Remembering Thunder Bay

Of all of the northern cities that I have visited over the past 3 decades, Thunder Bay is certainly one of my favorites. I spent the better part of 2004 there, researching and writing articles.



With lots of grit, this city is not particularly 'polished'. Thunder Bay is nevertheless rightly proud of it's colorful history. Located on the west end of Lake Superior, Thunder Bay has a population of nearly 110,000 and before 1970, was actually the two cities of Port Arthur and Fort William. It is the second largest city in Northern Ontario after Greater Sudbury.

Thunder Bay also has the distinction of being the second most dangerous city in Canada. But more on that later.



A couple of Thunder Bay originals. Shags, a combination shower and stag held to celebrate the engagement of a couple and Persians, an oval-shaped, cinnamon-bun-like pastry with a sweet, pink icing made of either raspberries or strawberries. I found the best ones at Nucci's Bake-a-deli on Red River Road and The Persian Man on Tungsten Street. No one has been able to tell me why the cakes are called 'Persian'!




I love forts and this one is a favorite. Walk these grounds and you will be transported back to another time.

The North West Company had a major trading post called Fort Charlotte located at Grand Portage, Minnesota. After the rebel colonists' victory in the American Revolutionary War, British and Canadian fur traders wanted to create a new center of operations to avoid US taxes. They moved the trading post north to Fort William on the Canadian side of the border.

Fort William Historical Park is a living history site. Numerous historic buildings have been reconstructed to show the range of the post, and costumed historical interpreters recreate Fort William of the year 1815.



Due to its central role, Fort William was much larger, with more facilities than the average fur trade post. Reflecting this, Fort William Historical Park contains 42 reconstructed buildings, a reconstructed Ojibwa village, and a small farm.



Fort William Historical Park has a working community of skilled tradesmen, including a blacksmith, tinsmith, carpenter, cooper, and birch bark canoe builder. They all craft products according to traditional early 19th-century methods and tools. Many of their crafts are not widely practised elsewhere.



Fort William's canoe builder has built birch bark canoes for other Canadian cultural sites, including the Canadian Museum of Civilization.



This has to be the most photographed spot in Thunder Bay. During my stay here I have rarely seen an occasion that there wasn't at least one or two parties of tourists snapping photos.

In September 1980 a remarkable Canadian story came to an end on the shoulder of Highway 11/17 just outside of Thunder Bay.

Terry Fox was forced to end his Marathon of Hope as the cancer which had claimed his right leg had spread to his lungs. A remarkable young athlete, Terry had run almost half way across Canada , a feat not attempted before on the scale that Fox had achieved. It was amazing in that Fox, his left leg amputated, had run 42km each day of the run - the standard length of a modern marathon - every day since he started his run on the 12th of April, 1980.

In 1981 the Ontario Government, collaborating with the City of Thunder Bay, built a monument to the achievement of this amazing Canadian overlooking the city very near to the spot where he was forced to end his run.





A must see. The Jackknife Bridge spans a river in Thunder Bay, linking the city to Mission Island. The bridge was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1910 and has two decks, the lower deck (still in use) for trains and the upper deck (removed in 2004) for vehicular road traffic.

The Sleeping Giant



Standing on the shores of the City of Thunder Bay, one can look across the waters and see a great formation of land known as the Sleeping Giant.

The local Ojibwa have a wonderful story about this rock formation.

A great tribe of Ojibwas lived outside Thunder Bay on Isle Royale. Because of loyalty to their gods and their industrious and peaceful mode of living, Nanna Bijou, the Spirit of the Deep Sea Water, decided to reward the tribe.

The Great Spirit told the chief about the tunnel that led to the center of a rich silver mine. He warned that if the Ojibwa tribe were ever to tell the White Man of this mine he, Nanna Bijou, would be turned to stone. The Ojibwas soon became famous for their beautiful silver ornaments. The Sioux warriors, upon seeing the silver on their wounded enemies, strove to wrest the secret from the Ojibwas.

Torture and death failed to make the gallant Ojibwa tribesmen divulge their secret. Sioux chieftains summoned their most cunning scout and ordered him to enter the Ojibwa camp disguised as one of them. The scout soon learned the whereabouts of the mine.

One night he made his way to it and took several large pieces of the precious metal. During his return to the Sioux camp, the scout stopped at a White Trader's post for food. There, without furs to trade, he used a piece of the stolen silver. Two White Men, intent upon finding the source of the silver, filled the scout with firewater and persuaded him to lead them to the mine. Just as they were in sight of "Silver Islet", a terrific storm broke over the Cape. The White Men were drowned and the Sioux scout was found drifting in his canoe in a crazed condition.

