North sky turned a reddish orange at night while engine stood ready at station with 'steam up' as Chapleau prepared for 1948 forest fire evacuation

Back in the day when Queen Victoria's birthday was actually celebrated on the 24th of May in Canada, in 1948 it marked the beginning of forest fires that ravaged much of the area near Chapleau, and threatened the community itself.

Following up on the fires that have devastated the town of Slave Lake, Alberta, the Canadian Press carried a story this week on the worst forest fires in Canadian history. Included was the fire commonly called the Mississagi fire of 1948 but as Bill McLeod points out in his book 'The Chapleau Game Preserve: History, Murder and Other Tales', there were actually three fires - Mississagi, South Chapleau and Panet, the latter posing the worst threat to Chapleau.

Canadian Press says that the worst forest fire in Ontario history was the Matheson fire of 1916 in which 244 people were killed.

After reading the Canadian Press story, I googled for more information on the 1948 fires, and came across a feature story from the August 1961 edition of 'Boys' Life'. the publication of the American Boy Scouts. My intention was to simpy use it as the basis for this piece, but after a few reads, realized that much of it was creative non fiction, written by someone who obviously had never visited the area, and was done for an audience of American Boy Scouts.

However, it is a good read and I do refer to some of the article here. I also went to Bill's book for information, and so here we are some 63 years later, on the Victoria Day weekend, being celebrated close to the 24th this year, with a look back to the fires that had an enormous long term impact on Chapleau and area.

Bill McLeod notes that the Mississagi fire was first detected at one p.m. near Rocky Island Lake on May 25, and by the time the first 69 firefighters arrived a day later it had grown to 2,000 acres in size. By May 27, it had jumped the Mississagi River at three points and was being fought by 137 firefighters.

Meanwhile, the South Chapleau fire had started near Flame Lake in Township 8D, and by June 1 had increased to 30,000 acres and was only 12 miles north of Mississagi.

Reflecting all these years later on these two fires stretching roughly along present Highway 129, which at the time, was not completed between Chapleau and Thessalon, Chapleau was threatened as Flame Lake is at Mileage 47, and the fires were eventually joined

However, the danger to the community was to increase even more when a new fire started in Panet Township on June 4, immediately north of the original village of Chapleau.

While the Mississagi, South Chapleau and other fires continued, by June 9, the Panet fire was within four miles of Chapleau.

Reeve B.W. 'Bubs' Zufelt told the Sudbury Star that all of the community's firefighting equipment had been tested and was at the ready. Hoses had been attached to every fire hydrant in town, Bill McLeod wrote, adding, "At night, Chapleau residents watched nervously as the north sky turned a reddish orange".

As an historic footnote, Mr. Zufelt was in his first year as Chapleau reeve in 1948 when faced with the possibility of ordering an evacuation. So was T.C. 'Terry' Way-White in 1967. Mr Zufelt did not have have to order it, but Mr. Way-White did.

If an evacuation was necessary empty boxcars were on hand at the CPR station. Keep in mind that in 1948, the CPR was really the only way in and out of Chapleau, and South Chapleau was near Sultan and Nemegos, near the railway line heading east, while the Panet fire was near it going west. The people of Chapleau were faced with a potentially very dangerous situation.

The Chapleau Fire Precaution Group was formed with Arthur Grout as chairman and Fire Chief George Collinson as vice chairman. Four wardens, Adam Andrews, Jim Broomhead, Borden McLeod and Albert Evans, with responsibility for specfic responsibility for sections of town were appointed.

Describing the precautions being taken at Chapleau, the writer of the 'Boys' Life' article says that "the engine stood on a railway siding with steam up, and cars attached."

At one point during the fires, the Ontario government considered seeding the clouds with dry ice and it was undertaken. The 'Boys' Life' article says, "the rain fell, sixty miles away from the fire where it rained out a baseball game". Bill McLeod wrote that shortly after "a drenching downpour partly extinguished a fire near the Swayze River".

Then the rains finally came to Northern Ontario and by June 28, the fires were essentially out, and in their aftermath came a whole new chapter in the history of the Chapleau area with the completion of Highway 129 in 1949, the arrival of new lumber companies, and many other changes in the life and times of this part of Northern Ontario. All stories for another day.

As a sidebar, Doug Greig, who is always so helpful when it comes to providing information, sent me a newspaper clipping announcing that the Ontario Provincial Police had established a detachment at Flame Lake after the fire. Const. D.G Patterson who had served in the RCAF in World War II was the officer posted there. Three lumber mills were in operation undertaking salvage operations. Previously, the one OPP officer from Chapleau had Flame Lake as part of his patrol area.

