Amesbury Winter Carnivals: Good Fellowship and Joy in the 1920s

Winters 100 years ago in Amesbury were no doubt dreary and long for many. Days were short, heating systems were inefficient and dirty, indoor lighting was nothing like it is today, and recreation opportunities were limited. But Amesbury’s Chamber of Commerce did its best to lift spirits with lively and entertaining winter carnivals in the early 1920s.

This mainly outdoor festival brought out the crowds, eager for entertainment and excitement as they waited for spring. According to The Amesbury Daily News of January 23, 1925, the events promised to brighten lives, even after the carnival ended:

But the best part of this big project is that it does not stop when the carnival ends. This is an inoculation that you cannot get rid of. It will stay with you, and you will find you will be regarding your fellow humans in a fraternal feeling of good fellowship that will bring a new joy in your own life and radiate out to everybody you meet. [ADN, 1/23/25, p. 1]

The carnivals were held in February or March with events at the Powder House Hill Country Club (now the Amesbury Golf & Country Club off Monroe St.), Lake Gardner, Patten’s Pond, and Powow Hill. The typical two-day program included a bean supper, a dance, exhibition skating and skiing, a ski-jumping contest, hockey games, ski and snow shoe races, toboggan races, a snow ball contest – “something for everybody” promised The Daily News:

If you can’t ski you can skate, or if you can’t skate you’re still in the game because you can go strong at the dance, or perchance, if you’re one of those busy people that don’t find time to do any of these things you can at least eat beans. It will be a big body building, brain-clearing, humanizing event. Everybody will go strong and surprise themselves when the find they like the fun just as much as anyone else. [ADN, 1/23/25, p. 1]

The 1923 carnival started with a baseball game between married and single men, all in snow shoes. An announcement hyped the game’s potential for amusement: “One can well imagine the easy disaster that may overcome a team as an opponent steps on the snow shoe of a base runner.”

That year, the carnival also featured a small parade on Main Street and Market Square, intended for the enjoyment of those who had to work downtown that day:

A parade had been proposed and a few appeared ready to take part activated by their loyalty to Amesbury when conditions were almost impossible. The band of the St. Joseph Boys Club was ready to do their part and played on Market Square in the evening and marched up and down the business section of Main Street relieving the life of merchants and clerks whose employment prevented their participation in the event. [ADN, 2/5/1923, p. 2]

The second day of the 1923 carnival featured a ski jumping exhibition by Olaf Oleson and his 12-year-old son, Clarence. Olaf Oleson had made a regional name for himself ski jumping with the Nansen Ski Club in Berlin, N.H. Unfortunately, snow conditions in Amesbury that day were less than ideal, but the locals were hoping the Olesons would return in 1924 to perform and even teach skiing:

The conditions of the wet snow forbade any great record exhibition but the performance of the pair was a revelation of the art of skiing and they each succeeded in making 44 feet in the bad conditions which the snow offered. It is hoped that another year the pair may be secured not merely to give a performance themselves but to train the local people in the best use of skis. [ADN, 2/5/1923, p. 1]

As hoped, the Olesons did return in 1924, although snow conditions weren’t much better:

The exhibition of ski jumping by the Olsens was somewhat of a disappointment as the snow was in poor condition and the ski jump was not constructed in such a manner as to make long jumps possible. [ADN, 3/3/1924, p. 1]

Exactly how many years the winter carnivals continued isn’t clear, and the topic seems to have faded from the news pages after 1925. But who knows? Maybe a winter carnival in Amesbury could be just as uplifting and joyful today as it was 100 years ago.

Clarence Oleson, 11-year-old son of Olaf Oleson, jumping in New Hampshire with the Nansen Ski Club. Olaf and Clarence also demonstrated ski jumping in Amesbury during the winter carnivals in the 1920s. (Photo from “The Brown Bulletin” of Berlin, N.H., April, 1921, courtesy of Berlin and Coös County Historical Society.)

Powder House Hill Country Club House as shown in a February, 1923, issue of The Amesbury Daily News. The country club, now the Amesbury Golf & Country Club, was the site of many winter carnival events in the early 1920s.

Amesbury Golf & Country Club House in 2024.