It is with mixed feelings that members of the community come to grips with the end of an era — within a few short months, the Jubilee Arena will be gone with the new Spirit Centre’s parking lot in its place.
Jubilee was the first covered arena in the Westlock area. Prior to its completion in the summer of 1963, Barrhead and Morinville had the two closest indoor arenas in the area.
Hockey players and figure skaters in Westlock had to brave the Alberta winter if they wanted to strap on the skates and hit the ice.
Outdoor hockey was, of course, the norm in those days. All the small communities in the area had little outdoor arenas, some bigger than others, where everyone from the very young to the more experience players would strap on their skates.
In Westlock, the outdoor arena sat where the curling rink stands now, running from north to south. Long-time resident George Brost said that’s where he spent most of his younger days playing — there and at another outdoor rink where R.F. Staples is now.
“We shoveled more snow than we played hockey in those days,” he recalled with a laugh.
There were no bleachers at the old arena, just a shack with dressing rooms and some seating. “There was a shack sitting there. It was a pretty long building, maybe 100 feet long,” Brost said. “There were dressing rooms on either end and people could stand in the middle and look out the glass.”
Clem Fagnan was living in Vimy at the time the arena was built, playing hockey with a team based in that community.
“Vimy probably had one of the strongest hockey teams around for a small community then, and of course we were in an outdoor rink,” he said.
Others in the area were working with old backyard rinks, like Steve Chodan.
He moved to Westlock in 1962, right before the arena was built, and remembers flooding his backyard rink at his house in Eastglen; he had no running water back then, which made things difficult.
Eventually, a group of community-minded individuals began the push for a new arena — but finding the money was as difficult than as it is now.
An editorial that appeared in the Nov. 13, 1963 issue of the Westlock News predicted the wide-ranging influence the new facility would have on the community.
“This newspaper predicts that the new building will revitalize and perhaps even revolutionize winter sports in this district,” it said.
Several people in the area who recall the days before the arena was built agree with that sentiment and remember some of the changes it brought — although the project was not necessarily without opposition.
Chodan remembers when a man came around looking for donations to help build the arena, and although he was not flush will cash at that time he felt the need to kick in some money.
“When they came around and canvassed for funds, as much as I hated to spend money I did put in $100 at that time,” he said, adding he had young boys and felt they would get a lot of good use out of the new facility.
Fagnan remembers the men coming around to Vimy, as well, but they did not have as much luck in that community.
“They were going around to the surrounding communities looking for money to build the arena and I remember it being a very contentious subject in Vimy,” he said. “Not many people in Vimy were interested in donating money to Westlock. There were only about four or five, and they were the more affluent people.”
Construction
Brost remembers being in high school when the Jubilee Arena was completed in the summer of 1963, 50 years after Westlock was incorporated, and he recalls heading down there after school to help out with the construction work.
While the original grade beam was put into the ground before the freeze up in the fall of 1962, the structural concrete was poured and cured in over the winter.
“There was a horse barn there; they heated that up in the wintertime and they pre-fabbed all the pilasters (structural concrete) in there,” he said.
The pilasters were poured three or four at a time in the barn, left long enough to properly cure, then pulled outside so the process could be repeated until they were all poured.
“In the summertime they put the pilasters up, built the walls and put the roof on it,” Brost said. “But most of it was done as a winter works project. Most of the buildings at that time were constructed with winter works projects because they were cheaper; there wasn’t much else for work in those days.”
At first there were only the dressing rooms on the west side of the building under the bleachers, which are now no longer used.
“(The arena) had a lot of problems, because the dressing rooms got built after, when the curling rink was built,” Fagnan said. “We had dressing rooms on the west side with no showers, no running water, nothing. That went on for a few years then they put the dressing rooms in.”
Chodan said he remembers there were upgrades that had to go into the facility over the years. At one point while he was sitting on town council, he said, the entire roof needed to be replaced.
Despite its shortcomings, the arena ultimately proved to be a success and became the focal point for winter activities in the area.
While it certainly did great things for sports in Westlock, it was not necessarily without cost in the rest of the district — Fagnan even moved from Vimy to Westlock so he could play hockey there. The other hockey teams in the small communities surrounding the town have mostly folded since then.
“After the arena was built, about five or six years later all the Vimy players came to Westlock to play hockey because the outdoor arenas weren’t of any use anymore,” he said.
“The Westlock arena became pretty important to Vimy. The minor hockey players all came to Westlock and the senior players came to Westlock.”
Specifically, Fagnan moved to town to play on a senior team, the Westlock Eagles, which was organized by Roland Provencal and Harvey Doherty.
“There was no work in Vimy, and Harvey told me if I wanted to work for the town I had to come play hockey in Westlock,” he said.
“That was a hard decision for me, but I did stay in Westlock since.”
The team won a provincial championship in 1973-74; it was an exciting time for hockey in Westlock.
Most of the people who got involved with hockey in the area say they spent so much time there it became almost like a second home.
“After the boy was about five years old, I kind of lived at the arena,” Chodan said.” I was president of the minor hockey association, and I coached for a while. Then I was the one who organized the Mighty Mites who played there.”
Fagnan and Brost also both had kids playing minor hockey, and played themselves until they got too old. Fagnan also ran the arena as a contractor for nine years as well.
Bryan Carnegie, the arena’s current contractor, said while he was living out of town in the Linaria area when the arena got built, he remembers moving to town and playing minor hockey at the Jubilee a couple years after it was built. He kept it up throughout his adult years, as well.
“We had a Junior ‘B’ team when I was first out of high school, and a very good senior team, the Eagles,” he said, adding that while the Eagles folded before he ever got a chance to play with them, he played on another senior team, the Westlock Wolves, for several years.
He has also been active with the Minor Hockey Association for many years as a coach.
As with any place that plays such an important role in a community, many in the area will be sad to see the Jubilee Arena go.
“These last couple weeks I’m starting to reflect and it will be sad to see it go but on the other hand the new Spirit Centre is pretty nice,” Carnegie said. “It’s a great thing. Hopefully it gives hockey in the area a great shot in the arm.”
Chodan also said that while he has a lot of good memories in the Jubilee, he’s looking forward to seeing the new facility in use.
“The roof was never a good roof on it, and the seating wasn’t the best, and the washrooms and dressing rooms were really poor,” he said. “I think it’s time the old building got demolished and a new one replaces it. There’s a lot of fond memories, but it’s time.”
Brost speaks about the new facility with a hint of regret that he won’t strap on skates and pick up a stick in there.
“I guess things only last for so long. I was down there when they had the opening a few weeks ago, and it looks like it’s going to be a pretty good facility,” he said. “I was having coffee with Chuck Keller the other day, and I said we were maybe born 40 years too early. The kids are going to have a pretty nice facility there to play in.”
Fagnan, looks at the new Spirit Centre through the eyes of not just a life-long hockey enthusiast but also a town councillor who has helped on the planning end of things. He said he’s confident that despite the controversy surrounding the project, building it was the right thing to do.
“When I look at the Spirit Centre I think a lot of people have the same thoughts people had in the early years (of the Jubilee), that people were wasting money on the arena and we’re doing all this stuff,” he said. “But the Spirit Centre is going to be there for 60 or 70 years. It’s going to serve a lot of people.”
