Larry Nadeau dropped off pictures he found in his “repertoire of photos” (those were his words). He said the pictures were taken in the early 1970s in front of Davidson School. Other than that, he doesn’t know too much more. After some investigating, we are able to help fill in some of the blanks. These pictures were taken Feb. 11, 1971 when the flame for the Canada Winter Games arrived in Davidson. The Games were being held in Saskatoon from Feb. 11 to 22 and to promote the event, the Games flame was brought from Parliament Hill to Saskatoon by snowmobile. The flame carrier was made from a standard skiboose sled with heavy-duty springs. Bombardier Ltd. were responsible for the 2,500-mile trip from Ottawa to Saskatoon. Approximately 300 snowmobiles were driven by their owners for a portion of the route. If any of our readers hopped on their sleds to take part in the route, we’d love to know, so if you recognize yourself or anyone else in these pictures, please give The Leader a call or drop us an email.

The flame also stopped in Dundurn where 90 school children and other residents had a chance to see it. In Kenaston, a large number of students and several teachers had a view of the flame when it stopped at a service station on the edge of the village. A legacy of those games was the creation of Blackstrap Mountain, which was constructed to host alpine events during the games. It cost about $600,000 to build the mountain as well as snowmaking equipment, lifts and a day lodge.