The Fort William Ski Club Early Years - thanks to Sally Smaha...

HR&J received this nice email from Sally back in June of 2012 and of course accepted her photos with great pleasure and thanks.  The three photos she sent are dated into the early 1940's at the Fort William Ski Club, later known to be the Mount McKay Ski Area.

I felt it would be a good time to do a post using her photos since the weather here has been in the -20's F. for the past few days and reminded me of the 1950's where I spent most of my winter weekends skiing in the brutal cold weather....but never noticed how cold is was because we were enjoying our skiing so much.

June 2012

"Hello.   My step father used to talk about skiing and ski jumping back in Fort William. This probably was in the early 1940’s. His Name was Ev Clift and he passed away in 2002. Last year my Mom passed away and now I've been looking through pictures. I have one of the ski hill way back in the days Ev was there. I don't want to throw it away so was wondering if you would like it. If you would please send me your mailing address and I will send it to you.    Sally Smaha"

This article was written just a couple of years before the pictures below existed.  Click on all the pictures once or twice to enlarge them to full screen.

Here are the skiers lined up to be pulled up to the top by the rope tow.  You would let go of the rope at the top of the hill that you see and glide a few feet and grab another rope tow to take you all the way to the very top.  The famous Fort William Ski Club jump is shown on the left top of the picture and the hill that you see just to the left of the rope tow was known later to be the "B" Slalom, later to be full of moguls.  Oh yes, and no T-bar's or Chair Lifts as yet.
Early local ski jumpers and downhill skiers Erling and Knut Hansen were well known in the late 1930's and early 1940's having numerous wins and close finishes in meets around the area helping to promote the local ski clubs of the day.

This is a little wider angle showing a little more of the runs to the right of the rope tow and a long rack to place your skis when you went inside the club house to warm up.  I remember huge wood stoves that made the clubhouse very warm and toasty, as well as a special waxing room to wax your skis or have a professional do it.

This photo is again further right than the last two.  Note the service men standing by the pole to pretty much date these photos as taken during the early years of WWII.  Later in the 1950's we would jump over the "big rock" that you see on the left of the photo.  Just out of the picture to the right would be the clubhouse.  The service men would probably just come to watch and check out the attractive ladies who were skiing there that day.

This is what the equipment would have looked like back in the 1940's and into the 1950's.  The skis were wood with no steel edges and the poles were bamboo.  The square toe boots on the right were very common and a style that lasted well into the 1950's.  The picture of the couple here shows some of the ski apparel that was worn then.....wow how things change over time.

 This is a brochure that was in my mothers photo album and would have been used to show potential skiers that Fort William and Port Arthur Ontario had great skiing and was only a stones throw from the upper mid-west in the United States.

 Here is the back side of the brochure showing how the hill had grown since the 1930's and well into the 1960's.

Here are four of my own White Falcon Ski School badges.  Throughout the 1950's, this was a way for an average family to afford to send their kids skiing, as some had considered it only a rich man's sport.  You could purchase slightly used equipment and the City of Fort William would pick up your skis on a truck and young skiers on city buses and bring them to Mount McKay Ski Area to learn how to ski for a mere 25 cents a week.  There were pick-up spots around the city and you could stay all day after your lesson and practice with no extra charge for the rope tow.
Well known names such as Wally McDougal and Andrew Coffee were founding fathers of the White Falcon Ski School.

This is how progressive the Mount McKay Ski Area looked just before it finally was closed.

Click on all photos for enlargements.

The Dominion Ski Championships were held on February 19th and 20th here at the Fort William Ski Club back in 1949.  Many skiers from the Nordic, Downhill and Jumping divisions here in Fort William went on to Olympic Status putting Fort William and Port Arthur on the map.

Click on this link for more on the Mount McKay Ski Area on this blog, then return http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2010/01/need-for-speed-in-winter-in-fort.html

Many thanks again to Sally for the great photos.

The Port Arthur Ski Club later to become the Mount Baldy Ski Area, just east of Port Arthur Ontario is the oldest club that still exists here in the Thunder Bay Area.

Progress and Deterioration in Fort William....

Our fair cities of Fort William and Port Arthur, combined now into Thunder Bay in 1970 has seen many changes, and a great percentage of these have taken place in the past year, counting a dozen or so buildings either razed or burn to the ground this past year. It is wonderful to see the progress, but many things we remember from the past have also deteriorated to a point of no return. Here are a few reminders of what it was and what it looks like now!

Here is 1969 and the thriving corner of May and Victoria Ave. It is Christmas and the shoppers are out there on the east side of what is now Victoriaville. You can see that even in winter, the area looked clean and bright. The photo was taken from the roof of the old Cooper Block which burned down soon after this was taken. The next photo here shows the same corner with a greyed structure that once was the Agnew Surpass shoe store in the Medical Arts building. The north west corner still houses the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Here is a wonderful postcard photo of May Street circa 1915 before the Royal Edward Hotel was built. Two of the buildings still stand, the lighter coloured brick building on the far left of the first photo here and the building on the right with the long facade. In the newer picture from google maps, the same building is white on the left(the I.O.O.F. Temple) and the long building is on the right. It's nice that some things don't change. In the old post card photo you can see a water delivery horse and buggy on May Street and the spire of the old city hall, which was on the same property as the newly renovated city hall today.