A most extraordinary thing happened during the storm. Where once was a wide opening to the bay, now lay what appeared to be a great sleeping figure of a man. The Great Spirit's warning had come true and he had been turned to stone.

Today, partly submerged shaft to what was once the richest silver mine in the northwest, can still be seen. White Men have repeatedly attempted to pump out the water that floods in from Lake Superior, but their efforts have been in vain. Is it still under the curse of Nanna Bijou, Spirit of the Deep Sea Water? Perhaps...who can tell?

Mount McKay



A small stone chapel stands atop Mt. McKay. It is this chapel that gives us a legend perhaps far more factual than all those of more ancient origin.

According to the Ojibwa, a flourishing encampment of Ojibwa near Thunder Bay had learned something of agriculture. Small but bountiful wheat fields filled clearings which dotted the spruce and birch forests. The tribe, jubilant at the prospects of a great harvest, found their joy short-lived one fall. A plague of black birds swooped from the sky and in spite of the men's arrows, soon devoured all the grain.

A plan for a greater hunting effort during the months that followed failed as heavy snows came. Those that ventured out in search of food soon perished in the deep drifts of snow. Fishing, through the ice was impossible as not even a morsel of food was left for bait.

Starved, crazed men set upon one another and children cried pitifully from hunger. Just as it seemed the tribe would perish, a young princess, daughter of the Chief, took her father's hunting.knife and cut strips of flesh from her legs. This she gave to the men to use as bait for fishing.



Soon, sufficient fish were caught and the tribe was saved from starvation. The heroic deed, however, was too much of a shock to the princess and slowly she wasted away.

A visiting priest arrived just in time to bless her before her death. Hearing of her brave deed, he had the men build the small chapel in her memory and bade them give thanks to God for their survival and pray for future crops. Each year at Thanksgiving, the Indians go to the chapel and it is more than a coincidence that since the first thanks offering, the crops of Thunder Bay have neither failed nor been destroyed by plague.

Murder City!

It's official! (well, sort of). According to a October 2010 survey conducted by MacLeans Magazine, Thunder Bay is most dangerous city in Canada, at least as far as homicides are concerned. According to the report Thunder Bay figures are 182% above Canada’s national average.

Canada’s national rate is 1.8 murders per 100,000 population. Abbotsford, B.C., with almost three times that rate, tops the list of the 100 most populous cities.

Thunder Bay ranks 14th overall of Canada, and Number 1 in Ontario, when crimes such as homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, vehicle theft, robbery plus breaking and entering are factored in.


Thunder Bay's Most Famous Murder

Viljo Rosvall and Janne Voutilainen were two Finnish-Canadian unionists from Thunder Bay, and members of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada who mysteriously disappeared on November 18, 1929. The two were on their way to a bush camp to recruit sympathetic bush workers for a large strike which was gaining momentum west of Thunder Bay.




The bodies of Rosvall and Voutilainen were found by a union search party at Onion Lake the following spring. The men's funeral on April 28, 1930 was the largest ever held in Thunder Bay.

Adding to the legendary status of the event, a solar eclipse darkened the sky as the funeral procession marched to Riverside Cemetery. The funeral events were regarded as the symbolic beginning of the Great Depression for local residents.

The official cause of death was ruled to be accidental drownings, however, the Finnish community in Thunder Bay suspected that the two were murdered by thugs employed by the bush camp boss.

Evidence that the two men had struggled before their deaths as well as the questionable matter that two experienced bush workers had drowned in shallow water added to the feeling that foul play was involved. Furthermore, some community members claimed that they had gained knowledge that the hired thugs were in Finland, where they had been shipped after the murder.



There was also the fact that Voutilainen was a trapper who had maintained trap lines in the Onion Lake area for several years, and thus, intimately familiar with the area. How could an experienced trapper with an intimate knowledge of the local environment fall through ice and drown in three and a half feet of water?



The testimony of the official coroner, Dr. Crozier, also raises doubts. Not only was his testimony highly agitated and hostile, but Crozier also belonged to an anti-union "citizens' group" formed around the time of the Winnipeg General Strike.

Other inconsistencies include contradictory statements from the camp boss, Maki, and evidence of injuries on the bodies suggesting a struggle before their drowning. That violent methods were used by employers, the authorities, and/or vigilantes to disrupt or discourage union activity around this time in North America is not unusual.


I visited Riverside Cemetery on Oliver Road and found the headstones of the two union organizers.

The case of Rosvall and Voutilainen continues to be controversial. An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected by the province to commemorate Rosvall and Voutilainen's role in Ontario's heritage.


This marker is located in front of the logging museum in Centennial Park, off of Black Bay Road.



I have collected a lot of material on the Rosvall and Voutilainen deaths. Much more than this blog article could ever treat properly. I will be posting a separate article dealing with this sad event in Thunder Bay's history.

