Welcome to Wayback Wednesday sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab! Every week, we’ll be sharing a vintage photo and asking our readers to chime in with anything you can recall about the photo, other related memories, or even a funny caption. Have some vintage photos of your own? Send them to [email protected] and we may share them with our readers! Scroll waaaaay down to see last week’s photo.
This week we go a little less wayback, just to 2009. In this video captured by Brian Hayden and shared on YouTube, see some recent changes to Huntsville’s landscape: clearing out the damaged interior from the Empire Hotel fire, a building that has since been demolished, and construction of the Waterloo Summit Centre for the Environment, the Canada Summit Centre, and the track and field at Conroy Park.
We recently shared some future changes with you: renovations at Huntsville Place Mall, a new craft brewery in the old Dollarama location, and the new Huntsville Brewhouse coming to Main Street. What other changes have you noticed around town, or what would you like to see happen?
Wayback Wednesday is sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab
Last week we shared this photo with you:
This image is from a postcard at Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area at a time when the lifts were used for viewing fall colours. We didn’t have the date for this photo or any additional details, but Doppler readers happily filled in the gaps:
Ken Farnsworth: “Photo was taken top of “Dutchman” of the original chairlift about 1963”
Brian Tapley: “Yes, the top of the original Dutchman ski lift and 1963 would be a “near” date.
The Hidden Valley ski club used to operate the ski lift in the summer, not just the fall and there was for some years a concrete tower at the top that one could climb for a spectacular view of the area.
It was popular, like the Dorset Tower is now, but I guess they did not make enough money to justify it as they no longer operate the lift in summer and the tower has been torn down after standing derelict for many years.
They used to run the chalet in the summer too, for entertainment, dances etc. and at one time the upper part of the parking lot right behind the chalet was the area’s first mini-golf course. I remember going to it back in 63/64. Again it was fun but I guess costs were too high and it has gone too.
There was a lot to do back then. Now we have things like the Treetop Trekking and they too are good. All these things suffer from being barely viable financially due to our short season and difficulty with the shallow shoulder seasons and long cold winter. Most need to be combined with support from another major player, like in Treetop’s case being affiliated with Deerhurst or in the case of the chair lift, Hidden Valley.”
Roger Simmons: My guess would be around 1965 and this is just over half way up. I used to ride that lift almost every day through the summer and fall.
Elizabeth Frances Jones: “Flying Dutchman…been skiing there since late 60’s…still great fun. The chairs were sold off when it was replaced. They are around in gardens and decks throughout Muskoka.”
Others, like Marilyn Martin, wished that it was a service still available: “Wish they would run that lift again even weekends only during the fall season.”
Join the discussion: