Canadian Lakehead Exhibition History - be sure to attend This August.....

This history was borrowed from the CLE website(with thanks), however the colour photos below were shown in prior posts and are included again as my favourite photos of the fairgrounds in 1961...   CLE Website link - http://www.cle.on.ca/     Two more CLE fair links click on each then return... 1 - http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2010/06/canadian-lakehead-exhibitioncoming.html  2 - http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2011/08/huge-then-and-now-at-fairgrounds1955-to.html

DID YOU KNOW?

There are no reports or minutes prior to 1922.

The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition was known in 1922 as the "WESTALGOMA AGRICULTURE SOCIETY". Mr. Walker was engaged as the Secretary / Manager in 1917 and served in that capacity until 1929.
At this point the Society never had a midway at it's fair.
The Society looked at a name change for the West Algoma Agriculture Society, it was felt a name distinctive of the Area should be considered. The suggestions put forward to the Board members were as follows:

• ONTARIO LAKEHEAD EXHIBITION
• SUPERIOR EXHIBITION
• GREAT NORTHERN EXHIBITION
• WESTERN ONTARIO EXHIBITION

Unfortunately these names did not appeal to the members.
It was not until the year 1929, on a motion by J.R. Hutchison that the name of the West Algoma Agriculture Society be changed to "Canadian Lakehead Exhibition". All agreed to this name and the Federal Government was petitioned , two months later authorization was received in the form of a letter from the Hon. John S. Martin.
August 20th, 1920 the Globe and Rutgers Fire Insurance Co offered Weather Insurance for the Fair. They paid a proportionate each day if the rainfall amounted to one-fifth of an inch or over between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Local No. 489 American Federation of Musicians did up a contract with the C.L.E. on Aug 31st, 1920 to perform for the fair. They furnished 25 Musicians at a cost of $2.50 per member and one Bandmaster at a cost of $5.00. The band played three hours the afternoon and three hours in the evening of Sept 16th, 1920.
The Society had the support from both City Councils and the Society was very pleased that both Mayors and Council members attended many board meetings and jumped in to assist where ever possible.
Another popular sport in the 1920's was "Auto Racing" the sponsor was "TwinCity Driving Association".


Circa 1960

1923 Fair, it was decided a midway would be implemented.
Admission Fee in 1923 was 10 cents for Adults - 5 cents for Children.
The long remembered race track was built in 1922
Also in 1922 Mrs. B.O. Allen suggested the Society sponsor a Baby Clinic, the forerunner of today's Baby Contest.
The 1925 the midway changed hands to the "Fort William Hockey Club".
In 1926 it was decided that a Special Day for all School Children would be incorporated into the Fair.
The 1939 the Fair was held Aug 7th to 12th - this fair had Grand Stand attractions such as : Christy's Performing Elephants, Horses, Dogs, Pat Rafferty, Comedian, Happy Kellens, Beautiful Girl Chorus. Also Light Horse Shows.

Grand Attendance Prizes

New 1939 Ford Car - Leonard Refrigerator - Cabinet of Silverware - Victor Radio - Spode China Service - Chesterfield Suite. Merchants gave Free Attendance Prize Tickets.
Special Admission Rates: Weekly Tickets - Good for 6 admissions $1.00. Which was on sale at Rutledge's Book Store and McAuliffe's Drug Store.
To call the C.L.E. office you phoned South 170.

This is a large format photo to click on to view more detail.

THE FOLLOWING ARE DAVE ROSS PHOTOS FROM 1961 - click for enlargements!


Note the Union Jack flags - before the maple leaf flag.

How I miss the arch!!

The midway, walking bridge, racetrack and Sears plaza.

1966 Fair admission price was $1.00 for Adults and .25cents for children. The Attendance Prize each night for seven nights for 7 Beautiful Fords, one 1966 Mustang will be drawn and 6 1966 Falcons, all from Gibson Motors Memorial Avenue.
Also in 1966 the Police Department and O.P.P. held their Bike Skill Test known as Bicycle Rodeo for young bicyclists.
1967 the C.L.E. hosted the RCMP Musical Ride and Concert Band. Cost to attend this event was Adults $1.00 and Children .50 Cents.
Also in 1967 the yearly Fair was held July 21 - 29 which featured 7,000 Free Displays, 70 Midway Attractions, 7 Free Cars for the Attendance Draw and many Grandstand Shows. On the Saturday the Fair was officially opened by one of the Lakehead’s most attractive young Citizens - Miss Candace Kartinen who was Miss United Appeal for 1967. Opening the Fair was one of her first duties of her new job as Miss United Appeal 1967.
1968 Fair also featured a new 1968 car for the attendance draw each night. This is the 78th Fair the board was so proud of this years fair, President Joseph L. McCormack invited Prime Minister Trudeau to participate in opening ceremonies. The fair had many great attractions such as: Cheetah which can beat a car to 70 mph and Jughead, an ostrich.
1968 Fair also saw the Mighty Thomas Shows run the midway.
Did you know that in 1968 Fair goers could leave their cars at the Simpson Sears Allstate Service Station and have their cars filled up with gas for Premium it was 52.9 cents a gal. and for Regular 47.9 cents a gal.
At this point we should mention that all the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition’s were very heavy with cattle displays, horse racing, farm equipment, horse shows, petting zoo’s etc. Many trophies are still on display in the C.L.E. Office 425 Northern Ave for your viewing pleasure.Office staff of 1968 were Jessie Wishart, Ruby Fairbairn , Madeline Anderson, Dorthy Prince, Phyllis Bailey , Vera White and Barbara Rutledge.

