Ken Pierce, a long-time resident and historian of Elliot Lake, shared the beginnings of the Alcan Theatre, the Mine Rescue Station and the arena during the May 22 meeting of the Elliot Lake Historical Society.
He first talked about the Alcan Theatre, which was built in 1955. The Butler building housed many different services, including church services, a meal hall for miners, a commissary, a pool hall, pinball machines, juke boxes, a barber shop, a snack bar, and a movie theatre. It was built to provide entertainment for the miners and was considered “a hub” for the town.
The Alcan Theatre building was eventually sold to the Messianic Lodge and is currently used by many community groups for meetings, such as the Rotary Club, Lions Club, and the Horticultural Society, and is available for rentals, complete with new air conditioning.
Pierce, a former regional mine rescue instructor, spoke briefly about the Mine Rescue Station built in 1955 by the Ontario Ministry of Labour and used for training all the miners in emergency rescue situations. The building now houses Service Ontario. (Pierce said he would be making a longer presentation on the Mine Rescue Station, including showing the equipment they used, at a later date.)
The majority of his talk was on the Elliot Lake Arena. In 1967 a local physician, Dr. Charles Stewart, wanted to get an arena built so a fundraising committee of 19 people was formed. Then the following year a second committee with the same number was formed. Pierce said he was elected chairman.
“We undertook to raise funds for it in April,” said Pierce. Construction began in October of the same year and the first hockey game was played on December 15. Everyone in the
community had a part in building the arena: miners would pick up hammers to help before and after their shifts, high school students took part, and other volunteers put the arena up in two months’ time. The only hired workers were an engineer, a supervisor and two carpenters supplied by the contractor.
It started with a foundation for an outdoor rink in 1967, with artificial ice, and then the frame was built over that in 1968. “We had a few pitfalls,” said Pierce. The first was the realization that the rink was built in a swamp with clay and an additional $20,000 had to go into the budget to install deeper footings before adding the structure. Another pitfall happened when they were lifting planks up to the trusses to make the roof; one split and two men, one being Pierce, fell to the ground. Piere said he got away with four cracked ribs and the other worker was not too badly injured.
Fundraising efforts included holding bingos, walkathons, selling food; all 19 of the fundraising committee members made individual donations of $1,000, someone else donated an additional $1,000; square feet of ice were sold for $5 each “about ten times over;” there was a payroll deduction for miners who wanted to contribute; the two mining companies, Denison Mines and Rio Algom Limited, each gave $7000 and provided materials; others donated tools and equipment; and they received some small government grants. The total project cost $87,500.
“At the time everybody wanted an arena,” said Pierce, “and they wanted to make it happen, and they did make it happen.”
For the first hockey game on December 15, there were 2000 people in attendance, but no seats. That was the next project they undertook. Later, they raised funds to buy a Zamboni machine to clean the ice.
Pierce said the current problems with the arena roof are due to moisture damage. He said all arenas have a problem with moisture. “Let’s hope that we get back into a working arena, where we can have our kids and our junior hockey games and minor hockey…”
Throughout the informal talk, audience members were invited to ask questions and share their personal stories about the three buildings.
The goal of the historical society is to preserve and promote “heritage, history, and culture of the region through sharing memorabilia, conversation, events, education and information,” as stated in a release.
The society is open to new members for an annual fee of $10. They meet at the Elliot Lake Secondary School Cafeteria monthly. Guests are welcome.
The next meeting on June 12 will have Georges Biladeau as speaker, talking about how the Francophone community influenced local history, which included bringing College Boreal to the city and forming a French school. His talk will be in English but he will be available to answer any questions in French.