Forest fire threatened completion of Chapleau Centennial project in 1967 but 'All's well that ends well'

The  Centennial Committee was "amazed" at the generosity of Chapleau citizens and businesses, present and past, as support for its building project gave it sufficient cash and pledges received to proceed "in all haste" to complete the project by July 1, 1967.

In fact, volunteers were busy putting the roof on the building during one of the hottest May days on record with all material donated by local lumber companies including Chapleau Lumber Co. Ltd,  A and L Lafreniere Lumber Ltd., J.E Martel and Sons Lumber Ltd., K.W. Biglow, Sheppard and Morse Ltd., Island Lake Lumber Ltd (Oliver Korpela), and Domtar of Sudbury.

All material was being transported by (Tee) Chambers Cartage and Lloyd MacGillivray Cartage. The municipality had made equipment available and employees Mel Black and Maurice Marion operated it on their own time.

Donations were being received and acknowledged in the Chapleau Sentinel and perhaps Grant (Grizz) Henderson, a former citizens summed up the enthusiasm with his comment: "Let the horns blow, the drums bang, the cymbals clang, let the clan gather." He called it  a Come Home Weekend, a Centennial Old Time Party.

Good news had been received from the CPR that it would provide heat for the building to be located in Centennial Park alongside Engine 5433, that had been placed there in 1964, a gift from Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Grout.

Planning for the Centennial project had actually been underway since 1963, but got moving after the Centennial Park was established. Mr. Grout was the chairman.

And then, with apologies to the  poet Robbie Burns for modernizing his words in  'To a Mouse', the "best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..."

The hot weather continued into June and a forest fire was threatening the community by June 3.

District Forester Jim Keddie advised Reeve T.C. "Terry" Way-White of the situation and a meeting was held in the Town Hall attended by the council and other citizens as well as lands and forests personnel and Ontario Provincial Police. The decision was made to evacuate the municipality and the order was given by Mr. Way-White. The exodus began on Sunday afternoon with between 800-900 vehicles beginning the trek out of town after the signal had been given to evacuate. There were 90 boxcars in the CPR yard and a hospital train had left Sudbury to assist with the emergency. At its peak, nearly 400 firefighters were fighting the fire.

Just before the evacuation the Chapleau Sentinel had reported that if "we are not burnt out" the project would be completed on time.

On June 6, the Chicago Tribune reported that residents began "streaming back to their homes after pelting rain relieved the fear the town might be destroyed by a forest fire..." (When I Googled for dates on the fire, the Chicago Tribune story appeared right at the top)

Work resumed and "All's well that ends well", as it was officially opened on time in pouring rain, but the sun  came out in the afternoon. It was opened by Gaston Demers, MPP for Nickel Belt assisted by Mr. Grout and Reeve Way-White.

In the beginning I really did not plan to bring the weather and a forest fire into this column, but it just happened as I was reading about the Chapleau Centennial project. Still a state of emergency in British Columbia, and thanks to all who have been in touch with me. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

NOTE!!!!!                                
BRINGING MARY HOME
Mary Campbell passed away January 2 of this year and her ashes will be returning to her beloved Chapleau.
Interment will be at the cemetery on Friday, August 25 at 11am, officiated by Bishop Tom Corston. Lunch will follow at the Legion. All are welcome to bid their final farewells and exchange a few "Mary stories".

---

MM

Flag raising ceremonies at Chapleau Centennial Museum described as 'heritage moment' in community's history

Totem pole a Terry Way-White, Jack Whitney project

When the Chapleau Centennial Museum was officially opened on July 1, 1967 as part of the community's celebration of Canada's 100th anniversary, the flag raising ceremony was an important part of the proceedings.

The centennial committee headed by Arthur Grout had contacted the premiers of all the provinces and the prime minister requesting that a flag be donated for the occasion. It happened!

The flag raising ceremony was conducted after a Colour Party composed of members of Branch Number 5 of the Royal Canadian Legion arrived.

They just didn't raise the flags  had found representatives from each province to participate and do it.

 As I was working on this column, seeing their names brought back so many memories of growing up in Chapleau.

Here are the participants taken from a Chapleau Sentinel story.

Reg Thrush, who was born In England raised the Canadian flag.

Mrs. Earle Campbell, born in British Columbia raised her home province's flag, while Mrs. Ruth Smith did the honors for Alberta where she was born. Mrs. Edith McKnight raised the flag of Manitoba her home province.

Lorrie Gerset, sister of Jim and Ted Demers travelled from Saskatchewan to raise its provincial flag.

Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Goldstein raised the flag of the Yukon. Their daughter Dawn was working as a nurse there. The Nothwest Territories did not have a flag.

Moving east, D. O. Payette raised the flag of Ontario while Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Martel did so for Quebec.

