Winter activities
- Introduction
- Pond skating
- Toboganning
- Snowshoeing
- Skating carnivals
- Skating parties
Pond Skating
“My glad feet shod with the glittering steel
I was the god of the winged heel.”(Excerpt from The Skater, poem, by Charles G.D. Roberts, 1901)
Skating in eastern Canada became popular at all levels of society in the 1860s. During that time, before the construction of Sackville’s first indoor skating rink in 1876, Mount Allison students skated on marshes and ponds. In the late 1860s, Morice’s Pond (known today as Silver Lake) was used for skating, despite the fact it was located over one mile from campus. Another place favoured for skating was Ford's Pond, thought to have been located near present-day Lorne Street, between Bridge and Allison streets. Arthur E. Cogswell, class of 1868, in an issue of the alumni magazine Mount Allison Record (April - June 1933), recalled his time skating there:
"In Winter the great sport was skating on 'Ford's Pond'; and what a thrill of delight was caused when the girls, carefully guarded by a teacher, appeared on the brow of a hill. This was just before the introduction of acme skates; and most of us had runners with sharp heels, to enable a skater to 'heel up' quickly, if necessary."
Skating on ponds continued after the construction of Sackville's first indoor rink in 1876. The Ladies’ College Pond (known today as the Swan Pond), for example, was especially popular for skating after it was built in 1901.
Mount Allison Ladies' College Skating Pond, ca. 1905
Mount Allison Ladies' College Skating Pond, ca. 1905
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