This tag was created by Tyler Hodgkinson. 

Carleton Place Heritage Project - Part 2

Loathed but Lively: Bikers and Parties

Although the hotel had once again rebuilt its customer base, the environment Lorraine had created was inviting to a demographic most aimed to avoid. The hotel had lost all its class it was once known for and the introduction of strip shows completely wiped the hotel of any lasting dignity with obscene shows where one of the dancers had been “smoking a cigar from her ‘private area’ like it was smoking the cigar … for real.”[22]  But not only did the hotels hosting of these shows ruin its public image but its invitational nature towards younger visitors came with additional issues. The crowded space paired with younger spectators lead to fights in the hotel becoming more frequent [23]. Fights would also break out in the crowds outside the hotel after closing, a difficult crowd to be tamed by the two officers working at the time [24]. With the public image of the hotel in its current state, constant fights between guests, and excessive drug use, Lorraine had enough with the hotel admitting that “when she bought the Mississippi it was in better shape than it became in the later years that she owned it.”[25] and sold it off to the parents of Brian Carter sometime around 1985 who were soon after killed in a car accident [26].  Now in the hands of Brian Carter the hotel remained in a similar state of disarray. This chaotic atmosphere and revived popularity however was particularly inviting to bikers, the raunchy shows, “freedom and roughhousing, ”[27] and being known for the longest bar in the Ottawa valley [28] created a favorable hangout for the crews of riders whose presence once again weakened the hotels reputation. The bikers that had begun to occupy the hotel were described as “good people, just more private than most” [29] but unfortunately these bikers were often “seen as synonymous with organized crime.”[30] It is also suggested that the bikers had been “careful not to do something that [the police] could investigate but of course they would be getting drugs in and selling.”[31] Either side of the argument however cannot be proven but what is understood is that the bikers presence scared off the majority of potential visitors, and drug use in the hotel continued. 

notes:
22. Tammy Marion, 2022. “I remember seeing The Murray Reid Group…” Facebook Comment, March 15, 2022.
23. Wayne Drummond (Retired Chief Of Police) in discussion with the author, April 10, 2022.
24. Wayne Drummond in discussion with the author
25. Linda Seccaspina, “Romancing the Mississippi Hotel.” Lindaseccaspina Remembers the Invention of The Wheel. April 24 2017
26. Linda Seccaspina, "Romancing the Mississippi Hotel"
27. Byron Budd (Visitor to place during period of investigation) in discussion with the author, April 8, 2022.
28. Linda Seccaspina, "Romancing the Mississippi Hotel"
29. Byron Budd in discussion with the author
30. Lars Korsell and Paul Larsson. “Organized Crime the Nordic Way,” Crime and Justice 40, no. 1 (2011): 527
31. Wayne Drummond in discussion with the author

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