LAKE PLACID – The municipal toboggan slide on Parkside Drive will open for its 50th season today, in time for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend.

A plaque on a small rock near the slide, located in the village park next to the Mirror Lake Beach House, gives a brief history of the facility. Its official name is the Gerald F. Cassidy Memorial Toboggan Slide Park. While the toboggan slide was installed in 1965, it wasn’t used until January 1966.

As a village trustee, Cassidy worked hard to bring back a municipal slide to his hometown. He graduated from Lake Placid High School and returned to the Olympic Village after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

In the spring of 1945, Lake Placid’s aging municipal toboggan slide near the Grand View Hotel beach on Mirror Lake was torn down, and there were no plans to install another one until 1965.

“For many years the village advertised tobogganing as one of the major sports here but its popularity decreased as skiing became more popular,” stated the May 18, 1945, issue of the Lake Placid News. “It has been in a bad state of repair for several years. Maintained by the village, minor repairs have been made but it was not opened during the past winter.”

When Cassidy proposed the new toboggan slide at its current location in the summer of 1965, Lake Placid Club officials were looking to donate an old ski jump to anyone who would take it, including Lake Placid’s neighbor, the village of Saranac Lake.

“I forgot who was at the Club that did that, but they absolutely offered it to us, and we went over and looked at it,” said Howard Riley, who was Saranac Lake’s mayor at the time. “And, of course, we’d have to take it down and erect it at Mount Pisgah, and we didn’t have the money, manpower or time to do that.

“And we would have put it up as a ski jump, not a toboggan run.”

Lake Placid made it a toboggan run. While it is located in a village park, Cassidy and other trustees convinced town of North Elba officials to pay for half of the $5,000 cost. Cassidy presented the proposal at a town board meeting in August 1965.

“Following a lengthy discussion the board voted in favor of financing $2,500 and participating in the plan with the understanding the village would do the actual construction and maintenance and handle the insurance coverage,” stated the Aug. 12, 1965, issue of the Lake Placid News.

Later in the year, North Elba Supervisor William J. Hurley wrote a letter to Lake Placid Mayor Robert Peacock asking if the town’s $2,500 participation in the toboggan slide could be paid in the form of labor.

“The mayor was asked to inform the town board that the village highway crew is past the point where labor would be of any use, and the village would accept the money at the convenience of the town,” reported the Lake Placid News on Nov. 4, 1965.

In its second year of operation, the Lake Placid Lions Club launched its annual toboggan races. On March 9, 1967, the Lake Placid and Saranac Lake mayors – Peacock and Riley – faced off, side by side. Riley recalls that he brought the first trophy back to Saranac Lake. He teamed up with Lake Placid News Editor Bill McLaughlin and bobsledding Olympian Jim Lamy. Peacock raced with village attorney Norman Hess and race co-Chairman Harry Fregoe, who was elected to his first term as village trustee 12 days later.

“It was just a lot of fun,” Riley said. “Pabst Blue Ribbon (beer) was the sponsor and paid for the trophies. I think we got a trophy and had to give it back after a year or something.”

The Lions Club toboggan races – known as the North American Toboggan Championships – are now held on the Saturday of Presidents’ Day weekend in February.

The Lake Placid Toboggan Chute, as it is called today, is now operated by the North Elba Park District. Advertised as a four-chute facility in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the 30-foot converted ski jump trestle currently sends toboggans down two ice-covered chutes onto frozen Mirror Lake. Toboggans can travel more than 1,000 feet once they reach the ice.

The toboggan slide will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and noon to 3 p.m. Monday. After this weekend, the facility will return to its normal hours of operation:

– 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday

– noon to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

– noon to 2 p.m. Sunday.

The cost is $5 for students and $10 for adults. Toboggans are provided. For more information, visit www.northelba.org.