History
Curling in Leadville can be traced back to 1890 which the Herald Democrat noted as the year the Leadville Curling Club was created. Then in 1896, the famed Ice Palace hosted curling matches, in addition to the other fine frozen amenities. The Ice Palace saw some 250,000 visitors during its three-month tenure as the grandest winter tourism promotion Leadville has ever seen. In 1904, the paper published word of a curling match between the Elks Club and the Caledonians. While we are unaware of the nature of curling in Leadville after this classic spiel, we can be certain that the ensuing curling-drought that struck the Cloud City for the next century was a likely contributor to the boredom and malaise of many a Leadvillain on cold winter evenings.
The winter of 2012-2013 saw the rebirth of curling in Leadville via Tom Whitman, a Denver Curling Club member, and part-time Leadville local. Tom decided to bring a set of curling stones up to the Huck Finn Ice Rink for a couple of ‘Learn to Curl’ events for any interested members of the community. These curling sessions gave many locals an opportunity to try curling for the first time. After a particularly competitive session, Chip Knee, Kevin Linebarger, and Smokey Burgess quaffed a few pints at a local watering hole and came to a boisterous agreement that curling must return to the Cloud City. It has since been suggested that perhaps the spirits from that original Elks Club team bought some of the drinks that night. As word spread about the prospect of a new winter sport in Leadville, the quest for a set of curling stones began. Chip knew that curling stones might be more easily acquired in his girlfriend, Erika Schabert’s homeland of Manitoba, Canada, where curling and curling clubs remain a popular past-time in many communities. While visiting Erika’s family in Canada, Chip located a set of stones that were originally in play at the now-closed Durban Curling Club. Erika’s uncle, Jon Sanborn of Swan Valley Manitoba, generously stepped-in to purchase the 48 stones and gifted them to Chip, who then donated the stones to the now resurrected Curling Club. In December of 2013, Louise Schabert and Sanborn drove the curling stones to the Canadian and North Dakota border, where Smokey and Chip awaited with a pickup truck to haul 34 of the heavy stones to their new home in Leadville.
The inaugural season was held on the Huck Finn Ice Rink during the winter of 2014-2015. There were eight teams who competed in the first year. The ice was often bumpy, and stones were often hurled from one house to the other, but the enthusiasm for the new sport was contagious, and league participation grew. The next 3 seasons were all held on the Huck Finn Ice Rink, where ice management improved under the tutelage of Tom Whitman. As ice-standards and overall play improved, it became clear that having dedicated curling ice would improve the experience and quality of the game.
The Curling Club decided to create the first dedicated ice for curling during the 2019-20 season, when we created two sheets on the south side of the Huck Finn Ice Rink building. To celebrate our new ice, we decided to host our first bonspiel (AKA tournament). Since we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously, we officially named the event the Non-spiel. An amazing sunset marked the occasion along with some fun broomstacking with all the out of town teams.
This same space would host the 2020-21 season as well, but the pandemic put a hold on the Non-spiel. Flooding from the ice sheets into the adjacent building while making ice for the 2021-22 season caused the club to return to the Huck Finn ice. It’s hard to give up dedicated ice, so Chip made the decision to return to the local watering hole, and set up a single dedicated sheet outside the Elks Club that season. While many of the scores on that sheet have been forgotten, the stories of incredible games and amazing trick shots still linger amongst the Elks Club curlers and any remaining ghosts of the original club.
Seeing the incredible growth of the club and the need for a large dedicated curling space, Jason Nepp, another incredibly dedicated curling fanatic, successfully worked with the Lake County PROs (Parks, Recreation, and Open Space) department and Lake County Public Works to be able to use the outfield of Leiter Field for our new space. This allowed expansion to three sheets and Leadville responded by quickly filling the maximum 24 teams in the league for the 2022 -23 season. The dedicated space allowed the bonspiel to return for the second time! Teams from all over the state showed up for some great outdoor curling.
The growth has continued into this 2023-2024 season and we’ve added a fourth sheet, so in the spirit of “if you build it, they will come” the league is full again at 32 teams, a true “Sheet of Dreams!”
For more on the club, check out this great article from the Colorado Sun about our club https://coloradosun.com/2023/02/10/leadville-cloud-city-curling-club/
