Chapleau Post declares 'something out of the ordinary seen' as Mrs. Maud Hands becomes first woman elected to Chapleau council for 1948 term; B.W. Zufelt elected reeve

When Chapleau voters went to the polls in 1947 to elect a reeve and council, it followed "the most keenly interested nomination meeting in years", according to a report in the Chapleau Post.

In those days a nomination meeting would be held in the Town Hall on a Friday night in November with those nominated given until nine p.m. on Saturday night to qualify as candidates for a one year term on council. There were 69 people proposed to fill the office of reeve and four council positions for 1948, including Mrs. Maud Hands, who holds the distinction of becoming the first woman to be elected as a councillor in Chapleau.

As the nine p.m. Saturday deadline approached, it appeared that B.W. "Bubs" Zufelt may become reeve by acclamation, as at 8:30 p.m. he was the only one who had qualified. However, the Chapleau Post reported that shortly before the deadline Edgar Pellow appeared and qualified to be followed a minute later by Frank Edwards, who was the incumbent.

"The two, coming so close together and so late in the evening, it looked as though each of them was waiting for the other to qualify," the Post noted.

Referring to Mrs. Hands, the Post said "something out of the ordinary was also seen" as she became the first woman nominated who qualified to run in a Chapleau municipal election.

When nominations closed there were three candidates for reeve and 11 for the four councillor positions.

As the election campaign got underway, the Chapleau Board of Trade published a letter in the Chapleau Post giving its views on the election. Note the emphasis on electing "men" in the following excerpt from its letter.

"Chapleau is now apparently on the eve of one of its most progressive moves in its history; important industries are building up all around us; major adjustments to our townmakes it a better place to live ... matters will require the attention of only the best men we can get, sound thinking men with experience in handling financial matters, and common sense in looking after the welfare of their fellow men.

"Successful reeves and councillors are always men who have progressive ideas and who have made a success of their own life -- they can contribute something lasting to the community."

Major issues in the 1947 municipal election included a new water tank to replace the one built in 1910, a new intake pipe for the pumphouse, a sewage system and a municipal insurance plan. Interestingly, all these projects were undertaken plus some others as Chapleau moved into the 1950s and experienced a boom period.

In the most keenly contested election in years , the Chapleau Post reported that B.W. Zufelt was elected reeve with a majority of 45 votes over Edgar Pellow while incumbent Frank Edwards placed third.

Newcomer Walter Steed led the polls in the race for council seats while J.M. Shoup and J.O. Cahill tied for second place while Mrs. Hands made history, becoming the first woman elected to Chapleau council.

Born in England Mrs. Hands first came to Canada to ber with her husband Ambrose Evans, who was later declared missing in action during World War I. She had returned to England and stayed there training as a nurse and midwife, and nursing wounded soldiers until the end of the war in 1918. According to a piece in Chapleau Trails by Joy (Evans) Heft, she came to Chapleau with encouragement of the Evans family to work with Dr. J.J. Sheehan who was badly in need of assistance. Chapleau Trails was edited and published by Dr. W.R. Pellow.

She later married Fred Hands, a widower, and they lived in a house on Queen Street, across the lane from my grandparents Harry and Lil (Mulligan) Morris in the area that became known as Little England. They raised their family there as well as at Healy where they had a camp for many years.

Mrs. Hands worked with Dr. Sheehan and was also at Lady Minto Hospital for years. She was also very active at St. John's Anglican Church in the Women's Auxiliary and as superintendent of the Sunday school for many years. In 1968, as I wrote in my book 'Sons of Thunder.. Apostles of Love"' it was the end of an era at the church when Mrs. Hands retired as leader of the Junior Girls Group.

The church honoured her by renaming the Senior Women's Group the 'Hands Group.' But Mrs. Hands was not retiring completely as she would continue to visit the sick and shut-in of the parish.

She was also active in the auxiliary to Branch 5 of the Royal Canadian Legion and during World War II and after it was a prominent hard working member of the Chapleau Branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society, serving as its president.

As an aside, shortly after I became Chapleau's reeve in 1974, Mrs. Hands and I were having a chat at a function in the Legion hall. After a few minutes, she put her hand on my arm, and said, "You have my vote but you don't have every vote in this hall. Now you go and work the room." And so, my former Sunday school teacher, a veteran politician, taught me to work the room.