Thanks to Doug Greig and Bill McLeod and 'Boys' Life' magazine. Happy Victoria Day to all. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Chapleau Railroad YMCA played important role in community life as 'home away from home' for railroaders for 63 years until demolished in 1971

The Chapleau Railroad YMCA was one of the most distinctive landmarks in Chapleau from its opening in 1908 until it was demolished in 1971, Ian Macdonald writes in 'Mile 615.1: Building a Northern Community'.

Ian, who spent many of his growing up years in Chapleau, worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway for a time, attended university, became an architect, and in 2005 retired as head of the school of architecture at the University of Manitoba.

Writing in a monograph which is an important part of Bill McLeod's newest book, 'Chapleau: Retrospective on Life in an Isolated Northern Community', Ian explains that the Chapleau Y was one of nine railroad YMCA's built by the CPR in Canada and one in Maine. The others were in Revelstoke, Field, Cranbrook (where I now live), Kenora, Ignace, Schreiber, White River, Cartier and Brownville Junction, Maine.

The usual arrangement was that the CPR paid for the construction of the buildings and then turned ownership and operation over to the Young Men's Christian Association.

The company also gave a cash donation of $100 a month and provided steam heat in the winter and ice in the summer. The CPR provided heat for all its operations and other Chapleau buuildings from a central plant.

Ian notes that the YMCA became part of the "social fabric" of the communities served, confirmed by Ron Brown in his book 'The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore' who observed that they became a sight and activity centre as much a part of the community as the gardens, sitting rooms in the stations or new water tanks.

At the Chapleau YMCA, moving picture shows, according to Ian, were routinely patronized by everyone in town.

"The subject matter, of course, was always of the most wholesome variety, some of it even supplied by the CPR's own film interests."

There were also two bowling alleys in the basement which were used by Chapleau citizens. Whenever anyone recalls the bowling alleys, it is to share their experience as a pin boy (or girl), and to mention that Mrs. Mabel Young, Dr. G.E. Young's mother, was still bowling there in her nineties.

Quoting from a CPR publication Ian writes that the facilities were given to the YMCA to operate "because of its unselfish purpose to be of service to railway men without financial gain".

However, before the CPR and YMCA got together to build the railway YMCA's, the railway was concerned about how its employees were spending their time out on the road, away from home, which is a story of it own.

One writer in 'Not Just a Game: Essays in Sports Sociology' commented that soon after the first one was established in Revelstoke, British Columbia, "the YMCA made lambs out of the wild men (of Revelstoke)..." Given the Revelstoke success, the YMCA's were quickly expanded to other divisional points.

Quoting from the CPR Bulletin of August 1922, Ian comments on the social role of the YMCA's. The bulletin said in part: "the buildings are open day and night and provide a 'homelike place' at the other end of the run.


"The engineers and trainmen, after driving through the snow and cold, find an open fire, a good meal and cheerful companionship awaiting them at the end of a journey..."

Ian notes that the YMCA had characteristics of home including a carefully manicured front lawn and fence, rambling front porch and other features of homes at those times.

However, it was not only CPR employees who stayed at the YMCA. George Tremblay, another Chapleauite, in his wonderful book about the movies 'Break at Nine' tells about the arrival of Ruth and Cecil Smith in 1940 to take over the Regent Theatre.

In November 1940 they arrived in Chapleau on the CPR Train, the Dominion, Number 3, and looked for a taxi.

Len 'the taxi man' Perfetto, was there and away they went as the taxi "dashed up and around the steep horsehoe bridge that spanned the railway yards, then through the downtown" and finally arrived at the YMCA on Lorne Street south.

George noted that it may "sound strange" to learn that they would stay at the YMCA "but in 1940 it was the accepted thing to do" as there were no motels at the time and the two hotels were now rooming houses and apartment buildings.

George Theriault, in his book 'Trespassing in God's Country' writes that when he arrived in 1954, "I bunked down at the YMCA, bought an old boathouse on the Chapleau river and hired two carpenters to winterize it." It was the beginning of Theriault Air Services.

Ian notes that "Time and events gradually overtook the established social role of the YMCA in the years following World War II, and it was condemned and demolished in 1971, adding that one can "scarcely miss the irony when the Chapleau Railway Y was demolished to make way for the new Liquor Control Board of Ontario retail outlet."

I have only touched upon the contents of Ian's monograph 'Mile 615.1: Building a Northern Community' and have not even referred to the rest of Bill's book, "Chapleau: Retrospective on Life in an Isolated Northern Community. Thanks to Ian for permitting me to quote freely from his work, and to Bill, who has been a friend since we were kids growing up in Chapleau.
Thanks as well to George Tremblay and George Theriault. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

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