WHO OWNS THE C.L.E.???

As Quoted by one of the C.L.E’s past President Norman Shields - 1972 - 1973
The C.L.E. is a non-profit corporation owned by its members.
The members are people from the community who pay $10.00 a year. However, to be a voting member you have to have been a paid-up member for two years plus the current year.

WHO GOVERNS THE C.L.E.??

We are governed by the Agricultural Act, which tells us to have a board of directors without a chairman, and a 5 person executive which carries out the policies laid down by the board.
BEING A BOARD MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN LAKEHEAD EXHIBITION IS A VOLUNTARY POSITION NOT A PAID POSITION
The Directors put in many long hours working on bringing you the many long time favorites such as Fair, Yard & Garden, Project Pizza and much more, also many hours are put into over seeing the day to day operations of the C.L.E.
The only people who get paid are they employee’s of the C.L.E. which includes two secretary’s, one Accountant, one Maintenance Supervisor and three Maintenance Men.

More Dave Ross Photos.....the CLE.....some Then and Now's and other interesting tidbits....

To make everyone happy - I try to combine local history with either cars or local racing, but many times I just do posts on interesting local history, and this post is no exception.

With the coming of Canadian Lakehead Exhibition fair week 2013...here is another group of Dave Ross' photos(click on all to enlarge), the first one taken from the top of the then CLE Grandstand building.  The midway was on the north side of the river then accessible by a walking bridge that you can see a bit of at the far left.  Further in the distance is Sears and the then Intercity Plaza.  To the right is Fort William Road and of course bottom right is the old CLE dirt track 4th and last corner heading towards the finish line.  The "edited for" grassy section at the center bottom and the track area, is the all paved northern parking lot for Silver City today.  Be sure to click on this link showing more of Dave's photos and the other ones taken from the grandstand, then return.  http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2013/05/ckpr-radio-early-years-in-fort-william.html

To read all you ever needed to know about CKPR Radio - go to Bud Riley's site at the following link

http://www.budrileyradio.com/ckpr_radio_tv.html  ...Then return here.

 

Jack Masters and George Jeffrey taken in the hallway below the grandstand building at the CLE in the early 1960's.  Jack was a broadcaster for CKPR radio and television then, later to become Mayor of Thunder Bay for 2 terms from 1985 until 1991.  Jack was also a Member of Parliament (Thunder Bay/Nipigon) from 1980 until 1984.

​New Note : "George Jeffrey was CKPR, manager and sales manager and was one of the founders of the station."

The Thunder Bay Crippled Children's Centre began in 1961 and in 1983 was renamed The George Jeffrey Children's Treatment Centre in honour of its former Chairman of the Board (George Jeffrey) who was also director for many years for his dedication to children with disabilities.

 

The following is a new tidbit about the above photo from Dave R.

"The year would be 1961, the same year I took the coloured slides.....when CKPR had an exhibit under the grandstand.

CKPR was giving out 78 records that were painted with gold paint to anybody walking by.

They also had a place nearby or across the hall where people could break 

the 78 records with baseballs...   CKPR was called "Golden Radio"....." 

 

 

The above 1950's photo is a 1955 Ford owned by the Ross family and parked in front of their home on Summit Ave. in Port Arthur.
....a correction is needed here - click on comments at the bottom of this post to read the details.  This is a 1955 Meteor Niagara, not a Ford!

Across the street is an old Ford parked in front of  a nice cape cod style home which belonged to R. J. Prettie.  Mr.  Prettie ran Northern Wood Preservers long before it was sold to Buchanan Lumber.

MORE INTERESTING FACTS BELOW:



This is the former Ross home on Summit Ave.....the '55 Ford above was parked

directly in front of this home.

The above photo is how the R. J. Prettie home looks today on Summit Ave.  The photo below is Northern Wood Preservers taken in the 1960's, Later to become Buchanan Lumber.




THEN AND NOW:

This is an early 1960's photo of North Cumberland street at Wolseley Street and below is the present day....very uninteresting photo.  Check out the Brill Bus trolley overhead lines and the wonderful signage at the Shell station and on the billboard.

 

 

NOW.....SOME MARINA PARK:

 



Here is a ship coming between the CPR and CNR docks back in the 1940's.  The now picture on the right is exactly how the area looks today.  Be sure to click on all the photos once or twice for enlargements.



The next three photos show the same area above taken from the lake towards downtown Port Arthur.  The Prince Arthur Hotel is shown vividly on the right (part red brick/part grey building).  This postcard looks to be from the 1930's.



This last photo shows how the scene looks today, with the old station on the left, the baggage building on the right and the Prince Arthur Hotel in the background with the new modern government building and a portion of the new Marina roadway.

