page_title: Montreal Snow Shoe Club
section_title: Spirit and expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Montreal Snow Shoe Club / Spirit and expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: The Montreal Snow Shoe Club's arch constructed in 1878 to welcome the Governor-General, Lord Dufferin, to Montreal
context_page_description: The Montreal Snow Shoe Club was a sports club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1840 by twelve well-known young men, it was the first club of its sort in North America and led the way for hundreds of other clubs like it to be established across Canada and the United States. Though as a club the MSSC was significantly pre-dated by others such as the Royal Montreal Curling Club and the Montreal Hunt, it was snowshoeing that pioneered the organization of sport in Montreal. In the 19th century, only lacrosse exceeded the total number of urban snowshoe clubs in Canada. In the period before 1867, Lindsay remarks, "a history of snowshoeing in Canada is virtually a history of snowshoeing in Montreal, and, in particular, the Montreal Snow Shoe Club". The MSSC laid the foundations for many other winter and sporting clubs to be established in Montreal, and notably the world's first Winter Carnival.
  The MSSC organized an array of races, but they are best remembered for their night-time torchlit processions from McGill's Gatehouse up through Mount Royal Park, wearing their traditional take on the outfits of the old Québécois trappeurs and the infamous tasselled 'tuque bleu'.
context_section_description: The club's popularity continued to grow year on year and from 1850 they extended their weekly 'tramps' to Tuesday afternoons as well as Saturdays. The annual races were held at the end of February and the stewards who oversaw the events were usually commanding officers stationed in Montreal, such as Generals Eyre, Williams, Paulet, Lindsay and Michel. In January, 1859, Nicholas 'Evergreen' Hughes presided over the first Presidents Dinner and, "the echo of the shouts and laughter that rang thro' the tree tops of old Mount Royal must have astonished 'McTavish's ghost'."
  In 1860, the first two official photographs of the MSSC were to be taken. After the first of all the members (which did not come out well), a second was to be taken of just the officers: "This was a signal failure, the presence of an animated background proving too much for the dignity of the officers, who after several attempts at a suitable state of solemnity, gave up all idea of a picture, much to the delight of background brilliants". The old military camaraderie that had surrounded the MSSC since its origins remained, and prior to the Confederation of Canada in 1867, 'Evergreen' Hughes gave a speech linking the snowshoers' "bodily superiority" to the success of the "future Kingdom of Canada".
  From this institution other clubs quickly sprang up, notably the two most famous French Canadian clubs in Montreal: The Canadien de Montréal (founded in 1878) and the Trappeur de Montréal. By 1885, there were twenty five snowshoe clubs in Montreal alone, which led to the creation of the Union Canadienne des Raquetteurs (the Canadian Snowshoers' Union), who held their first convention at Quebec City in 1907.
  Since 1997, the Tuques Bleues Celebration has been organized by Les Amis de la Montagne (a charity that works to protect and preserve Mount Royal Park), re-introducing snowshoe tramps by traditional torchlight up the mountain.
caption: The MSSC's arch constructed in 1878 to welcome Lord Dufferin to Montreal
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