With the election of the council for 1948, Chapleau was headed into some very active years for the municipality, and it was perhaps very fitting that an outstanding citizen like Mrs. Hands, who was devoted to the health and welfare of the citizens was a member of it. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Nuclear winter theory tested as mushroom cloud blacks out sun in August 1985 near Chapleau

If you were living in the United States and reading your Sunday newspaper on August 5, 1985, it is quite likely that on the front page you would have noticed a a story datelined Chapleau, Ontario, reporting on the results of a test of the nuclear winter theory conducted near the community the previous day.

Writing in the Chicago Tribune before the test, Janet Crawley explained that Canadian and U.S. scientists planned to study a controlled forest fire in northern Ontario to test the newly proposed theory that a catastrophic "nuclear winter" would follow a nuclear war.

The observers wanted to study the behavior of the smoke from the blaze, which had been scheduled as part of the province's regular program of burning out dead trees so land can be replanted.

Andrew Forester, an environmental scientist and research associate at the University of Toronto, had said the study was believed to be the first such large- scale research into the possibility of "nuclear winter," a theory proposed in the early 1980s by Cornell University scientist and author Carl Sagan.

As a result, national and international media descended upon Chapleau, including reporters from major dailies in the United States and television crews from the big three U.S. networks. And yes, I was there to cover the story for United Press International, an assignment I got through Robert "Bob" Fife who had previously worked for UPI. I had forgotten about the nuclear winter test 25 years ago until I received an email from Dave Way-White suggesting it as a column.

So from the mothballs of my own memory and a Google search, here is the story of the weekend when a Chapleau moment became international news.


The Orlando Sentinel on August 5 captured the test results: "A giant mushroom cloud blacked out the sun over a Canadian forest Saturday. It cast a dark shadow over the northern Ontario wilderness as far as the eye could see. Cause: A fire set by scientists in a test of the ''nuclear winter'' theory. The experiment began when a helicopter dropped napalm over 2 1/2 square miles of a diseased forest 400 miles north of Detroit. The cloud rose thousands of feet into the air and spread over 80 miles. Theory's prediction: A nuclear war would blow millions of tons of smoke into the air, blocking out the sun and freezing the Earth."


The New York Times used an Associated Press story: "The fire was set in 1,600 acres of pines trees bulldozed last year in preparation for the burning. The trees, killed by a spruce budworm infestation, were burned to allow replanting. Thick white smoke billowed thousands of feet into the sky, where a gentle wind blew it directly over Chapleau, a town of 3,500 people about 15 miles southeast of the fire."

The New York Times also reported that the test was watched by seven scientists who were testing the ''nuclear winter'' theory. The theory holds that a nuclear war could blast so much smoke and debris into the atmosphere that it would block the sun for months, chilling the earth and resulting in greater death and devastation than the nuclear explosions.`

Using UPI story, the Los Angeles Times reported that "It will embody some of the characteristics of the firestorm that will follow a nuclear blast," said Andrew Forester, of the University of Toronto who brought the researchers together.

Forester, who directed a Royal Society of Canada study on Nuclear Winter and Associated Effects, said the scientists would attempt to learn more about the effects of smoke in the atmosphere and how smoke and ash block out sunlight.

Forester told UPI that the experiment would be the first test of the nuclear winter theory proposed in 1982 by Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan and Richard Turco, a consultant with R&D Associates of Marina del Rey, Calif. They suggested a nuclear war would create a blanket of smoke and ash, blocking out the sun and chilling the Earth. Turco was among those planning to observe the experiment.

The Los Angeles Times - UPI report went on to explain that in in northern Ontario, "a helicopter was to drop a napalm-like substance on the area near Chapleau, 400 miles north of Detroit, to set fire to thousands of fir trees killed by a budworm infestation that began in the 1960s."Forester added he hoped when the blaze fanned out, it would create a 20,000-foot convection column of smoke, ash and gas to simulate some effects of a nuclear explosion. He described the fire as a "partial representation of one aspect of a nuclear explosion" without the blast or radiation.The helicopter was to carry a "flying drip torch," moving in concentric circles to drop an oil-based substance on pre-selected spots--literally dropping fire on the forest.

High in the convection column, scientists expected to see a ring of ash that would filter down, said Brian Stocks of the forest fire research unit at the Canadian government's Great Lakes Forest Research Center in Sault Ste. Marie. Above the ash, scientists expect gases and condensation that could trigger firestorms, Stocks said, according to the Los Angeles Times report.

I recall flying over the test area into the mushroom cloud and one of the scientists excitedly proclaimed, "We've got it."

I have always thought it was so cool that Bob Fife, a former student at Chapleau High School and great friend, would be responsible for getting me an assignment as a reporter, particularly on such a major assignment as a test of the nuclear winter theory. When he was a student at CHS, Bob would pepper me with questions on everything -- a certain clue that he was headed for a distinguished career in journalism.