George Shearing Remembered

I first heard Shearing and his Quartet in 1965 while living in Toronto. A good friend of mine, Arthur Ouellette, introduced me to the finer aspect of jazz and in particular to Shearing. I grew to love the man's music.

We would spend hours in his downtown room listening to the likes of Stan Getz, Dizzie Gillespie and of course George Shearing.

Arthur's 'pad' was pretty basic. It was a large room with a mattress in one corner, no table or chairs --- but he did have one humongous stereo in the corner with two large speakers that you'd never dare turn further that half volume.

Arthur was a pot smoke - something that I was not (it just made me sleepy!). We would be listening to some really good jazz and Arthur would be doing his damnedest to turn the air in the room into a blue haze!

Those were crazy times!

When I hear those old songs it brings back memories of those heady days and the wonderful people that I was privileged to know.

On February 14, 2011 George Shearing, the jazz pianist who wrote the standard Lullaby of Birdland and had a string of hits, passed away at the age of 91. Shearing who was blind since birth, died early Monday morning of congestive heart failure.

Shearing had been a superstar of the jazz world since a couple of years after he arrived in the United States in 1947 from his native England, where he was already hugely popular. The George Shearing Quintet's first big hit came in 1949 with a version of songwriter Harry Warren's September in the Rain.

He remained active well into his 80s, releasing a CD called Lullabies of Birdland as well as a memoir, Lullaby of Birdland, in early 2004. In March of that year, though, he was hospitalized after suffering a fall at his home. It took him months to recover, and he largely retired from public appearances after that.

In 2007, Shearing was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to music. When the honour was announced, he said it was "amazing to receive an honour for something I absolutely love doing."



Shearing's bebop-influenced sound became identified with a quintet — piano, vibes, guitar, bass and drums — which he put together in 1949. More recently, he played mostly solo or with only a bassist. He excelled in the "locked hands" technique, in which the pianist plays parallel melodies with the two hands, creating a distinctly full sound.

'I consider him one of the greatest musical minds I've ever been around...Even today, jazz players, especially pianists, are indebted to him' said Dave Brubeck.

Among the luminaries with whom Shearing worked over the years: Tito Puente, Nancy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, Marian McPartland, the Boston Pops, Peggy Lee, Billy Taylor, Don Thompson, Stéphane Grappelli and Sarah Vaughan.

When Torme won Grammys two years in a row in 1983-84, for An Evening With George Shearing and Mel Torme and Top Drawer, he blasted the U.S. National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for failing to nominate his partner, Shearing, either time.

"It's hard to image a more compatible musical partner," Shearing said after Torme died in 1999. "I humbly put forth that Mel and I had the best musical marriage in many a year. We literally breathed together during our countless performances." And he told Down Beat magazine: "Mel was one of the few people that I played with whom I felt I worked with and not for."


Mel Torme

Shearing wrote Lullaby of Birdland in 1952; it's named for the famous New York jazz club. He acknowledged composing it in just 10 minutes. "But I always tell people, it took me 10 minutes and 35 years in the business," he told The Christian Science Monitor in 1980.

"Just in case anybody thinks there are any totally free rides left, there are none!"

At an 80th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall in 1999, Shearing introduced Lullaby by joking: "I have been credited with writing 300 songs. Two hundred ninety-nine enjoyed a bumpy ride from relative obscurity to total oblivion. Here is the other one."




Pianist Dave Brubeck was among those who performed at the Carnegie Hall event.

"I've lost a dear friend," Brubeck said Monday. "His photo is over my piano in the studio. Over the years, we've played many concerts together. I consider him one of the greatest musical minds I've ever been around. In the '50s, George paved the way for me and the [Modern Jazz Quartet], and even today jazz players, especially pianists, are indebted to him."

Among other songs recorded by the George Shearing Quintet: I'll Never Smile Again, Mambo Inn, Conception, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off and East of the Sun (and West of the Moon).

The landmark albums he and the quintet made include The Swingin's Mutual, backing up vocalist Wilson, and Nat King Cole Sings/George Shearing Plays.

But Shearing laid the quintet to rest in 1978, except for occasional revivals.

"I needed a breath of fresh air and a chance to grow individually," he told the AP. "What I find as a soloist or working with a bassist, is that I can address myself more to the proposition of being a complete pianist; I find a lot more pianistic freedom."

He was already working at his memoir in 1987, saying he was using a Braille word processor. "I think there are a lot of things to be told from my view — the world of sound and feel," he said. Years earlier, in a 1953 AP interview, he had said he referred to his blindness as little as possible because, "I want to get by as a human being, not as a blind person."

As he grew older, he spoke frankly of aging.

"I'm not sure that technique and improvisational abilities improve with age," the pianist said. "I think what improves is your sense of judgment, of maturity. I think you become a much better editor of your own material."


