Alta Lake Community ClubAlta Lake Community Club
The Alta Lake Community Club’s (ALCC) first meetings were held at the Rainbow Lodge store in 1926. In order to join the club each member had to pay $1. This, however was not where the story began for the ALCC.
In 1923, Grace Archibald thought that because there were a few regular summer visitors it would be a good idea to form a social club in the valley. As well as the regular summer visitors, there were also a number of permanent settlers such as Lizzie Jardine-Neiland and Flo Williamson. One afternoon these women met at Rainbow Lodge and planned a picnic. This picnic spawned the ALCC.
The ALCC became the consolidating force in the Alta Lake area. This community connection was enhanced with the newsletter called the “Alta Lake Community Reminder” when it started in 1958. Later the name of the newsletter changed to the “Community Weekly Sunset” (Feb 1958-april 1959) and “Alta Lake Echo” (April 1959- June 1961). This newsletter ran from January 15th, 1958 until June 7th, 1961 when it was announced that the newsletter would no longer continue because the newly named Editor, Cruickshank, had left town.
Over the years the ALCC planned many community activities and social gatherings such as picnics, meetings, card nights, fund raising concerts, potlucks, film screenings, and parties, as well as special events for children at the school. The club even arranged for books to be brought to the Alta Lake area on the PGE through a travelling library program.
In 1933, after almost seven years of no meetings, the ALCC gathered at Myrtle and Alex Philip’s home to decide how it was they were going to spend the $207.40 the club had accumulated over the years. It was decided that this money would go toward building a community hall that the school could use when it needed. Throughout the summer of 1933 in order to help fundraise more money for the community hall the ALCC held weekly dances. The first meeting in the new building was held by the ALCC on October 28th, 1933.
