About 100 curlers celebrating the 60th annual men’s Skyline Bonspiel filled the Haliburton Curling Club on the weekend of Jan. 19 to 21 culminating in an entire bonspiel win by Team Duhaime which was made up of skip Owen Duhaime Dustyn McCready-DeBruin Tyler Warham and Russ Duhaime. By Jenn Watt
Jan. 10 2017
Whipping down the face of the hill between Skyline Park and Mountain Street was once a popular pastime for many youngsters in Haliburton during the time of the Sky Slider.
The winding slide reminiscent of larger amusement parks brought joy to local thrill seekers who remember the venue fondly. The attraction opened in 1981 and was operational for 11 years.
“It was the place to be” says Lianna Greer. She remembers going to the Sky Slider with friends though she never went on the slide. She thinks it was because her parents thought she was too young. So she spent time at the small water park at the bottom.
Geri Woudstra has plenty of happy memories of the slide. “Many of the weekends/weeks that we were up camping at Northern Eagle campground we would arrive before the Sky Slider opened in the morning to be the first ones out and stay until they closed and would take breaks only as needed” she wrote in an email to the Echo . “Our goal was to achieve and maintain the record for the most times down in a day.” She and her brothers would often end the day at Dixie Lee Chicken.
Most people who grew up in the Highlands have memories of the ride which is why when staff at Community Living found relics of a time gone by – a large bag of retro Sky Slider pins in green and blue – they thought it would make a fun fundraiser.
“That way everybody can have a little piece of history” says Greer who is the co-ordinator of operations at Community Living Central Highlands. The pins are selling for $5 each. They also found Sky Slider carts. Those were sold last year for $25 apiece.
“It just went nuts on Facebook” Greer said. “I think we sold close to 20.”
There are a few left but they don’t have complete parts.
“We had people getting them for everything from just having them as a piece of history to putting them up on the wall in their shops to trying to use them as sleds for tobogganing” she said.
All funds made from the sale of the carts and pins go to the programming and supports for clients of Community Living.
To get your hands on a piece of Haliburton history send Greer an email at lgreer@communitylivingkl.ca or call 705-457-2626.
