12 Km S.W. of Springside, Sask.
This photo circa 1915 was supplied by Lorna Parrott of Ottawa, previously of Yorkton, was reproduced from a glass negative, belonging to her father, James Wilson. It is of one of the first hockey games played on Wilson Lake in what was Beaver School District. James Wilson’s farm circled 2/3 of the lake which is near Springside. James’ son, Russell Wilson remembers that there were regular hockey games played between the various local school teams in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the schools teams were Beaverdale, Theodore, Springside, Creekside, Crossroads, Stony Coulee and Rocky Dell.
As the winter went on deep cracks would appear in the ice making it hard to skate. There was also concern with eventual thinning ice. It was decided to put up boards on the lake shore, bank them with snow and flood the area between the boards to create a rink beside the lake. The Beaverdale hockey enthusiasts used a two-horse team to pull a stone boat that had two 40 gallon metal barrels full of lake water up to the rink to flood it. Periodically the ice in the rink would crack in the cold weather and they would have to re-flood it. Wednesday and Friday afternoons were devoted to practices and several of the fellows would arrive early in order to shovel the snow off of the rink.
James Wilson had a small granary that was hauled to the head of the rink and a stove was installed so that people could put on their skates out of the cold. Those attending the games would stand behind the boards, leaning on them as they watched the game that was in progress. Lloyd Anderson remembered that Jim Wilson would move his animals out of his barn so that people attending the game could stable their horses out of the cold while watching the game. Some of the names of the local families that were involved were Anderson, Kisser, Fould, Fernie and of course, Wilson. The local hockey games were social and community events that were only possible because of the efforts of the teams and families involved. Unfortunately, the hockey games ended with the beginning of World War II.
Written by Roslyn Mellish of Maple Ridge, B.C. from conversations with Lorna Parrott and Russell Wilson of Yorkton.