Shearing was born Aug. 13, 1919, to a working-class family and grew up in the Battersea district of London.

A prodigy despite his inability to see printed music, he studied classical music for several years before deciding to "test the water on my own" instead of pursuing additional studies at a university. Shearing began his career at a London pub when he was 16.

During World War II, the young pianist teamed with Grappelli, the French jazz violinist, who spent the war years in London. Grappelli recalled to writer Leonard Feather in 1976 that he and Shearing would "play during air raids. Was not very amusing."

Shearing had a daughter, Wendy, with his first wife, the former Trixie Bayes, whom he married in 1941. The marriage ended in divorce in 1973 and two years later he married singer Ellie Geffert.

The popularity of the Shearing quartet's records a half-century ago had some writers suggesting he didn't take his jazz seriously enough. In a 2002 New York Times piece, critic Terry Teachout said such talk was beside the point.

"The time has come," Teachout wrote, "for George Shearing to be acknowledged not as a commercial purveyor of bop-and-water, but as an exceptionally versatile artist who has given pleasure to countless listeners for whom such critical hairsplitting is irrelevant."

A Tribute To Hal Holbrook

February 17th is the birthday of Hal Holbrook.

As a young boy growing up in the silver mining town of Cobalt, Ontario and later in the Uranium 'Boom Town' of Elliot Lake, Ontario, I read absolutely everything that Mark Twain had put his pen to.

My friends and I would build rafts and we would pole across the local ponds making believe we were with Huck Finn on the Mississipi River.

As a teenager my interest in books waned as I discovered girls. Mark Twain and many others were put on hold. It was to be temporary however.In 1965 while on a bit of a vacation in Buffalo New York I saw a poster announcing a live performance of some of the works of Twain at the Statler Hotel on Delaware Ave. The actor was Hal Holbrook, a man I knew very little about at that time. After that evenings performance my love for the writings of Mark Twain was re-ignited. And I became a lifelong fan of Holbrook.


'He has portrayed Twain longer than Samuel Langhorne Clemens did.'

Hal Holbrook,was born February 17, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Aileen Davenport, a vaudeville dancer, and Harold Rowe Holbrook, Sr. After his graduation Holbrook served in the US Army in World War II and was stationed in Newfoundland, where he performed in little theatre productions.

It was in his early years in school that he first developed the idea of one man shows - which later in his acting life would bring him fame in his performance of 'Mark Twain Tonight!'



Holbrook's first solo performance as Twain was at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in 1954. Ed Sullivan saw him and gave Holbrook his first national exposure on his February 12, 1956 show.

In 1959, Holbrook first played the role Off-Broadway. Columbia Records recorded an LP of excerpts from the show.

In 1967, Mark Twain Tonight was presented on television by CBS and Holbrook received an Emmy for his performance. Holbrook's Twain first played on Broadway in 1966, and again in 1977 and 2005; Holbrook was at least 80 years old during his most recent Broadway run, older (for the first time) than the character he was portraying. Holbrook won a Tony Award for the performance in 1966. Mark Twain Tonight has repeatedly toured across the country in what as of 2005 has amounted to over 2000 performances.

He has portrayed Twain longer than Samuel Langhorne Clemens did. In 1964, Holbrook played the role of the Major in the original production of Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy.

In 1968, he was one of the replacements for Richard Kiley in the original Broadway production of Man of La Mancha, although he had limited singing ability. Holbrook co-starred with Martin Sheen in the controversial and acclaimed 1972 television movie That Certain Summer said to be the first television movie to portray homosexuality in a sympathetic, non-judgmental light. In 1976, Holbrook won further acclaim for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a series of television specials based on Carl Sandburg's acclaimed biography.

He has also starred in many films and TV programs. He won an Emmy for Lead Actor in a Dramatic Series in the 1970TV series, "The Bold Ones: The Senator". In 1979, he starred, with Katharine Ross, Barry Bostwick, and Richard Anderson in the made-for-TV movie, "Murder by Natural Causes". Early in his career he worked on stage and in a television soap opera, The Brighter Day. Holbrook is also famous for his role as the enigmatic Deep Throat (whose identity was unknown at the time) in the film All the President's Men. More recently, Holbrook appeared as a featured guest star in a 2006 episode of the HBO series The Sopranos and the NCIS episode "Escaped".

Holbrook has appeared in at least six movies in which he is part of a conspiracy: Fletch Lives, Magnum Force, The Star Chamber, Capricorn One, All the President's Men, and The Firm. Holbrook appeared on Fisher Investments' infomercials. In 2000, he appeared in Men of Honor where he portrayed a racist and hypocritical officer who endlessly tries to fail an African-American diver trainee. He appeared in Sean Penn's critically acclaimed film Into the Wild (2007) and received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role at the 80th Academy Awards.