The photo on the right shows a small steamer in the distance heading to the area near the lighthouse(It may be the same ship shown in a photo above coming between the CNR and CPR dock at the marina. 
I have tried to locate this exact spot along the shoreline without any luck but could possibly be Parry's Marine as Dave Ross noted.

 

The next two photos are of the Current River.  The first one is taken just below the Black Bay bridge showing all the logs that were sent through the river system and on into Lake Superior to be sorted into booms then on to Northern Wood Preservers.  The second photo was taken just below the Current River Dam.  Both these photos were taken in the 1930's

 

Not too clear, but just below Black Bay bridge.

Taken from the Cumberland St. bridge below the Current River Dam.

Finally, two more interesting photographs.

 

Cumberland and Arthur Street (now Red River Road)

The was a steam train tour from back in the 1920's to Kakabeka Falls, Ontario approximately 18 miles from Fort William and Port Arthur.  If you look closely and enlarge the photo, you should only see 2 men.  This whole group is standing way to close to the gorge.  For visitors to the local area Kakabeka Falls is dubbed the Niagara of the North.

Many thanks to Dave Ross for the use of the photos of Fort William and Port Arthur's colourful history. (now Thunder Bay, Ontario)  A big thank you to all those who took these wonderful photos back in the days.

 

 

The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition's "Boys of Summer" in the 1950's and early 1960's....

The taste of dirt, exhaust fumes and the smoking tires constantly remind me of the wonderful memories of the old CLE racetrack at our fairgrounds in Fort William, Ontario.  Even though I spent a few years racing in the late 1960's at Riverview Raceways, my childhood memories always bring me back to the times spent at the CLE.  Here are a few more nostalgic records of those times......

 

This next group of photos shows how our "boys of summer" go beyond the call of duty to actually fight a fire that developed in the lower area of the grandstand......click on all photos to enlarge them and read the clippings.

Above right in the forefront is Ross "Pappy" Fowler former driver
and current flagman hauling a fire hose.

 

This blog site names a number of drivers and pit crew from the CLE days that were most notable of the times, and in many instances we haven't added many of the other names and faces that were no less important than the so called more famous.  I have a number of photos that have been loaned to HR&J with names and faces that you may not recognize but still made a huge impact on racing here in the Lakehead cities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  Here are some of them.

In the rear is M. Whittingham, Bill Malcolm, and unknown.  In the front with the helmet is Don Deakin and beside him is Ted Charleton.  The lettering on the right reads in full "Look what we did to this car".  Tongue in cheek of course.

 

 These two early 1960's photos are of #11 All Bishop working on his car.



















Noted in prior blog posts were of course the importance of sponsorship, as without the sponsors there would have never been any racing in those days.  North Cumberland Service was no exception, paying for advertising for the races, and sponsoring cars .  Many thanks to Al Whittingham and his son Morris.

These photos show their old Ford North Star Oil service truck and offering their service at the Championship races held at the CLE.

North Cumberland Service was at 368 North Cumberland Street, the present day site of Cordone Brothers used car lot.

Here is a typical day-after race day newspaper clipping.  Here we see Clyde Ditmars' checkerboard jalopy rolling over in a collision with Ernie Pauluk.  In the first photo, you can hardly spot Ernie's car, but in the closeup below it can be seen.

 

This next photo is about the era where they started doing the cut down or channeled cars.  This is Lorne Morin's cut down coupe with their crew behind including R. Couture, R. Donyluk and D. Couture.  Merv Dove after an accident with his #31 car was gracious enough to loan Lorne his new 292 Ford engine and his Lincoln transmission.....now that's true sportsmanship!

Here we have a shot of Jerry Donyluk crashed into the Grandstand

 Ray Shirley's Plymouth Coupe #5

This is one of Fort William's Murray Simmons red, yellow and black striped car taken at Russ Laursen's shop in Superior Wisconsin.

 

Our "Boys of Summer" constantly put their lives on the line for the entertainment of many, but they also had hearts of gold as well as noted in this June 1954 news clipping. 

The photo on the right is Bill Machinski #46.  For some of the regular races and especially for the Championship races the CLE added more bleachers to the front area of the grandstand as shown here.  It was a miracle that anyone wasn't killed or seriously injured, as these seats were very close to the track with very little protection for the spectator.

Bill Machinski #46

 

Many drivers were maimed for life at the old CLE track and Wes Inkster was no exception.  He was seriously injured back in the 1950's in this car.  Many of the advertisers, other driver's and their families and fans alike came to Wes' aid while he recuperated.  After some time and with the help of many, he was able to return to his service station and continue on with his life.

As noted above, a benefit show was held at the Fort William Gardens on Aug 22, 1957 in aid of the Wes Inkster fund, featuring local artists such as Myrna Lorrie, Johnny and Harry Siczkar, Roy Coran and the Colosimo accordion group.
Junior (Fran) Speer continued to race Wes's car to the joy of many at the old Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track.

MANY THANKS TO OUR "BOYS OF SUMMER" IN THE 1950'S