Booty Griffiths is not, as I
had always thought, a native
Rosslander. He was born in
Revelstoke and didn't move
to Rossland until 1938. He
lived in the turret of the
Irwin Hotel which was a city
landmark until a few years
back when fire destroyed the
hotel. Rossland has never
been quite the same since for
some of us older people.
For the next three years he
worked for Cominco in
Warfield in the Ammonium
~itrate plant and one of the
highlights of his term there
· was to assist Fred Armishaw
in turning out the first batch
of Ammonium Nitrate ever
made by the company.
He left Rossland in 1941
and worked in the Vancou ver Shipyards on
Burrard Inlet as a steel
caulker. That was in the

days before rivetting came
into vogue and all the ships
seams were caulked. One
day while taking a break he
looked down and watched
the fish boats plying the inlet
and decided right then and
there, that was the life for
him. The way Booty
describes it, all the guys on
the fish boats looked so
brown and healthy he just
knew he wanted to fish. For
20 years that was the job he
did during the summer
season.
He left Vancouver and
went north to Cape Meidge in
the Campbell River area and
fished with the Indians,
many of whom became good
friends of his.
On hearing that a chairlift
was to be built on Red
Mountain in Rossland he
returned and worked on its

construction in 1946 and
when it was completed he
would spend his winter
season in the ski business
and return to his fishing life
in the summer.
In the ski business he
operated out of rented
quarters for some time and
then in 1962 he built a ski
shop of his own. That shop
was the one that is at present
occupied by Dixie Lee on
Rossland's main street.
A couple of years later
Booty turned that into a
Tasti-Freez business in
summer and continued to
operate it as a ski shop in
winter until 1968 when he
sold out and went to work for
the Lange Ski Boot Co. After
three years he switched
affiliation to the Dynastar
and Salomon Ski Equipment
Co. for another three years.
During those years he was
hard at work building cabins
and making ski trails
throughout the Upper Sheep
Creek Basin and was instrumental in forming what
is now known as the Ben
Shaw Cross-Country Ski
Society. Named after a wellknown resident of the valley
of the Sheep Creek.
In 1975 he started a ski
rental for cross-country
skiers in his own home. We
toured this shop in the
basement of his home
overlooking Happy Valley

and Booty showed me the
comparisons between the
skis of today and those in use
when he was a young boy
just starting to ski around
Revelstoke. Compared to
equipment of those days,
today's are as light as a
feather but still remarkably
durable. To me this is all
very enlightening since my
knowledge of skiers and
their tools is very limited. To
say the least, today, it seems
from what I saw in Booty's
shop that today's skier is
part and parcel of his or her
equip~ent, or vice-versa.

four categories to compete
at any meet. It was known as
four-way competition.
Booty himself was
coached by a world's champ,
Nels Nelson by name, and he
competed in four-ways for 810 years before turning to his
presentlove,cross-country.
Booty can tell many
stories of the early days in
Rossland, most of them
concern skiing and one of
these days he's going to tell
me all about the famous
J eldness tea party held on
top of Red.

After our tour we sat down
to talk and Booty told me
about some of the people of
the ski world he has known in
his day. After having been at
the sport for some 60 years I
guess he has met quite a
number of them. One of the
most famous was Olius
Jeldness who came to this
area straight from his home
in Norway and liked what he
saw around Rossland's
mountains. He was one of the
people who started Rossland
on its way to becoming the .1
mecca for skiers it now <
enjoys.
Jeldness was a champion l1
in every phase of skiing, h
jumping, cross-country, 1r
downhill, and slalom. In 'l
those days, Booty tells me, IE
one had to be versatile in all 11
oi

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ea+ nmva-

CANADIAN LEGION
BRANCHH
In business conducted at
the general meeting of April
16 the donations by the
branch to various charities
and sports organizations
were discussed.
The Legion-sponsored

rnr•e•c:r

teams in two ball -leagues
came in for the major share,
dividing a total of $900
between them. The Rossland
Ladies' Figure Skating Club
was helped on its trip to a
provincial meet at Delta and
minor hockey also got a
helping hand from the

branch coffers.
Tullio
Lenarduzzi
suggested bt;1ying cigarettes
and candy for hospital visits
be dropped. The branch
could use the money from
charity and bingo accounts
to buy two blood pressure
machines at a total cost of
$400. This suggestion was
passed. The regular
donation of $1,500 was made
to the Cancer Society.
Correspondence ranged
from an invitation to
Castlegar's anniversary,
through notice of the '83
provincial golf tourney to be
held at Cloverdale July 30
with a June 1 deadline for
entries.
In committee reports, Al
Stinson reported good
progress with his proposed
CPR classes and -looks
forward to a large turnout.
During the building report
the need for an alarm
system at the branch was
put forward and a motion
was passed to have this
installed. In view of the
recent break-in problems it
is probably overdue.
A card sent to elder
member Tom Anderson, now
residing on the prairies, that
marked his birthday, was
answered by a nice letter to

the branch in return.
Chairman Bob Letoria of the
entertainment committee,
stated that a western nite
dance will be held with
music by the Rhythmaires
and a baron of beef supper
May 7. Western regalia will
be allowed, so doll yourselves up.
President Bernie Fourt
attended the Grand Forks
convention and reported 85
people present. Rossland
won the membership ·shield
for the zone and Fourt was
on the membership committee for the convention. He
further expressed concern
that track is being lost of
widows with regard to
pensions .and the committee
would appreciate input from
the branches in this respect.
June 18 was named the date
for the zone golf tourney and
the Kaslo course is the site.
New zone officers named
are as follows: zone commander, Jamier 8all of
Trail; zone chairman, Earl
Maffot, Nakusp. Sam Brown
of Castlegar is deputy zone
chainnan; Harry Bate of
Castlegar, zone sports
chairman and Pat Rempel of
Kaslo will be zone service
officer. Congratulations go
out to all of the above for a
good term in office.
Three
well-known
Rosslanders will celebrate
their retirement at the
branch Friday evening. Jim
Flanders, Jack Cox and
Bernie Fourt will be starting
a life of leisure than. Why not
join the branch for a
pleasant evening gettogether?