This renders Holbrook, at age 82, the oldest nominee in Academy Award history in the Best Supporting Actor category. On December 20, 2007, Holbrook was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in the film. In late August 2007 through mid-September he starred as the narrator in the Hartford Stage production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Holbrook's most recent film is That Evening Sun, which he filmed on location with his wife Dixie Carter in East Tennessee in the summer of 2008. The film was produced by Dogwood Entertainment (a subsidiary of DoubleJay Creative) and is based on a short story by William Gay. That Evening Sun premiered in March 2009 at South By Southwest, where it received the Audience Award for Narrative Feature and a special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast.

Joe Leydon of Variety hailed Hollbrook's performance in the film as a "career-highlight star turn as an irascible octogenarian farmer who will not go gentle into that good night." That Evening Sun also was screened at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival, where Holbrook was honored with a special Lifetime Achievement Award, and the film itself received another Audience Award.

On April 22, 2010, Holbrook signed on to portray Katey Sagal's character's father on the FX original series Sons of Anarchy for a four-episode arc in their upcoming third season. On May 5, 2010, it was announced by the film's director, Francis Lawrence, that Hal Holbrook will play the older version of Jacob Jankowski in the film adaption of Water for Elephants. Holbrook has been married three times, and has three children. He married Ruby Holbrook on 22 September 1945, and divorced her in 1965. They had two children, Victoria Holbrook and David Holbrook.

On 28 December 1966 he married Carol Eve Rossen. They had one child Eve Holbrook, and divorced on 14 June 1983. He married Dixie Carter on 27 May 1984. They remained married until her death on 10 April 2010.

A few other thoughts on Mark Twain Tonight!

It's a one man show devised by Hal Holbrook, in which he depicts Mark Twain giving a dramatic recitation selected from several of his writings, with an emphasis on the comic ones.


Holbrook is seen here with his third wife Dixie Carter who he married on 27 May 1984. They remained married until her death on 10 April 2010.

He made his first New York appearance as Twain in the Off-Broadway engagement in 1959and premiered it on Broadway in 1966. Holbrook's performance was first noticed by New York producer John Lotas at The Lambs Club in Manhattan. Lotas presented the show at the Forty-First Street Theatre, where it ran for 174 performances. He won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for that appearance and an Emmy Award nomination for the 1967 television broadcast (which was produced by David Susskind) on CBS. Holbrook continues to tour in the play (on Broadway as recently as 2006) and alternates the material that he performs.

The original program from the 1959 Off-Broadway engagement included the note “While Mr. Twain’s sections will come from the list below, we have been unable to pin him down as to which of them he will do. He claims this would cripple his inspiration. However, he has generously conceded to a printed program for those who are in distress and wish to fan themselves.”

On the occasion of Mr. Clemens' 175th birthday, Holbrook performed Mark Twain Tonight! in Elmira, NY, at the Clemens Center in front of a sell-out crowd. The evening began with the singing of happy birthday to Mr. Clemens followed by Holbrook's appearance on stage. Remarkably, 2011 marks the 57th consecutive year that Holbrook has performed Mark Twain Tonight!



And what about Mark Twain himself?



Samuel Langhorne Clemens (pen name Mark Twain) was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Twain is considered the greatest humorist of 19th Century American literature. His novels and stories about the Mississippi River: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1894) are still popular with modern readers.

In 1839 the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River where young Sam experienced the excitement and colorful sights of the waterfront. Like many authors of his day he had little formal education. His education came from the print shops and newspaper offices where he worked as a youth. In 1853 Clemens left Hannibal with a yearning to travel. On a trip to New Orleans he persuaded a riverboat pilot to teach him his skill. By the Spring of 1859 Clemens was a licensed riverboat pilot.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861) Clemens chose not to get involved and moved to Carson City, Nevada. After an unsuccessful attempt at gold and silver mining he joined the staff of a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. He first wrote under the pen name, "Mark Twain" (meaning "two fathoms" in riverboat-talk) in 1863. "Twain" wrote his first popular story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in 1865.

He continued to travel as a correspondent for various newspapers, and in 1869 his travel letters from Europe were collected into the popular book, "The Innocents Abroad." Encouraged by his success Twain married Olivia Langdon and settled down in Hartford, Connecticut to his most productive years as a writer. Between 1873 and 1889 he wrote seven novels including his Mississippi River books as well as The Prince and the Pauper (1882) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).

Some modern readers are offended by some of the language and content of Twain's books. One particularly sensitive example of this is the free use of the word "nigger" in "Huckleberry Finn." Twain used contemporary language in his books to bring his characters to life. This realistic prose style influenced numerous American writers. Ironically, for his time Twain was liberal on racial and many social issues. The underlying themes of "Huckleberry Finn" support a fundamental equality for people of all races.

