Canada was a young nation of 20 when curlers first took to the ice at the Port Arthur Curling Club.
In 1887, with Queen Victoria ruling the Commonwealth and telephones still a novelty in this neck of the woods, an outdoor rink with natural ice was born. One hundred and twenty-five years later, the sport is still going strong, with a year of celebrations planned to mark the milestone anniversary.
The club, which has sent upward of 60 teams or more to national championships, on Jan. 29 will host a segment of the century-old Strathcona Cup challenge, which will see more than 60 Scottish teams spread out across Canada to try to take the championship back.
Then, as the season winds down, the PACC will play host to the Canadian Masters Curling Championships, featuring the best 60-year-old and older teams in the country.
It’s an exciting time for the club, president Len Carr said Tuesday, adding they’ve survived and thrived over the years for a number of reasons.
“No. 1 it’s in the City of Thunder Bay which is obviously a hotbed of curling. We’ve had a few national champions. Everybody is familiar with Al Hackner and Heather Houston, and of course Don Main’s junior team,” Carr said.
“Port Arthur Curling Club started as a two-sheet club, was built up to an eight-sheet club by our forefathers and many volunteers. It was a lot of hard work. Other than that, we’re a very close-knit community and our volunteers are still very much involved.
By 1910 the decision to build an indoor facility had been made, leading to the start of the Intercity Bonspiel, which by the 1920s was attracting teams from all over the region and beyond. In 1936 a fire nearly destroyed the rink, but repairs were made and 30 rinks signed up to play on the six sheets of ice that year.
In 1950 the city at the behest of the Ontario Municipal Board, turned down a $48,000 loan request to help pay for a new indoor rink club members had already started. But a year later, after pleading their case in Toronto, the loan was given the go-ahead and the construction of the new rink continued.
Throughout its storied history, the club continued to produce championship curlers. Grant Watson, Don McEwan, Frank Sargent and Archie Grant in 1953 were the first to carry PACC’s colours at a Dominion curling championship.
A year later skip Elsie Forsyth’s foursome was the first winner of the Northwestern Ontario Ladies Curling Association Championship. Her third, Clara Tetley, was the mother of 1975 Brier champion Bill Tetley.
“The success rate on the trips to the Brier, to the junior mixed or to the ladies (championship) is great. Bill Tetley was the first well-known name around Thunder Bay. He was the first to go to the Brier and actually win a Brier for Northern Ontario and Port Arthur in those days,” Main said.
“Over the years we have over 40 national winners who went to nationals, from junior, men’s, women’s seniors and now it’s the masters.”
Skips Marion Clark and Paul Carr are the latest on the growing list, taking Northern Ontario to last year’s Canadian National Masters Curling Championships. This year’s event kicks off on April 6.
Main said there is a lifetime of memories built up at the club, but in many ways, it’s not like the old days.
“The International Bonspiel was a Port Arthur and Fort William event. But there would be over 200 teams, half from Winnipeg or Manitoba. It would last the whole week,” Main said. “Of course, there was nothing else to do in the old days.”
Registration for the upcoming curling season will be Aug. 29 and 30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
