Skiing in the Collingwood area has come a long way since 1935 when a group of public
spirited citizen had the foresight to see that this winter pastime would some
day put the town and the whole Blue Mountain District on the map.

The whole country was in the depths of the Great Depression when a hundred dollars
looked like a small fortune.

One of the men who realized that there was “Gold in them there, Blue Mountains” was the late Norman Broadway.

He came to Collingwood in 1918 after his discharge from the Royal Canadian Navy,
still recuperating from injuries suffered in the Halifax explosion.

The late John Smart and Norman were driving up from Toronto one Sunday night watching the avalanche of cars speeding back in Toronto from the ski resorts in Huntsville. Norman remarked. “We have bigger and better hills in Collingwood. Why can’t we get in on the action.”

It may have been an “off-the-cuff” remark but it triggered a dream that eventually came true a few years later.

Mr. Smart, who was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame, in 1978, and cut the Mr.
Boadway, lost no time in exploring the ways and means of getting the ball rolling.

They induced Fritz Loosli, a Swiss pro, to come to Collingwood and cut the first
trails after they negotiated a rental deal for the old Doherty property. An old log cabin was turned into a club house and the Collingwood Ski Club was eventually in business.

Now for a ski tow. The answer came when John David Eaton donated the motor from his wrecked Chrysler. The motor powered a wooden sleigh tow and the sleighs ere
built by the late Robert Morrill. The seats were built in Boadway’s cellar.  During the first winter, Norman operated the motor and John sold tow tickets. The tickets sold for ten cents each.

Through his connections as manager of the Collingwood Terminals Ltd. elevator, Norman got Senator Peter Campbell and Gordon Leitch, a pair of big time financers, interested in the development. The rest is history. The development of the ski trails was not the only cause pioneered by Norman Boadway.

He was the driving force behind the birth of the Blue Mountain Crippled Children’s
Camp and the first Collingwood Yacht Club and the founding of the H.M.S. “Hood” through the Collingwood Branch of the Navy League. He helped organize the Collingwood Horticultural Society and served for many years on the General and Marine Hospital Board.

His interest in curling included the donation of the Collingwood Terminals Cup in
the late thirties. Norman Boadway died in October, 1965, in his 67th year.