As Twain's life and career progressed he became increasingly pessimistic, losing much of the humorous, cocky tone of his earlier years. More and more of his work expressed the gloomy view that all human motives are ultimately selfish. Even so Twain is best remembered as a humorist who used his sharp wit and comic exaggeration to attack the false pride and self-importance he saw in humanity.

Remembering Elliot Lake

This is the Elliot Lake that I first met my eyes in 1958 when I arrived there with my mother and father and my 5 siblings.


The population of the town went from a few trappers to 10,ooo people virtually overnight.Housing was in short supply. Men lived in bunkhouses where influenza was epidemic. Other families were forced to live out of their cars or tents.


As an eight year old boy I would spend hours exploring the old tumbeled down bunkhouses.


"A sea of mud!" is how my mother described the sidewalks and streets of early Elliot Lake.


The 'Algoden Hotel' the first hotel built in Elliot Lake. The first night it opened a man was killed. This set the rowdy mine camp tone for the next few years.


The town in the early 1960's.




Elliot Lake in more recent days. The town went from a population of 25,000 people with the average age of 30 to a 12,000 seniors community.




All signs of the mine are gone. The two - 2000 foot deep shafts have been capped and the entire area has been re-sodded and allowed to return to something approaching a 'natural state'.


Denison Mines just north of Elliot Lake was the largest mine of the 11 that once operated in the area. At it's peak Denison has a payroll of over 3,000 people.


The mines employed a number of people and was an important component in the Northern Ontario economy. However the environmental damage that has been created and the potential for a horrible accident if the large dams were ever to be breached, could far outweigh the economic benefits. The Serpent River which flows from Quirk Lake (the lake on the top of the photo) has been heavily contaminated. The river flows through the Serpent River First Nations.

I worked at the Denison Uranium Mines in Elliot Lake from 1978 to 1991.

For most of those 13 years I worked at #1 shaft in a number of capacities. When I first hired on I was a Dux truck driver on the service crew and one of only maybe a dozen guys who worked at 1 shaft who were company guys. The rest were contractors; CM , Powertel and Beaumier Construction.


Dux Truck

They were building the new conveyor system and my job was to haul rockbolts , screening and conveyor roller assemblies from the station to the job. I also hauled powder to the various magazines in the 1 shaft area.At that time my shift bosses were George Foy (now passed away) and Daryl and Brad Rogers. Later I worked for Jack McWilliams and others where I operating a scoop tram on the haulage crew and later worked as a pumpman.


Wagner ST-8 Scoop Tram

I was injured in a fall in the spill drive and spent a few months off. I then came back to work for Mike Murphy on the construction crew. Later I put in for, and got, a job as forklift operator at #2 shaft underground garage. after a while I decided that I’d try surface for a while and worked in the crusher.

I took the voluntary layoff in 1991.


Rock Bolter

For the better part of the time that I worked at Denison I also worked a reporter for the local newspaper, the Elliot Lake Standard. After the layoff I went to work for the paper fulltime.

I was pretty active with the Steelworkers and was steward and then chief steward. I certainly wasn’t a pushover for the company – but I must say that during my career at Denison I was never ever given a hard time. I did get a warning slip (the only one I was to ever receive) when I told a shift boss to F**k **f.

I thing that the biggest thing that strikes me when I think back to those days, was the incredible variety of people that worked there.


Artists rendition of Number 2 shaft Denison Mines

I knew men who worked on the jack leg and in their off time collected butterflies and moths and would have been considered as experts. I knew men who were former school teachers and I knew a defrocked priest who worked on one of the rockbreakers. One man I knew who worked underground as a diamond driller had been in his former life, a fairly well known poet in his native Hungary before the Russians invaded.

Underground Mechanics Garage

I used to love to hunt and fish, and I wasn’t alone. Just before moose hunting season there was a big rush of guys trying to get a week off. A lot of the guys waited and dreamed of the time when they would qualify for three weeks holidays, so that they could take the family on a vacation in the summer, and head to the bush for a week with the buddies in the fall.

But mining is a serious business. During the mining history of the Elliot Lake camp (1955 to 1996) better than 130 men, company men, and contractor’s surface and underground were fatally injured. Pretty well anyone who has ever worked there would have the memory of some friend or acquaintance that lost their life or were badly injured.


Miners Using a Jack Leg Drill


The life of a miner

During my time in the mines I lost a number of friends as a result of horrible accidents, mainly rock-falls and cave-ins.

Although well over a hundred men died during in the Elliot Lake uranimum mines, the Elliot Lake mines were no more hazardous than any other underground operation in other parts of the country, it’s just that mining is by its very nature a rough business – and one that demands very special people.