Bob is now the Ottawa Bureau Chief of CTV News, and for more than 30 years been one of Canada's best journalists! My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Vince Crichton active in Chapleau life but devoted to preservation of this beautiful rugged land and the animals that roamed it

After graduating from Grade 13 at Chapleau High School, it appeared that Vince Crichton may have followed a career as a banker or a plumber or a theatre operator, but such was not to be as he seems to have already chosen his lifestyle and country where he would live -- "The woods where the weird shadows slant."

Although Vince would spend most of his life in the Chapleau area, the line from Robert Service's famous poem 'The Spell of the Yukon' perhaps sums up his love of the forests and wildlife. In an article paying tribute to Vince in 1977 in the Chapleau Sentinel, it is noted that Vince "devoted his life to the preservation of this beautiful rugged land and the animals that roamed it.

"Through his work, he was able to oversee what he loved the most -- the austere, vigorous northern country, the sphere of his reality."

Vince was born in Sunderland, England, and as a boy of seven, arrived in Chapleau in 1913 with his mother Helen, brother George, and sisters Vera and Anne, where his father Walter Vincent Harvey had established a plumbing business in 1911. Rita, Edith, Joe and Charlie, also his brothers and sisters were born in Chapleau. His father also took over the motion picture theatre.

By 1917, land had been purchased in Mulligan's Bay and as his son Dr. Vince Crichton writes in Chapleau Trails, a camp was built, which is still in the Crichton family. Dr. Vince noted that the camp was built by his grandfather, his father and brother George, George Hunt (my grandfather) and Ernie Quelch.

My grandmother, Edith Hunt, and Vince's grandmother were sisters.

After completing high school Vince worked with his father in the plumbing and theatre businesses and was also employed by the Royal Bank, but by 1933 he was appointed game warden with the department of games and fisheries, later the department of lands and forests, then ministry of natural resources.

Dr. Vince relates an interesting anecdote told to him by his Uncle George. While Vince was helping his mother raise the family after the death of his father in 1932, he "poached, trapped and hunted food for the family as there was no money. Eventually he had to stop when the government made him the game warden."

In 1935, Vince married Dora Morris, (no relation) the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Morris who also lived in Chapleau. Vince and Dora bought a house on Queen Street, next to Dora's parents.

The Crichton family home was on the corner of Birch and Aberdeen streets, the big red brick house.

Many of us will recall reading 'Young Bush Pilot' by Jack Hambleton where Vince is mentioned. Hambleton writes about Vince catching poachers including the legendary Grey Owl to fixing fire pumps based on his experience as plumber to chief ranger Ernie Morin wondering where he was and then seeing him emerging from the fog in front of the point -- "at the outboard motor at the stern of the larger canoe was the unmistakable form of the big overseer." If you can get a copy of Young Bush Pilot, its is a great read.

In 1948 Vince was appointed inspector of the Chapleau District which included the Chapleau Game Preserve. In 1955 he was chosen by the Ontario government to work for a year at Winisk on the Hudson Bay coast on polar bear, blue geese, caribou and seals.

Despite his work and travels, Vince was also actively involved in the life of Chapleau. He enjoyed curling and baseball, and was catcher on teams for many years. Later he umpired ball games, sharing duties with J.M. 'Jack' Shoup. He also liked playing his horn and was a member of the Chapleau Town Band, playing the E Flat Bass Horn until 1976. He would also take out his mouth organ to liven up many a gathering with lively music.

Vince also served as chair of the museum board, and on the library and hospital boards and was a resource person to the Cubs and Scouts. With his friend Alcide Small he donated a trophy to Chapleau schools for a competition on conservation issues. Vince was also a member of the Masonic Lodge.

A history buff, Vince wrote 'Pioneering in Northern Ontario' a valuable contribution to the life and times in his beloved north country.

Among the honours conferred on him was being named as a member of the Hudson's Bay Society. There were only 500 members worldwide.He was accepted into the society for his work in locating Brunswick House an old Hudson's Bay Post.

When Vince retired in 1969 as fish and wildlife supervisor, a mark of the esteem in which he was held was the presentation to him of a boat and motor by the people of Chapleau.

Dr. Vince Crichton will give his annual lecture this year on ungulates specifically “The World of the Moose and The Man Who Would Be Moose" at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall in Chapleau on July 31 at seven p.m.

Photos courtesy of Dr Vince Crichton

Dora and Vince Crichton

Dora and Vince Crichton with grandchildren Susan and Scott.