gargantua!!

The Tilt-A-Whirl and another Royal American Shows truck!

These two are not local photos, but I remember a ride like this coming to the midway where you actually had some control of the plane by tilting the wings with a steering wheel(very cool). The midway mainly came here by truck but occasionally a train would bring actors, acrobats and equipment.

Well here is our CLE sign as we see it today on the Coliseum building on Northern Ave, and the last photo shows the old arch that was above the main entrance to the CLE for years. You can see this today if you look towards the fairgrounds on May Street just south of Silver City theatre.

Conjure up your own memories and if you have any CLE photos from the past, email scans to me and we can put them on the web page.

NOTHING IS NEVER LIKE IT WAS AND THE CANADIAN LAKEHEAD EXHIBITION WAS NO EXCEPTION - THE RACING - THE RIDES - THE FREAK SHOW - THE CONCESSIONS - THE FOOD.......Can't help but miss the old days!!

Also, if you want to read more history on the CLE, click here http://www.cle.on.ca/content/CLE_History/

Click on photos(SOME TWICE) to enlarge then enlarge more!

A Few Excerpts from the 1958 and 1959 International Dirt Track Stock Car Championships...

This is a close-up of the great graphic art that adorned the Championship programs in 1958 and 1959. In 1958, the CLE track here in Fort William and Port Arthur had already had a championship race of sorts in 1957. It was called the Western Stock Car Championship Race and was put together with drivers from Canada and the USA. In 1958 however, it was a much more organized event drawing top drivers from here, as well as the Midwest US, Winnipeg and Southern Ontario. The light green program cover is the first year of that very well organized event.

The first year(1958) drew top racers such as Ralph Spencer and Russ Larsen(Russ' last name was spelled differently in many of the prior and latter year programs). The actual spelling is Laursen. We will at some time do a tribute post to Russ. The story next to the photos was written by Doug McOuat, sports editor in 1958 for the Port Arthur News Chronicle. It's a great story that was published in the '58 program.

Here is the second year(1959) program cover and inside it stated that Louis Tocheri and Tony Massaro were co-promoters of the event. That was very interesting as Tony and Louis had many grudge matches and a number of fights prior to the Championship years. Tony doesn't look too happy in this photo either. The information here also notes all the officials names for the event.
This program had a number of great photos and a variety of stories about some of the guys that raced then, such as Don Marsh, Al Massaro, Merv Dove, Barry Kettering and Louis Tocheri.
Louis of course was the guy everybody loved to hate(the words "see and boo" are noted under Louis' picture here).
The guys below are some of the fellows that came from afar to join in the fun and try to win some of the $3000. that was up for grabs!

These are all great individual stories and a good read. Be sure to click on all the photos. They may need a double click to get them extra large to read the print beside them.

If there are any specific drivers you like, let me know and we can do a research story on them, or if you have a story or photo of your own, don't hesitate to email me directly from the blog site.

Many thanks to Jack Rea for the wonderful programs.