The only building standing on the old Denison Mines property is the 'mansion'. This building was build for Denison Mines owner Stephen Roman.

Built in 1979 it was a symbol of Denison Mine’s success. In that year Denison Mines marked a year of outstanding achievement reflected in the 109% rise in earnings, thanks to a 'cost plus' sweetheart aggrement between the Ontario government and Ontario Hydro. Roman was projecting decades of wealth for the area, and invested some of the profit into building this luxurious mansion. Roman and his friends would occasionally visit the mansion. The facility was staffed by a house cleaning staff and a cook 5 days a week.




Stephen Roman

Currently managed by a private agency Denison House is available for rent to the public. It is also listed on Sotheby's Canada website for sale for $1,950,000.



In 1982 Roman had a Great Lake freighter named after him. The Stephen B. Roman was named in 1982 after Roman became the major shareholder in Lake Ontario Cement.

The ship has a rather colorful career and would be worthy of a blog entry all to itself.

Originally contructed in the early 1960.s the ship was named the Fort William was capable of carrying 7,400 tons, the vessel is powered by two Fairbanks Morse 10 cylinder horizontally opposed 10-38D8-1/8 diesel engines producing 3,330 b.h.p. and 2Fairbanks Morse 8 cylinder diesel engines producing 2,664 b.h.p. for a total of 5,994 b.h.p.

Shortly after entering service; early on September 14, 1965, the Fort William capsized and exploded while unloading at the company’s dock in Montreal killing 5 sailors with 16 escaping. The capsizing occurred as cargo was being moved to the upper deck at the same time as ballast was being pumped making the vessel unstable. The explosion following the roll over was the result of 300 tons of powdered calcium chloride cargo mixing with the water forming an explosive gas. The freighter was refloated on November 22, 1965 and taken for repairs, returning to service in May of 1966.

On August 10, 1967; the Fort William was in a head-on collision with Kinsman’s Paul L. Tietjen in lower Lake Huron. The latter was holed in the bow with the Fort William receiving only slight damage. Other incidents followed. On December 17, 1977; the vessel went aground in Maumee Bay at Toledo, OH in fog. She was freed with the assistance of local tugs. Also in fog, the freighter hit the Detroit River Light while downbound early on October 1, 1979. Her bow was pushed in by the stone base but not holed. She proceeded to the Port Arthur Shipyards at Thunder Bay for repair. The Detroit River Light, however, sustained an estimated $100,000 in damages.

The company found that it could not compete with rail and truck and terminated their service resulting in the Fort William laying up in Hamilton, ON in December of 1981 until it was bought by Lake Ontario Cement.

Some Of My Favorite Recipes

For 50 years or so, I considered cooking as something I did when absolutely necessary and then only when it was nothing more complicated than emptying a box of Kraft dinner into a pot of boiling water.

But as I leathered into grand-old-man authenticity, I discovered that cooking gave me a certain sense of satisfaction …. a sense of self nurturing ….. and a great regret that I had waited for half a century to discover that.

Today, whenever I am asked about the numerous professions that I have been involved in; be it a miner, newpaperman, trapper, office worker. I often add, that given my druthers, I think I would have enjoyed a career as a chef.

My Favorite Sweet Potato Pie

1 Unbaked pastry shell, 9-inch
3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preparation

Combine hot potatoes and butter in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Add sugar and eggs; blend with mixer on low speed until smooth. Add milk and spices. Blend well and pour into pastry-lined pie shell. Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes, or until firm.



Rice Pudding

2 1/2 c. cooked rice
1 1/2 c. scalded milk
2/3 c. white or brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. raisins
3 tbsp. soft butter
Combine all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased crock pot. Cook on high 1 to 2 hours. Stir during first 30 minutes.




Blind River Fish Batter

3/8 cup Flour
1/8 cup Cornstarch
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
1 Egg White
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Water
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Paprika

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well blended. Dip fish fillets in flour and coat each side, then dip in fish in batter and fry in oil until golden brown. Place fried fish on paper towels to drain off excess oil.

Goes well with pike, salmon, halibut and catfish.




Sensational Bread Pudding From The Crock Pot

3 eggs, beaten
3 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups bread cubes or soft torn bread
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins

Combine all ingredients, gently stirring until bread crumbs or cubes are thoroughly moistened. Place mixture in a greased slow cooker. Cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.



Crock Pot Baked Beans

2 pounds navy beans (softened in water overnight)
1 small chopped onion
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup syrop
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 pound salted pork cut into small cubes

Mix all incredients together in greased crock pot. Low heat for 8 hours.



