We’ll Show You Ours… The History of Marble
So you’ve skied and boarded, sipped coffee in the lodge, even cuddled up and spent the night. You consider yourself a real expert on all things Marble. But what do you know about the history of the place? Nadda? Read on, good reader, read on.
The roots of Marble Mountain Resort can be traced back to the efforts of the Corner Brook Ski Club, which was established in the early 1930s. Ski Club members cleared the slopes fronting on a small pond in Corner Brook’s Massey Drive area and International Pulp and Paper Ltd. built a log cabin on the top of the hill. A wooden ramp was also constructed where skiers of Scandinavian origin taught the locals the art of “ski jumping.”
The slope flourished until the outbreak of World War II, when many young men left to join the fight. After the War, efforts were made to rejuvenate the area, but by the 1950′s, it had fallen into disuse.
It was in 1959 that a committee chose Marble Mountain as the site at which to construct a modern ski facility. Work began in 1960 under the direction of the Corner Brook Ski Club, and saw steady progress well into the late 1980s.
As it became apparent that the area had tremendous potential for winter tourism, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the agreement of the Corner Brook Ski Club, established the Marble Mountain Development Corporation. That organization was responsible for opening our spectacular base lodge and all other recent developments. And here we are today, rocking and rolling in fine style!
So now that we’ve shown you our history, how about showing us yours? Send us photos snapped at Marble over the years, pretty please! We’d like to compile a visual history to later be posted here on the blog!
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 1:36 pm and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6:39 pm on March 9th, 2010
I have often seen pictures of an old log cabin style ski lodge somewhere at the summit of the mountain, sometimes with a sign identifying it as Capt. Jack’s Galley. They usually look like they are vintage 1970′s or 80′s, and I did not see any trace of such a place on my recent visit to Marble.
Can you shed any light on this?
5:35 pm on March 11th, 2010
Kevin is right.
There used to be a log cabin at the top of the mountain where you could buy hot chocolate and soup that was prepared and sold by the race team committee as a fundraiser.
Unfortunately there was no running water or washroom facilities in the building, so it didn’t meet health standards and when upgrades were done on the mountain in the 80′s it was removed. The building at the top of the Governor’s Express which is used by Ski Patrol is now called Captain Jack’s in honour of the log cabin from the past.