In the late 1920s, when more and more motorists were using their vehicles all winter, keeping roads drift-free and passable became a priority of city council.
In mid-December 1927, council’s winter road committee invited everyone to a demonstration of mechanized snow removal, an event that was accompanied by all the hoopla of a holiday parade. Until this time, most road work was done by teams of horses.
Almost 200 spectators assembled on High Street West right behind two snow-clearing machines: a Holt Caterpillar tractor with a Russell snow attachment, and a Fordson tractor with caterpiller attachment and scraper.
Then the procession, led by the tractors, proceeded up Main Street to the top of the hill where the demonstration would begin.
The procession included the outgoing 1927 city council, members-elect of the 1928 council, assorted civic dignitaries, representatives of five rural municipalities, the local board of trade and retail merchants’ association, members of the Kiwanis, Rotary and Gyro clubs and a big crowd of interested citizens.
Even Fox News Films came to make a news clip to be shown at movie houses across Canada.
At the top of Main Street, the tractors went to work to clear the road northward for approximately one mile. At the time, some of the city’s most travelled thoroughfares were blocked by snow drifts, and this stretch was one of the worst.
The CNR overpass — the present-day level crossing came much later — was plugged with snow, and further along, near today’s Heritage Inn, the road was covered by deep drifts ice-coated by an unseasonable rain.
All afternoon and even after dark, while onlookers became chilled and frostbitten, the two tractors chewed away at the drifts until the road was open.
“The demonstration clearly established that snow, no matter how deep, could be cleared from roads so cars can pass,” observed the Times-Herald.
Everyone was impressed, but none more than Moose Jaw’s fire chief, George Baines, who knew what it was like to fight blocked streets to get to a fire.
Even the rural municipality people liked what they saw. They visualized the machines not only snow-plowing their country roads, but dragging and grading them throughout the summer.
In January 1921, in response to complains from parents that their children had no safe winter play areas, the city’s board of works turned two North Hill streets into sleighing slopes.
All vehicular traffic was banned for the winter from First Avenue Northwest between Hall and Caribou, and from Fourth Avenue Northeast between Saskatchewan and Oxford Streets, and these sections turned over to the kids for sleighing.
The roadways were watered to give a good sledding surface and the intersections were barricaded. The sidewalks were sanded and remained pedestrian reserves.
The board of works looked for a good sleighing street on South Hill, but could find none to surpass the existing slope which started at Home Street and ran downhill to Thunder Creek, or the area known as Bussey’s Hill overlooking Kingsway Park.
City council was also concerned about the hordes of youngsters who skated and played on the Moose Jaw River from late fall until spring. The ice was often unsafe.
Council hoped to alleviate the situation with the opening of the outdoor Market Rink, located in the old farmers’ market enclosure at High Street West and Fifth Avenue
The rink, with its supervised, heated dressing rooms, was open to youngsters 15 years and under at no charge from Monday to Saturday between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and on Sunday from 12 noon to 6:30.
Council knew it was in for a heap of criticism for allowing Sunday skating at Market Rink, but reasoned it was safer for the kids to be there than on the ice on Moose Jaw River.
The Market Rink was the first of the city’s outdoor rinks, and served countless youngsters for two generations.
