The Midland Ski Hills were once home to three nationally-recognized ski jumps. Beginning in 1920s, ski-jumping became popular in southern Ontario with skiers and spectators alike. By 1955, Midland had three of its own jumps, thanks to the vision of ski-jumping enthusiast Pete Pettersen: one full-sized 60-metre jump and two smaller jumps. Local, regional, provincial and Dominion championships were held at the facility, attracting competitors from across the country and thousands of spectators. At one time, Midlanders boasted that the town was the centre of ski-jumping activities in Eastern Canada. Although the events were popular, they were not a financial success and the jumps were torn down in 1967.
View from the top of the ski jump. Photo taken in the early 1960’s.
Newspaper clipping from The evening Telegraph, Title: Midland spends $1,000 on building a ski jump. The ski jump was built in 1937, and the clipping is from the same year.
A view of the new 60 meter ski jump.
The Midland Ski jump judging and announcing booth during competition.
Winners of the 1952 Midland Ski Meet.
August 1957, following the lead of several European ski jumps a summer competition was held. Snow was created by crushing tons of ice to cover the jump and landing area as seen in this photo.
Huronia Museum 
Do you have any Information about the results of the jumpers and members of Midland Ski Club historically? My father, Lou (Alois) Moser jumped there in the 50s and I was wondering if you still held results tables for events…
Many thanks.
Sylvia Campbell (Moser)
sylviakcampbell@hotmail.com
Hi Sylvia,
while we have a lot of photos and memorabilia from the Midland Ski club and some of their events, we do not appear to have results from all of their competitions. You may be able to find this information in our local newspaper archives. If you are interested, come on in and talk to us!
I have pictures of my grandfather Jack Gerow hitting that jump. I had no idea until I saw the pics, after he had passed. I will post them when I am home in a few weeks.
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Pete Petterson was my childhood hero and remains to this day to be one of the greatest influences on my life and instrumental in my formative years. Everyone in my home loved Pete! My Father, Bill Georgas was the absolute greatest. He is pictured above here (centre seated with trophies) in the photo entitled Winners of the l952 Winter Meet. I believe him to be the most courageous man I ever knew. A lot of others would testify the same. The most interesting story I grew up with was the year he was competing in the tournament, was bumped by one of the competitors and kind of forced to rush with his preparations on the tower. He did his jump and apparently lost his ski while in the air in the process. Yahoooooooooo. That was my Dad.
He was a legend in skiing in the industry, (everyone of that era would attest to this) Instructor, coach and pioneer with Jozo and the boys, racing, skiing, cutting and naming runs at Collingwood Blue Mountains, such as the Dieppe where he won Downhill championships, Slalom competitions, x country competitions, 4 way combined etc. and was unbeatable along with his Brother Jimmie Georgas. I was surprised to see this picture.
I believe I have the original blue print for this very ski jump in my possession. Given to me by Pete Petterson himself. The tragic accident on the 400 that claimed his life hit my home and family extremely hard as Pete was a household fixture, taught me how to x country ski race and jump. We trained with him in the fall every year and loved him like I loved my father. I was Southern and Ontario champion, x country and jumping during my Junior years making it on to the Canadian Junior team. Both Jimmie and Bill passed away now…both at the age of 89 interestingly enough. Awesome guys. Awesome sportsmen and wonderful people. I met Jozo Weider’s son again most recently at the celebration of life for my Uncle Jimmie, world champion cyclist and duathlete. These two guys, the Gorgeous Georgas boys were unbeatable. Jimmie was on the 56 Olympic Team. Louis who got them all interested in skiing was Canadian Champion and had it not been for the Second World War which cancelled Olympic games, he would have been world champion, I am certain of it as he beat the best Europe had to offer in the years 37, 38.
By the way. It’s not called bragging when it’s true. Bill and Jimmie Georgas were the greatest.
My father Lou Moser was a member of Midland ski club in the late 50s. I think I heard him once say he held the record for the furthest jump there. He eventually went to the Olympics in Squaw Valley, and I noticed that you have a nice photo of four jumpers on this website, one being my father. I’d love to know more about his activities at the club, but I live in Britain, and my sister, who is also interested (see previous posting, Sylvia Campbell) lives in Austria. If I can dig out any Midland ski jumping memorabilia, would you like to have it for your collection? I might have some newspaper clippings and some Olympic stuff from Squaw Valley etc. Best regards, Toria
Pete was revered by us youngsters in the early 60’s. Unlike my cousin, Big Chris, I was not a natural ‘yumper’. One day at a training camp Pete said to me that if I continued to progress I would be able to jump with my eyes closed. I replied ‘Pete! that’s my problem!’ . I eventually got the hang of it and won a silver medal at the Canadian nordic combined championships, but the jumping part was never my strong suit. When Pete died in a car crash, the rallying cry of us teenage jumpers was ‘Let’s win it for Pete’. It still brings a tear to my eye when I think of it.
Little Chris Georgas
Does anyone have any information or photos of my father Duane Toole who ski jumped at the Midland Ski Club? Could have been late 1940’s or early 1950’s. My dad once mentioned that he helped with the construction of one of the jumps at the MSC.
Thanks,
Kime Toole
Kime, We have searched our collection and have no photos of your dad. Searching our newspaper collection he is mentioned in about fifteen edition from 1947 to 1951, mostly in 48 and 49. These are records of his placing in sporting events or times or distances in sporting events. The only image in the newspaper is from 1951 and of poor quality. Watson Studies took the photo but we do not have their images in our collection and they are not publicly available. Sending you that by e-mail. Regards, Collections Huronia Museum
Thank you Tom for taking the time to look into my father’s info.
Regards
Kime
Hello
I’m interested in this ski jumping hill. I would ask to find an exact location if it, could you help me? Coordinates would be nice.
Thanks for help and regards
Artur Bala
https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.7327219,-79.9173002,749m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en Where Sundowner road turns you can see that the original road allowance is visible but undeveloped. The road curves southward here due to the steep hill going west. The round object that appears like a swimming pool is a water storage tower on the hill. The ski jump was on or near that unopened road allowance.