Nova Scotia born Layton Goodwin raised his province's flag while Mr. and Mrs. James Good from New Brunswick raised their flag and Emmet Brazel did so for Prince Edward Island his province of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Steed raised the flag of Newfoundland.

Thirty years later in 1997, at a flag raising ceremony to replace the flags, Recreation Director Terry Piche described it as a "heritage moment", and his comments applied equally to that ceremony as it did to the 1967 one.

1997

In 1997, coinciding with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Chapleau High School, the flag raising ceremony was re-enacted but unfortunately the newspaper reports did not name the flag raisers.

However, Terry told those attending of the significance of the flags as "a symbol of the unity of the community" and the importance of preserving its heritage. So true. Throughout its history, people have come from all parts of Canada, and indeed many other countries to live in Chapleau.

Let me conclude with an aside that I came across while doing this column. I found a very short newspaper story suggesting that First Nations people camped on the site where the museum is located before the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1885 --- members of the Memegos family.. If not on the exact site, nearby when they met surveyors circa 1881. I will leave that one alone for another day.




My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Doug Greig recognized importance of community's cultural history and passing it on to future generations

For almost eight years now, I have been writing a weekly column about the life and times of Chapleau, and although many people have provided research assistance, Doug Greig is surely at the top of my list.

Some years ago, Doug took over providing content for chapleaupubliclibrary.com the successor to a site established by Hugh Kuttner, taking it to the next level as an incredible resource for all of us interested in the history of Chapleau.

The site itself recognizes Doug's enormous contribution in "meticulously digitizing more than 54,000 pages" about Chapleau.

Since learning that Doug had died on March 6. 2017 in a car accident, I have visited the site often, reflecting on the passion Doug had for the community in ensuring that its story will remain alive for generations to come.

I had my first chat with Doug at the 90th anniversary reunion of Chapleau High School in 2012, when he was a member of the committee, and also sitting on the municipal council. He served several terms on council.

Ever since, Doug has responded to any requests for assistance that I needed as I wrote my columns.  I have also accessed information from the web site.

In 2015, when I was home for the launch of "The Chapleau Boys Go To War" which I co-authored with my cousin Michael McMullen, I was chatting with Doug again, and asked if some time he could provide me with  digitized copies of The Chapleau Post and Chapleau Sentinel.

Hours later, before I left town, Doug delivered them to me.

Doug was also of great assistance to Michael and I when we were working on our book. We noted that he provided "incredible research support. Doug seemed to be available 24/7 in responding to requests."

He was also a staunch supporter of the Chapleau Centennial Museum.

Another significant contribution he made to Chapleau's history were his very complete histories of J.E. Martel and Sons Lumber Ltd, A and L Lafreniere Lumber Ltd. and Sheppard and Morse Ltd. all available in Chapleau Trails, edited and published by Dr. William R. Pellow.

I extend my most sincere sympathy to his wife Anne, his family and friends, who have lost one of the community's most passionate citizens ever! However, his legacy will assuredy include his efforts to make its history available to future generations. 

I asked Ian Macdonald if he would contribute his thoughts about working with Doug, and I extend my thanks to him for responding so quickly. Ian attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High schools, and has a continuing interest in Chapleau and area. He is Professor Emeritus and retired head of the department of architecture at the University of Manitoba.

 Here is Ian:

"Doug Greig recognized the importance of recording the cultural history of the community and the importance of passing those expressions of living from generation to generation.

"Doug’s passion clearly was developing chapleaupubliclibrary.com into the website of choice for anyone seeking any information on the history of Chapleau. This multi layered website provides both information and insight in to the life and times of the community from before the time it was established in 1885 to the present day.

"Doug understood the challenge of posterity and the importance of accuracy. Many of our e-mail exchanges over an article or a photograph were directed at establishing the correct date and proper identification of individuals to make the context of the image as informative as possible.

"Doug also understood that overlaying items of information with personal bias or speculative interpretation of events would ultimately render information useless.  He had excellent editorial instincts but, at the same time, resisted the urge to be judgemental and avoided any personal editorials other than “this might be of interest”.

"During the time I was exploring something for publication, he would continually forward items from the archives that he thought might be relevant or of interest. My most recent exchange of information related to an article that Mike McMullen and I did on the hauling of supplies from Chapleau to the crews building the Canadian Northern Railway at Elsas in 1912. I’m afraid that I’ll always associate that particular story as my last collaboration with Doug.

"I only met Doug in person briefly at the Library in Chapleau on three or four occasions when I happened to be in town. We got to know each other over time through the e-mail exchange of images, articles or archiving protocol.

 "I felt his loss, however, as deeply as if he were a family member as did many colleagues of mine who still research and write about the community. Chapleau has lost an important citizen and highly respected community advocate."

Thanks Ian... My email is mj.morris@live.ca