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Early Hockey Team
1912
Mirror, Alberta
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Mirror's early hockey team.
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Basketball Team
1919
Mirror, Alberta
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Mirror's Basketball team in 1919.
Left to Right - back row are:
Carl McCormack, Gordon Sharpe, Harry Hornby, Bump Ray
Second row:
Kid Ray, Milton Merkley
Front row:
Lawrence Williams - manager
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An Early Tennis Team
1920
Mirror, Alberta
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An early tennis team in Mirror.
Tennis was a very popular sport with the townsfolk of Mirror, who had their own tennis court built near the edge of town.
The court was built in 1909, and was mostly managed by Sid Carter and his two sisters, who had just arrived from England.
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Mirror's Brass Band
1915
Mirror, Alberta
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Mirror Bay
1914
Buffalo Lake, near Mirror
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Buffalo Lake is a huge lake, close to the town of Mirror. It is so large, bordering the Stettler area, over to Bashaw and down to our area, that natives, early traders, trappers and hunters used it as a major means of transportation.
In the early days, the lake was higher than today, and was right at the town's doorstep, while today, access is a few kilometers away.
Prior to that, however there was evidence that the lake had also been lower before, as deep Red River cart tracks had been seen criss-crossing Mirror Bay before Mirror sprang up.
The lake's shape resembles a side view of a buffalo, hence it's name, and thousands of buffalo used to roam the countryside around the lake before the herds were decimated in the hunts in the mid and late1800's.
Mirror Bay was on the hind leg of the lake's buffalo shape.
In the early days of Mirror, Buffalo Lake was a wonderful fishing, swimming and boating area, with sandy beaches and picnic areas, where today it is more of a wildlife sanctuary for various water fowl.
A long pier was built at Mirror Beach, where Mr. Jackshaw and Jim Brindle took people on pleasure cruises in their larger boats.
Boat houses, mostly owned by people in Edmonton, were built near the pump house on Buffalo Lake. The owners of the boat houses kept sailing boats in them, and would come down by train to sail on our huge lake.
At the time Mirror was created, and for quite a few years afterwards, Buffalo Lake was at it's highest, later receeding to the lower levels of today. It is told that there are trees with six inch diameters growing where people used to swim in the twenties.
This photo shows a number of people out for a day at the lake. Many are walking on the pier, watching the others having fun in their sailboats and rowboats in the water, and a small boy plays in the sand on the beach.
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Mirror Bay's Boat Dock
1914
Buffalo Lake, near Mirror
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Another view of the pier and boat dock, with Mr. Brindle's boat, the Kathleen on the left in the photo. This boat is full of passengers just leaving for or arriving from a water cruise on the lake.
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Fishing
1920
Buffalo Lake, near Mirror
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Families fishing and visiting at the edge of Buffalo Lake.
Note the very long fishing pole they are using.
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The Kathleen, a Commercial Boat
1914
Buffalo Lake, near Mirror