Chippewa Park Carousel Pavilion Nearing Completion
by Scott A. Sumner
Chippewa Park has quite a history! Chippewa Park officially opened July 15th 1921 and there was no road access at that time.
Iain Angus, Friends of Chippewa, Guy Walter Supervisor of Landscape
Architecture and Horticulture City of Thunder Bay, Devon Ryan, Site
Superintendent M Builds, Werner Schoor, Supervisor of Parks and Open
Space Planning City of Thunder Bay
“ The official party came by boat and the mayor of the day showed off how safe the swimming area was by walking out in the costumes of the day to show it was very shallow.” said Iain Angus of the Friends Of Chippewa organization.
The tourist camp then had 36 cabins, including 18 log cabins for 4 to 6 people and another 18 smaller cabins for couples.
“ We added an RV park as well as rental cottages on the Chippewa Beach and those were a mixture of framed building and log framed canvas. Each summer you would have to come back and apply again to get it for the summer.” said Iain.
The formal park was expanded and these were removed and relocated. There were 88 lease holders who had cottages as well which were removed by city council back then. That meant many of those peoples children and grandchildren who used to use the services of Chippewas were gone according to Iain Angus.
The Friends of Chippewas organization has been around now for 25 years. Iain Angus and Larry Grace were the two founders. It was recommended to have a Friends organization for Chippewas by the Thunder Bay City Council then.
“ We pulled together as group, got charitable status and went to council to let them know we existed. That council then gave us $100,000 and said go see what you can do with it. That forced us to go from being an advocacy group to a doing group, which we hadn't planned for,” laughs Iain Angus. “ Over the years we have raised and invested over $19 million dollars in this park. Most of it is Federal and Provincial. About 25% is Municipal, with some private sector and personal donations.The city put about $ 3 million of the $ 19 million, so got a good bargain from us.”
“ The historic carousel was always outdoors at Chippewa. The Parks then board bought the carousel in 1934, used from a company in Fort Erie, Ontario that went under. They got it for about $1800 dollars and spent the winter refurbishing it. It was located down the hill from here for 1935 to 1967 and in it's long term spot from 1968 forward until today.” said Iain.
“ The parks staff identified that the carousel needed major overhaul. Our consultant said the parks staff had did good work over the years to keep the horses salvageable until today. The Parks staff tried to get funding to send the horses away to get refurbished but they didn't get any traction, there were too many other priorities with their system.”
“ The Friends of Chippewa were able to get $100,00 from the Canada 150 fund, so we hired consultant Lisa Parr who has done over a thousand similar restorations. She wrote a manual for us down to the smallest detail including a specific stripper to remove the paint. We put out tenders to do stripping and restoration and embarked on a fundraising campaign.” said Iain Angus.
The Thunder Bay Carvers, a group of about 25 people, wanted to get involved and have put in close to $700,000 of their labour. They recarved all of the dragons and branches, flowers and rounding boards. They also built new chariots according to Iain Angus.
Superior Collegiate also came on board and painted the 16 iconic scenes on the rounder boards. It really has been a community effort and we are also close to the end noted Iain
. “ The new Carousel Building is climate controlled with fire suppression so it has protection from the environment. Expansion and contraction was always a problem and this will reduce the incidence of cracking etc. We can program it better and run it in the winter. Also we now have two washrooms, which are the first year round washrooms at Chippewa ever. We can have other events here.” said Angus. “ I worked it out to 800 person hours twice a year to store and re install the horses each season. Now this will allow the park staff to put to use that time elsewhere in the park.”
The original band organ had not worked in over 30 years so the Friends of Chippewa found a company that did restorations in Southern Ontario.
“ In the past some women who were connected to Chippewa would take home horses in the winter time and paint them. They would come out on Sunday, pick up a horse and put it in the back of their car, work on it for a few weeks and bring it back in 1945.” smiled Iain Angus.
I asked Werner Schoor, Supervisor of Parks and Open Space Planning some questions on the project.
“ It is not necessarily a traditional Parks project, building an enclosure for a carousel, but it is quite interesting. The Friends of Chippewas had the financial resources, energy and where with all to restore the horses, so it was really important to protect them from the weather and not to have to set up and dismantle, then store them each year. That alone could caused damage so we thought having them protected all year round seemed like a good idea for the future.”
“ We made the building climate controlled with a HVAC system that keeps the pressure and humidity constant. That is why we opted not to have it more open.”
“ We worked hard with contractor M Builds to try and maximize the funds we had creatively. For example we couldn't afford full panel windows, but the idea came from the architect to sort of stagger them to mirror the idea of the carousel going up and down which changes the character of the building.”
“ It is a fairly big project for us, something over $2 million. Having the ability to have the carousel looked at all year round is important. You can come to the park and see it through the windows with the light and pattern from the outside.” “ We want to make Chippewa more green- with less asphalt and gravel to vegetatation- to allow people to come and hang out.”
I asked Guy Walter who is the Supervisor of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture City of Thunder Bay some questions on the carousel project.
“ It is going to give people access to the carousel all year round, not packed away and put in storage. We are looking at doing a fair bit of work around the enclosure to bring back the historic landscape we used to have around here. That will really help getting people closer to it.”
“ The building seems to blend well with the cedar, the columns, the posts and the colour of the siding with some contrast with the black to give a bit more modern look. You will be able to see it visually with light coming out in the evening and in the winter. People will be able to look in and see the glazing.”
When did the project start?
“ The project started in the fall of 2025 so they could work over the winter. M Builds have about another month of interior work and will then start bringing in the carousel. We are hoping for a September opening. It has to be supervised and inspected and having the drawings renewed and certified. We are working with the contractor to get through that.”
“ The project is going to be a success and is an asset. It will improve the persons experience when arriving at the Chippewa waterfront moving towards the beach and the water. The carousel will have a direct relationship. The infrastructure will allow us to create a more dynamic space with a lot more animation. We are also using all the materials obtained during the construction to be part of the landscape.”