This is an incredibly sad reminder of deterioration and decay. The once thriving Fort William Ski Club, to later become the Mount McKay Ski Club is shown here near the end of its useful life in 1977. It was my Alma Mater in the skiing world here at the Lakehead and myself and my sons miss it very much. You can see that it was a thriving club by the photographs, then left to deteriorate.

Even in the summer months from the other side of the Kaministiquia River you can see all the ski runs as they were once cared for during the whole year. The ship on the river is at the former Great Lakes Paper Company loading dock and is the well known Gaspedoc. Myself and many friends had loaded this ship with newspaper for many US destinations back in the 1960's. The next picture here is a portion of a brochure from the 1960's showing all the runs at Mount McKay Ski Club that were available.

These photos were taken in the last few years. The area has even deteriorated more since these pictures were taken, as Mother Nature slowly but surely reclaims the land once cleared for one of the most popular ski hills here in Fort William....the place that kept me out of trouble for many winter months and years back then. NOTE: Another web post for the Fort William Ski Club was done last year as well....To see it, CLICK HERE, then come back http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2010/01/need-for-speed-in-winter-in-fort.html
Click on the photos to enlarge...some are smaller format and will not fully enlarge to screen size!

THE NEED FOR SPEED in the WINTER in FORT WILLIAM, Ont.....

THE WINTER NEED FOR SPEED WAS SATISFIED BY DOWNHILL SKIING HERE IN FORT WILLIAM!
This first photo(taken in the summer months in the 1940's) shows the building of the newer club house shown in the little film at the end of this post, the rope tow shack at the bottom of the picture, and also the bustling Great Lakes Paper Company, on the Kaministiquia River.
In the summer months in the 1950's here in Fort William, there was always hot rodding, jalopy racing, push mobile racing, bicycle racing, etc.....but with the snows we have here in the Lakehead cities, and not much in snow mobiles as yet(or we just couldn't afford them when they came upon the scene), we took out our need for speed on the ski slopes.
Note: Some of these items are not in chronological order and will be noted as such.

Here on the left is a Mount McKay Ski Area Inc. brochure from about 1964. Our mother saved this for us with personal notes attached(Thanks Corey). The Mount McKay Club was formerly named The Fort William Ski Club and that's how I remembered it most, even until it sadly closed a number of years ago now. This was The ski club in Fort William from the 1920's until the Irwin family started Loch Lomond(another story later) in the mid 1950's. The next photo is an unknown skier at the Olympic Trials and National Senior Championships in 1955 at the Fort William Ski Club.

This is a photo of the Gaspedoc, a ship at the Great Lakes Paper company(many guys who worked at GLP will fondly remember loading this baby many times).....It has nothing to do with skiing but this angle was the only way to show where the FW Ski Club was in the summer...yes....directly across from the present day Abitibi/Bowater mill(formerly Great Lakes Paper). The next photo shows the first Chair lift that was installed at the club. When I was a kid there were only a couple of rope tows and after a winter of yanking yourself up the hill, even then, I had some pretty good biceps. The memories of our young skiing days at Mount Mckay and Loch Lomond cannot be compared to any others. Basically skiing kept myself and my friends out of trouble all winter long...well not completely!!

Here are some ladies lined up to go for a run maybe late 1940's(sorry for the poor quality here). The next one is a 1933 photo of two jumpers going off the large jump side by side, Knute and Erling Hansen. You can also see the GL Paper mill across the Kam River again. I distinctly remember in the 1950's, smelling the sulphur used in the paper mill process, depending on the wind direction. It was so potent, it would give you a sore throat.

This first photo could have been taken at the same meet as above. This next photo is of Fred Hagglund in 1940 with his #23 attached to his chest. Up in the distance you can see the large jump. Thanks to Roger Rickards for some of these vintage B&W photos.

Here is another B&W photo of the out-run of the jump hill. Sadly this is what is left of the old club-house where we attended dances, had bean feeds....whew...., warmed up around old wood stoves after our White Falcon Ski School lessons, and made many long lasting friendships which continue to this day.

Thanks to Matthias Wandel for the colour photos. If you want to see more photos of abandoned or closed ski areas go to Matthias Wandel's site here http://matt.wandel.ca/mount_mckay/index.html It is very sad to see what has become of some of the ski hills around our area. Don't forget to see the great little film clip at the end!

Here is photo of a couple of abandoned chair lift shacks taken in the last few years.

The final photo is actually taken at Loch Lomond Ski Club in about 1958. From right to left is Scott McCallum(who, years later was an usher at my wedding), Myself, Dwight McIntosh(who years later was my best man at my wedding), and the little bit younger guy on the far left is John Ritchie, who became a famous skiier in his own right and as well was the Canadian Alpine ski coach of the famous Crazy Canucks so popular around the skiing world in the late 1970's. Dwight's brother Lyn McIntosh was a sprint car driver from here and raced throughout the midwest with great success, and his winter need for speed was also satisfied on the ski slopes here in Fort William as well. Lyn was also head coach for Canada's women's ski team for the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Finally a very short film showing the rope tow and the original club house at the Fort William ski club in the 1950's. The film clip was borrowed from the curling one shown in a prior post.

Click on all photos to enlarge!

Click on the tiny arrow above to start the film!