Kimberley, B.C., curling club celebrates 100th anniversary

Curlers gathered in Kimberley, B.C., Saturday to celebrate curling's rich history in the East Kootenay community. 

The Kimberley Curling Club marked its 100th anniversary with a bonspiel on Saturday.

The club has long been a community hub, locals say, and has produced national champions. 

The Ina Hansen rink which called Kimberley home won Canadian women's curling championships in 1962 and 1964. 

Sam Calles's mother, Ada Calles, was a third in the Ina Hansen rink, which helped put the town on the curling map. 

Both Ina Hansen and Ada Calles were inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in the mid-'70s.

"I'm kind of proud," an emotional Sam Calles told CBC News.

"She was extraordinary."

His mother helped with fundraising for the club, he said, toiling in the kitchen during banquets held by various organizations in town. 

"She was committed to the curling rink as well as her playing," he said. 

Marie Stang, administrator of the Kimberley Heritage Museum, says curling in the community dates back to the 1920s.

The community was growing after the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (CM&S) purchased the Sullivan Mine, which produced lead, zinc and silver, and served as Kimberley's main economic driver for decades.

The town had grown to a population of 3,500 by 1926, Stang said. A display at the museum notes a CM&S building was home to a two-sheet rink as well as a maintenance shop.

"Winter is long, there was no television so people got out and participated in all kinds of sports and activities, curling being one," Stang said.

Along with Hansen's championship-winning rink, a local boys team won a Canadian high school championship in 1957, Stang said, and a men's team competed in the 1959 Brier.

"Curling in