A tale as old as time, the Drumheller Miners 1966 hockey team experienced a year that was something out of a fairy tale.
    The team won the national senior men’s hockey championship after defeating the Quebec Sherbrooke Beavers in a 5 – 0 point final game. 10 players went on to the NHL to continue their hockey career after this pivotal moment in hockey history.
    What made it a fairy tale wasn’t the fact that they won, it was the determination and hardships leading up to it.         This included their hometown arena burning down and afterward the Canadian Hockey Association forbidding them from practicing in Hanna because of the loss of the building.
    Fast forward 51 years later, Gordon Clozza, a Drumheller resident, was visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Friday, October 27.
    He noticed the senior amateur exhibit and video monitor only had a small description of the legendary team.
    “[The museum] was great, it was something worth seeing and the exhibits are all well done,” said Clozza. “My concern was with the senior amateur exhibit of the Drumheller Miners team that won the Allan Cup in 1966 since they have video monitors outside the exhibit that you can look through and every year, there’s a team photo display of each winning team. Well, there are some team’s that are missing including Drumheller’s. I thought it was quite a surprise.”
    Since then, The Mail and Clozza have worked together to fill in the blanks of the exhibit.

    Clozza got in touch with Izak Westgate, the manager of the Outreach Exhibits and Assistant Curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He informed Clozza the museum would correct this by using a scanned copy of an Export A Calendar photo which contained championship teams across different levels.
    “If someone has an original hard copy around that would be interested in donating it, we would love to add it to our collection,” said Westgate in an email.
    If anyone has an original photograph of the team and wishes to donate it, email news@drumhellermail.com or visit The Drumheller Mail office during operating hours.

    The Mail chatted with Glenn Koester, Reeve of Wheatland County, on how things are shaping up in the area south of Drumheller.
    Koester started off by saying he was elated to have the water lines running smoothly in Gleichen and is now focusing attention on Rockyford.
     “It should be ready to go there come April,” said Koester. “That would come together really fast, we worked on it for a few years but now it’s coming together and we got our funding.”
    They are also looking at servicing and providing water to Carseland with an area structure plan already in place.
    “If people want to develop there, they have a nice idea of what is going on,” said Koester.
Koester explained that they are ‘mostly caught up’ on all major projects.
    “We have a ten-year paving program and a ten-year road program where they’re both still humming along nicely,” said Koester.
    A part of Wheatland County has recently been mandated to the Calgary Metropolitan Regional Board. This can be seen as a challenge in the eyes of the county as there are monetary concerns and how much say the county will have compared to the city of Calgary.
    “... we have to come up with a growth plan for around Calgary … so that is going to be a challenge,” Koester said. “Who is going to pay for this plan? We are a small player, we have 1,500 people in the area [of importance].”
    Wheatland County is welcoming five new councillors to complete the council of seven including the reeve. Koester has been acting as reeve for the past seven years.  
    After a few months of learning, council will tackle the strategic plan for the area. This allows council to focus on certain goals throughout the current year and their four-year tenure.
    “The strategic plan is going to be a neat document when it gets accepted by council,” continued Koester. “That’ll layout what council wants to do for the next four years so that is pretty exciting.”
    Overall, the county is ready to start a fresh new year.
    “We have a good council, I’m very excited for it,” said Koester.