Many folks from the region will remember the winter carnivals. Jaffrey’s Outing Club held
winter carnivals, as did several other towns. Jaffrey’s Outing Club was organized in 1931 as a non-profit to give healthful recreation through the winter months to the youth of Jaffrey, and over 300 people signed up as members. A skating rink was set up at Cheshire Pond, with a warming hut. From these humble beginnings, the club grew rapidly and became best known for the three-day winter carnival held on Washington’s birthday weekend in February every year. The carnival kicked off with the Grand Carnival Ball on Friday nights. Typically, a popular act came to play the union hall. In 1936, it was Jerry Goodrich and his Bermudians. Selection and coronation of the carnival queen took place on the first night. Some of us may even have been the carnival queen, albeit probably not in 1936.
The early winter carnivals became well-known in the area and drew large crowds. Admission was 50 cents and got you a button and a program. In 1935, the event featured skating, skiing, snowshoeing, coasting, obstacle races, horse racing on ice, swimming and diving exhibitions, hockey, a wood chopping contest, and the finals of the New England Sled Dog Championships.
The warming hut at the north shore of Cheshire Pond was the center of activity and was tended by workers from WW Cross. They provided cocoa, cotton candy, music, and the woodstove.
On Sunday, Feb. 24, 1935, through the cooperation of the Boston & Maine railroad, “Snow
Trains” came to Jaffrey, four from Boston and one from Worcester. In addition to the above-listed activities, on Sunday, there was also a “sports costume” dance and square dancing. The sled dogs returned, and they held a massive bonfire before the departure of the snow trains at 6 p.m. The 1935 carnival also saw the grand opening of the new 1.5-mile ski trail down Mt. Monadnock.
Lest you wonder about swimming and diving in mid-February, it occurred. The Manchester
Brownies Troop came as well as the L Street Troop from South Boston, and dove from a 40-foot ladder into a 30 sqare-foot hole cut into the ice. They amazed everyone by then getting out and sitting on the ice. In 1936, the club added motorcycle runs through flames and crashing into a barrier. This was also the year that Edmund Carey deeded his farm to the Outing Club, a 100-acre tract today known as Carey Park.
At the 1937 carnival, Johnny Newton and his 14 Swingsters played the carnival ball, and the queen was chosen by three judges. In 1938, a 1800-foot toboggan chute and a ski jump were constructed in Carey Park. There was a lighted skating rink on the property and a warming hut that sold sandwiches and beverages. By 1954, they were racing old cars on the ice on Lake Contoocook.
Early visitors who came to Jaffrey on the snow trains stayed at the grand three-story hotels, such as Cutters and the Granite State Hotel. Other well-known hostelries of the time were the Red Mill, the Shattuck, the Willard, the Ark, and the Pine Knoll Inn. It was said that 16 trains a day went through Winchendon at the Carnival’s peak in popularity.
As active members of the Jaffrey Outing club “aged out” and interest in its activities waned, they disbanded in 1972 and gave Carey Park to the Town of Jaffrey.
The Jaffrey Historical Society has a lot of information about the first few years of the annual Jaffrey Winter Carnival, but if anyone has any memories or ephemera about the event from the 1950s or 1960s, we would like to know about it.
Meg Gourley is a Jaffrey resident and an officer at the Jaffrey Historical Society.