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The history of downhill skiing in Timmins

Our Timmins history feature goes downhill this week… as we conclude our look at skiing.

Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says just as cross-country skiing took hold in the 1920s and 30s, so did downhill.  The place to be was known as The Gulch, off what is now Highway 655.

“No T-bars, none of that” Bachmann notes, “but you used your skis to get yourself up to the top of the hill, and then you could ski down again.”

There was also a ski jump built there.

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She now takes us to the 1960s, and the commonly called Kamiskotia Hill in the early 60s,when a group installed T-bars.  By 1967, they formed the Kamiskotia Resort.

“Then they electrified all of their T-bars and their hill apparatus;” Bachmann relates, “they built a chalet; and then of course in 1976 they had a really good year, with Kathy Kreiner winning a gold medal and she had actually trained on that hill and skied on that hill for all of her life.”

Many thanks to Karen Bachmann for sharing her knowledge of Timmins history, making our weekly feature possible.

The ski jump at The Gulch. (Timmins Museum: National Centre)
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