If you search for Jasper in Google Maps’ Street View and zoom in on Patricia Circle you can still see the boards at Patricia Circle Rink, or Pat Circle, as it is known colloquially.
Although it’s gone now, the tiny outdoor rink had been around for many decades. If they could talk, the disassembled boards at Pat Circle would have stories to tell—stories of some of the greatest dangles to know humankind, of missed goals and three on three hockey. First slap shots and annual traditions have all been seen at Pat Circle, until this past September when the rink was torn down.
Much like any outdoor rink, having Pat Circle as a place to play hockey and socialize with friends was something that was important for Jasperites growing up. Local Jess Prinn might suggest having a rink around does not keep kids out of trouble, rather, it lets them get into just the right amount of trouble.
“My sis and I spent many nights down there with the boys,” Prinn recalled. “Even if it was minus 40, we were out there after dinner playing around.”
Lesleigh Campbell, mom to twin boys and a little girl in Jasper, spent many days out at Patricia Circle, watching games of shinny.
“It was always so heart-warming to see,” she said. “The older kids would invite [the younger kids] to play. It was the type of place where you would see the older kids being leaders.”
For the Campbell family, Patricia Circle was convenient, it had boards and nets and was walking distance from their home.
But ultimately, Trans Mountain, the pipeline company which first built the rink to serve as an amenity to the block of Patricia Circle staff housing that was erected in the 1950s, saw the rink as inconvenient. Although there was some discussion about renovating the rink after the boards fell into disrepair—and the company even went so far as to purchase the lumber that would help bring it back up to a safe, playable standard—the writing was on the wall for the rink when Parks Canada granted a demolition permit this past summer. It should surprise no one that making room for future residential housing takes priority in a town with a zero percent vacancy rate.
Of course this doesn’t satisfy the people in whose hearts the rink holds such a special spot. Nor does it soothe their pain that Trans Mountain has put big bucks into community initiatives in other towns, such as a skatepark in the hamlet of Androssan and a pumptrack in the hamlet of Robb. But to put the decision at the feet of the Municipality of Jasper or Parks Canada is simply incorrect. Much like outdoor skating on big, open lakes in Jasper has an end date every season, so too, unfortunately, did Pat Circle.
Jess Prinn is all grown up now and a mom herself. She was disappointed when she heard that the rink at Patricia Circle was closing down.
“The first thing I thought about when I heard it was closing was the fact that my boys wouldn’t get to spend endless hours down there learning how to skate and play the game. I just always pictured them being able to say “Mom we’re heading out to play hockey,” and knowing exactly where they were going and how much fun they’d be having!”
Campbell, too will have to be satisfied with her family’s many Patricia Circle memories.
“It was a little convenience we may have just taken for granted,” she said.
As the temperature dips and the skies remain clear in early December, a shovelled-off pond on Lake Edith is getting some use from Jasper skaters who, years ago, might have otherwise been skating on Patricia Circle.
The end-date on outdoor skating hasn’t come up yet in Jasper. Let’s not take that for granted.
Emilie St-Pierre // with files from Bob Covey thejasperlocal@gmail.com
