On a list of most iconic Timmins landmarks, there would be little argument over the McIntyre Mine headframe being number one, and the nearby McIntyre Arena at number two.
Timmins museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says The Mac was built in 1938 under the direction of R.J. Innis and J.P. Bickell, who were in management at the McIntyre Mine.
“It was something to service their local people and their local miners,” Bachmann tells My Timmins Now Dot Com . “You paid a membership fee for one year. Then that gave you access to the rink, the auditorium, the gymnasium in there, the bowling alley that was downstairs, the curling club and anything else that happened in periphery of that.”
Bachmann says the building very quickly became a focal point of Schumacher.
She goes on: “The inauguration in December of 1938 saw the Toronto Maple Leafs come up and play an exhibition game. The summer skating school started there, which was something that – there were only two skating schools in North America that ran during the summer, one was in Salt Lake City, Utah and the other was in Schumacher.”
Canadian skaters training for international competition would come to The Mac. In exchange for their own ice time, they taught skating to the kids of Schumacher and Timmins.