History-1960's

The Sixties

During the spring of 1963, Josl was offered the position of Manager and Partner at Horseshoe Valley Resort. Unfortunately or fortunately this did not materialize. In the fall of 1963, a friend of the family told Josl there was property across the valley in Medonte Township he should look at.

Josl, with his wife Elfriede and their two young boys Robert and Andre, went to look at this property. Upon arrival at this property, they found a hill covered in forest. Josl left his wife and two young boys at the bottom and he began walking the hill. Josl admired the hill’s natural character and most importantly the location adjacent to what someday would become the very important and well-known Highway 400. Josl returned and said to Elfriede “If I can buy this property we can make it”. Josl and Elfriede returned to Austria and sold the Inn they owned and operated during the summer’s months. The purchase of the property was completed in the fall of 1963.

During the fall of 1963, Josl spent hours planning where the trails should go and staked them out. In December, he brought a crew of lumberjacks to cut down the trees and burn off the brush. Josl continued to work at Muskoka Sands but returned every two weeks to see how the snow had settled and tested the trails.

In May of 1964, Josl brought in the Young brothers, a bulldozing company from Collingwood, to form the hills and clear away rocks and additional trees. In the late fall, two 1 600 foot T-Bars were installed side by side. Josl didn’t want to open with one lift in case it broke down. Josl would be out of business before he even started.

On December 16, 1964, Mount St. Louis opened for business. Four days later it turned mild and the snow was gone. Between Christmas and New Year’s, Josl had high school students cart snow in apple baskets from the bush to cover one trail. Three youngsters on skis tramped down the chunks of snow. Three inches of fresh snow fell on January 2 and Mount St. Louis was one of the few Ontario ski resorts in operation. The areas north of Barrie consistently received huge amounts of snowfall and Mount St. Louis was off to a good first season. Skiers flocked to the area.
After realizing that being in the Snow Belt did not always mean you had snow, the first snowmaking system was installed in 1966 with one line, one compressor and one pump.

Additional snowmaking equipment was added in 1967 and the Snow bowl area was cleared. Another run was added in 1968 bringing the total runs to eight. The snowmaking system was doubled and the eastern wing of Mount St. Louis base Lodge was added on. The 1968 season was Mount St. Louis’s best in five years due to the abundance of snow in the Mount St. Louis area that year.

In 1969, Mount St. Louis installed the first triple chair in Canada. At the time, the general feeling in the industry was that a triple chair would not work due to the fact that “three’s a crowd” and unloading would be a difficult task. Lift ticket prices were increased to $6.00. Everyone thought that Josl was crazy already for developing a ski hill facing the south.