First Covered Hockey Arena

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First Covered Hockey Arena

by Debi Smith

It must be one of Bill Harrison's favourite stories, the way he lights up and laughs.

The building of the first covered hockey arena north of Vancouver in the tiny community of Colleymount on Francois Lake was a grand feat. But as Bill says, "If you wanted something back then, you did it yourself." The year was 1953 and what Bill wanted was a hockey arena closer to his home than the uncovered one in Burns Lake.

The arena today

Bill has been a pilot his whole life. He went as far as grade eight in public school, but has graduated many times from what he calls the "School of Practicality." It was this common sense that got him doodling an unheard-of design for a covered hockey arena on the back of a calendar one day.

The first few people Bill showed it to had a good laugh but not Myles Shelford of Colleymount, B.C. In an English brogue he muttered, "Yup, yup, Harrison, you'd better be right."

The arena is on the shore of Francois Lake, just below the Colleymount road

It took three sets of brothers, Bill and his brother Monty, Myles Shelford and brother Hugh and Barry and Martin Granger to start the massive project.

First came the cutting of the timber from the head of Francois Lake (west end) in the Spring. The logs, or "A-poles" as Bill called them, were then dragged to a plot of land right on the shores of the lake, donated specifically for the arena by Hugh.

When they started building in the Fall, no-one thought it could be done, but Bill says, "In the end, I couldn't find work for everyone who showed up."






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