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Scott Halvorson – December 28th, 2020

Turns out the ring of fire wasn’t born at the Lebanon Mud Meet (just perfected!).  1920’s era night jumping on Paine’s HIll (see photos below) at the Nansen Winter Carnival in Berlin, NH.  NOTE- there are no lights on the inrun!  Going through the ring of fire was the easy part!  At least you could see it.
SCOTT HALVORSON
Nansen Ski Club, Berlin, NH
Pembroke, NH
shalvor22@gmail.com

Before There Was a Big Nansen
The Nansen Ski Club, is usually mentioned today in connection with its effort to resurrect the “Big Nansen” ski jump, up in northern NH. However, the Club’s legacy, is much deeper than that and extends way back to the late 1800’s, when it was first formed, and was flourishing, well before it built “the largest steel towered” jump in 1937.

Although it held many ski jumping competitions and ski races since its founding, it held its first “official” Winter Carnival in 1922 which continued for many decades. This was a multi-day, town-wide event and featured many diverse contests for both “juniors” and “seniors”, as well as sledding, skating, and tobogganing opportunities for the general public. It was a week-long celebration.

Besides ski jumping and cross country (called “ski runs”), competition was held in snowshoeing (obstacle, relay, and sprints), ski barrel races, skating (both racing and “fancy”), tobogganing, woodsman contests, ice hockey, dog sled races, and a thing called skijoring, a curious blend of horse and rider, and skier racing through the streets of Berlin. On a personal note, I did find my grandfather, Alf Halvorson, in the skijoring brackets in those early Winter Carnival programs. I’m assuming he was the “skier” as his body would not have been described as “jockey-like.”

It definitely was a golden era. Winter sports were king, especially in a town like Berlin where spring and fall were virtually nonexistent and summer was a two month period of swatting flies until the first frost.

The Nansen Ski Club-the Next generation is here. We are embarking on a mission to capture some of that old magic again. The 100th anniversary of the first NSC Winter Carnival is coming up in 2022 and we hope the Big Nansen will be ready to host a Carnival that our forebears would be proud of!
Catching big air in Berlin before there was a Big Nansen.  The Nansen Ski Club had smaller jumps and hosted a multi-event winter carnival beginning in 1922.  Barrel jumping was among the first events.
The carnival ski event was cross country.  Slalom/downhill racing had not yet evolved by the 1920’s.
From Scott- “The ‘Toboggan at Paine’s’ picture is at the ski jump (and toboggan run) that was the precursor to the ‘Big Nansen’ and was located in Hazen Paine’s field in the Norwegian village in Berlin.”  In the 1920’s the town of Berlin was largely Franco American but was also home to other nationalities.  There was the Norwegian village, Irish Acres,and a Russian part of town.
Another angle of the Paine’s ski jump and toboggan slide.
Ski joring through the streets of the Norwegian Village in Berlin during the winter carnival.
Jockey-less ski joring.
From Scott-  “I am not sure when this picture was taken and the emblems baffle me a little bit. My grandfather Alf is the coach in the second row to the right.”
From Scott-  “This is a picture of Fritdjof Nansen (the Club’s namesake) with the Junior Nansen when he visited Berlin in 1929.”
Nansen Ski Club winners in 1922.  From Scott-  “Of special note here is Bing Anderson in the second row to the right- he held the first hill record at Harris Hill. He was a fantastic ski jumper but very troubled and came to a tragic end. The short story is he committed a murder in Canada, was tried, and hanged 2 months later. My grandfather had his ‘last’ meal with him.”

3 Comments

  1. Phillip Brown
    at

    VERY nice indeed, Scott! Thanks for this wonderful display of yesteryear–and for your knowledge of your grandfather and others from back then.

    Phil Brown

    1. SCOTT HALVORSON
      at

      Thank you Phil!

  2. Elsa Johnson
    at

    Oh this is wonderful!!! Was wondering if my father Mylo Johnson, would have been in the Juniors photograph taken in 1929, he would have been 7 years old. He was a big Nordic ski jumper in his day and told many a story of jumping from the Nansen ski jump competitions. He even had his old wooden skis and boots that he had kept. I miss xc skiing with him at the old Nansen xc ski center that was up on Success Rd back when he was in his 80’s no less! Thanks for posting this, love, love the history of the Scandinavians.

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