Ski community donates $40,000 to new Arrowhead Visitor Centre in tribute to former Huntsville Ski Club

By Shelley Cowan and Cathie Raynor
Photos by Don McCormick

On Saturday, November 10, 2018, members of our local ski community gathered at Arrowhead Provincial Park’s newly completed Visitor Center to celebrate the unveiling of a monumental stone fireplace towering over the vast main hall. Mother Nature gave us a wintery wonderland that provided the perfect setting for this event and there was enough snow for a few people to pull out their skis and indulge in the first strides of season.

In 2012, the Huntsville Ski Club gave a generous donation of $40,000 to create a permanent tribute to the Huntsville Ski Club that would benefit future generations of skiers. The beautiful Muskoka rock fireplace is the legacy provided by this gift.

Founded in 1932, the Huntsville Ski Club developed an extensive network of trails, downhill runs and ski jumps, including jumps at Memorial Park, Stevens Hill south of town, and Mica Mine Hill, which was the largest, longest and steepest ski jump in Ontario and allowed takeoff speed of 70 miles an hour. The club hosted local and provincial competitions and helped organize popular winter carnival weekends in the 1930s that drew trainloads of Torontonians to Huntsville. The club disbanded a few years ago.

Bob Hutcheson, the remaining member of the last Huntsville Ski Club board, related some of his memories of skiing in Huntsville.

He recalled how a group of 75 people gathered at his grandfather’s cottage on Lake Vernon to form the original Huntsville Ski Cub.

Before 1937, the town streets were not plowed and people skied everywhere. In those days, skis were very long and made of solid hickory. They just had a toe strap that fastened your toes to the ski. Several local folks manufactured their own wax recipes containing ground car tire rubber and marketed these products.

Hutcheson’s early memories were of skiing on trails and jumps down the west side of the present Lions Lookout. In the 1930s, Huntsville became famous for its weekend carnivals; for a fare of $3.95 round trip, ski trains brought crowds of happy skiers from Toronto who were met by a band and the mayor himself for a torchlight parade to the town hall, followed by a weekend of dances, skating, and ski competitions in jumping, cross-country, downhill and slalom races.

In 1939, Limberlost installed what is considered to be the first mechanical ski lift in Canada.

In the early ’40s, the club developed trails on the William Sinclair farm on the Big East River Hills. But in those days, there was no plowing past where the Tim Hortons is today near Highway 11. People had to ski out from town on their big heavy skis before they could even start skiing on the trails.

In the late 1940s the club acquired Stevens Hill on Gryffin Lodge Road and developed runs and two jumps, Little Vic and Big Vic, named after Vic Woodcock. In those days, the charge for children was $0.25 per year and there was a free bus out from the town.

In the 1960s, the Stevens’ hill property was sold and the funds created probably contributed over $250,000 to our community and local athletes. Hutcheson reflected, “I’m sure it’s the wonderful people that I’ve been connected with in skiing activities that has enriched the sport and made me continue to go skiing.”

Chair of the Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club, John Cowan, opened with a brief history of skiing culture in Ontario with specific note to the significance and impact of the skiing culture in Muskoka.

Avid Muskoka Loppet competitor and former Huntsville High School Ski Team member (1954-55) Lloyd Henry displayed his famous patch-covered coat which makes him immediately recognizable on the ski trails. He is known for his meticulous record keeping of kilometres skied and has an impressive 5,000-plus kilometre count to date.

Lloyd Henry (left), in his recognizable jacket, and Bob Hutcheson in front of the fireplace at the new Arrowhead Visitor Centre. (Photo: Don McCormick)

Great appreciation goes out to Martha Briggs Watson for the generous donation of a pair of solid hickory skis that belonged to her father, Harold Briggs, a founding member of the Huntsville Ski Club. Mr. Briggs sold skis from the back of the Briggs china and jewelry store on Main Street. He was also the club secretary and author of the club newsletter called, “The Skier’s Itch.” He purchased the property on Mica Mine Hill so that the club could develop the Mica Mine jumps and runs, and his daughter, Jane Briggs Van Buskirk, still resides there.

A cheque for $40,000 was presented by Cindy Blake, treasurer of the Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club, to Peter Briand, Park Superintendent, on behalf of the Huntsville Ski Club.

Hutcheson concluded his talk by saying, “I hope that the fireplace that we’ve contributed to brings back memories of all your days and thoughts about the people that came before you, and the people you have skied with. I have a saying, ‘It took many days of sunlight to grow the trees, make the oil or natural gas that we are burning, … as the fire burns, it brings back the sunlight from those many days, and so should bring back the memories of your exploits of the past as well.'”

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