The Yorkton RCMP has confirmed the fire that claimed Yorkton’s old curling rink two weeks ago is now the subject of a criminal investigation.
“It is fair to say it was suspicious in nature,” said Staff Sgt. Greg Nichol, municipal detachment commander.
Nichol would not elaborate on the status of suspects in the case, but said that the investigation is ongoing and anybody with any information, no matter how small, should contact the detachment at 306-786 2400 or Crimestoppers.
At the time of the fire, the rink was under renovation by a private owner to turn it into a storage building and its historic role in the development of curling in the city was all but forgotten.
That is a shame, because it was quite a significant building.
Although curling started in the late 1890s in the Yorkton area, it had a spotty history up until the end of World War II occupying several locations including a building at Tupper Avenue and South Front Street where the recent fire occurred.
During the war, curlers kept the sport alive by convincing the owner of an empty downtown lot to flood it and paid 25 cents a game. It came to be known as two-bit curling.
The end of the war brought prosperity and a population increase in Yorkton from 5,000 to 8,000. A plan was launched to build a seven-sheet curling arena in 1947, but labour and materials were scarce following the war, something Mayor Clarence Langrill noted at the grand opening of the building in 1948.
“Thank goodness we have some good, energetic, public-spirited men in this community who, when things look tough, do not give up and quit,” he said according to the December 10, 1948 edition of The Enterprise. “They just take the bit in their teeth and carry on as the word quit is not in their vocabulary.”
The leader of that group was A.C. Stewart, president of the rink association. Through some astute bargaining with the provincial government, Stewart was able to purchase an old airline hangar to serve as the main structure of the building.
By using volunteer labour and by soliciting donations and cash, the rink ended up costing $35,000, but its estimated value was $70,000.
“The two-storey structure 180 by 110 feet, with sloping roof and modernistic frontage, houses a large waiting room, viewing gallery on both floors with 21 six-foot windows and seating accommodation for 400 people, a kitchen, canteen, locker rooms, office wash rooms, women’s lounge, taxi office, vestibule and a draw room, which outside of bonspiel time will be used as coffee room,” The Enterprise reported.
The seven sheets of ice, entirely unencumbered by posts, served Yorkton and area until 1977 when the current eight-sheet rink opened in the Parkland Agriplex (now Gallagher Centre).
