Ski buffs in the foothills didn’t have to drive to Banff or Whitefish to enjoy a day on the hills not long after the Second World War.
They could join the Turner Valley Ski Club — complete with a ski lift.
The club was formed in the late 1940s when 15 members put up $10 each to get things started, according to “In the Light of the Flares”, a historical book about the Turner Valley area.
According to the book, “The first rope tow was placed near a fence line on the slope of a hill on the Cliff Vandergrift farm northwest of the Village of Turner Valley.”
While a hill with just a rope tow doesn’t sound like much, said 79-year-old skier Jim Park, a competitor in the slalom at the 55-plus Alberta Winter Games this week, at the time he thought he had made it big.
Park previously skied at a hill closer to the cemetery in which he had to climb to get up the hill. He didn’t have to climb at the new hill thanks to a donation from an oil company.
“The Royalite Oil Company gave them some drill pipe and we put them in the ground and we welded axles on them and these car wheels,” Park said. “Royalite gave us this old donkey engine. We ran this pipe up the hill and we had a rope tow.”
Of course every lift needs a clubhouse. The Turner Valley Ski Club clubhouse was a streetcar that was desired to do a bit more.
“For a clubhouse we had an old streetcar,” Park recalled. “Streetcars had smoker-rooms and we turned that into a kitchen.”
An old wood stove heated the clubhouse, however, it still got cold and skiers had to be reminded to close the door.
“A sign hung on the door — placed there by someone obviously having difficulty with the English language, for the sign read: “Please close the door tide,” read “In the Light of the Flares.”
The ski club moved to an adjoining farm in 1959 and a poma lift was installed. A poma lift has a bar with small disc at the end which is placed between the legs. The bar then pulls the skier up the hill. The poma lift was officially opened in the winter of 1960 during a ceremony attended by then Lt. Governor Percy Page.
The lift was 1,500 feet long and gave access to runs up to 1,900 feet. The poma lift was vandalized in the early 1960s, which led to the close of the ski hill in 1964.
“The poma lift only went for a few years and then it went broke,” Park said. “But it was a great spot.”
