Club History

Thessalon's first substantial covered rink was built on the corner of Main and Dobie streets about 1900. It was a spacious, well constructed building with dressing rooms facing on Main Street, an ice arena and a curling lane along each side of the building. Spectators were accommodated in a passageway between the dressing rooms and the ice surface and in narrow galleries suspended approximately eight feet above the ice surface from end to end of the building. 

The curlers took great pride in their two well kept ice surfaces. The original curling club was almost exclusively the domain of middle-aged to elderly male citizens of the town, the membership being drawn mostly from the business and professional community. This was partly a matter of economics. Originally all members were required to provide their own curling stones. These "granites" were fashioned only in Scotland and were quite expensive. Records reveal that the roster of the Thessalon Curling Club in 1920 listed only 24 members - all male! The fact that the privately owned curling stones came in all sizes and proportions added to the interest of the game.

After the rink burned in 1932, a separate curling rink was built with three sheets of ice. The existing building was built in 1961. Over the years the popularity of curling has been increased by several developments, the most important being the provision of matched rocks by the club, the introduction of mixed curling and the installation of artificial ice.

An article in the Advocate some years ago lauded curling as follows: It is most pleasing to see the grey-haired man competing with the young man with a skill that not infrequently excels the youth. It is a wonderful elixir of health because it wards off disease and infirmity and gives new life to the stiffening body - and how it renews old friendships. Thus it brings old and young, rich and poor together in a way that nothing else does, without taking from one his dignity or the other his self respect.