Pulled Beef

beef roast
¼ water
1 ½ cups barbeque sauce
chopped garlic
black pepper

Place roast in a crock pot with 1/4 cup of water and cook on high until the meat separates from the bone and fat easily.
Remove roast from crock pot and pull meat away from fat and bone with a fork, discarding the fat and bone.
Leave at least 1/2 cup of the beef broth in the pot and ad 1 – 1/2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce, chopped garlic and black pepper.
Return the meat to the pot and stir into sauce. Let simmer on low for 1/2 hour.
You could serve this over noodles or with baked potatoes but I think the best is on a bakery fresh bun.





Quebec Sugar Pie

2 cups brown sugar
5 tablespoons flour
I can condensed milk
I teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vanilla

Mix first three incedients together. Bring to boil. Add remaining ingredients. Pour in pie shell. Place in pregheated oven 400 for 5 minutes. Then about 30 minutes at 350.



Shoo-fly Pie

Line two 9-inch pie pans with homemade crust and chill. (Or chill store-bought unbaked pie crusts- which is the approach I take.)

Bottom:
1 cup molasses
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup warm water

Stir baking soda into warm water. Add molasses. Stir until foamy.

Crumbs:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 to 1/3 cup butter

Mix flour, sugar and baking soda. Cut shortening into flour mixture until it makes very fine crumbs.

Pour molasses mixture into chilled piecrusts. Sprinkle crumbs over the top. Bake in oven at 425 degrees F. for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. And bake until crust is browned and the filling is set, about 35 minutes.



My Apple Pandowdy

Topping

1 1/4 C butter
2/3 C sugar
1 egg
1 C milk
2 1/2 C flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 C peeled, sliced apples
1/3 C brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

Butter a 9" square baking dish. Place sliced apples in buttered baking dish and sprinkle with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture to make a stiff batter.
Spread batter evenly over apples and bake for about 50 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for at least ten minutes before serving. You can serve it right out of the pan, or invert it onto a serving plate like an upside-down cake, warm or at room temperature.


Some History Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pandowdy

Shoo Fly Pie is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dessert. Brown sugar, molasses, shortening, salt, and spices were all non-perishable ingredients that could survive the long ocean's crossing to America made by German immigrants. The pie's unusual name is said to be due to the fact that pies were traditionally set to cool on windowsills, and because of the sweet ingredients, the cook would constantly have to shoo the flies away.

Apple Pandowdy is type of cobblers (also known as duffs, grunts and slumps) .

I haven’t been able to find the exact origin of the name Pandowdy, but some have said that it refers to the dessert's plain or "dowdy" appearance. But looks can be deceiving, apple pandowdy is delicious, especially topped with a bit of ice cream ( my personal favorite) or whipped cream.

If you are around the age that I am, you may recall hearing "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy" sung by Dinah Shore. Actually it was first performed by June Christy singing with Stan Kenton and his orchestra. A cover version performed by Dinah Shore in 1946 was her first top-ten hit. It was also recorded by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, and by Ella Fitzgerald. The song was written by songwriter Guy Wood. As a side note the present-day rights to the song are held by Paul McCartney.

The recording by Dinah Shore was released by Columbia Records and it reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on April 4, 1946 and lasted 2 weeks on the chart, peaking at #7. The recording by Stan Kenton/June Christy was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 235. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on March 14, 1946 and lasted 4 weeks on the chart, peaking at #8.

Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy
Dinah Shore

If you wanna do right by your appetite,
If you're fussy about your food,
Take a choo-choo today, head New England way,
And we'll put you in the happiest mood. with:
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Makes your eyes light up,
Your tummy say "Howdy."
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
I never get enough of that wonderful stuff.
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan dowdy makes the sun come out
When Heavens are cloudy,
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy,
I never get enough of that wonderful stuff!
Mama! When you bake,
Mama! I don't want cake;
Mama! For my sake
Go to the oven and make some ever lovin' Sh,
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Makes your eyes light up,
Your tummy say "Howdy,"
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
I never get enough of that wonderful stuff!

Camp Biscuits

In keeping with my new found preoccupation with recording my recipes for posterity, I have included a recipe for Camp Biscuits. Great with stew or beans. You can, if you wish add a cup of sugar and have a sweeter tasting biscuit.

Set aside 2 cups all-purpose flour in a large mixing bowl. Prepare 6 tablespoons cold butter, 3/4 cup milk, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.




Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Then using a pair of knives, a spoon, or your hands, cut the butter into the flour. Basically, cut the butter and mix with flour to coat and separate the pieces. Continue until you get pea sized pieces of butter. It is important that the butter be cold for this process and not begin to melt. If it starts to get a little mushy, you can slip it into the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm back up a bit before continuing.




Pour the milk in and mix gently with a spatula. We're not looking for a kneading action her, just a gently mix. (Kneading will produce gluten which will make the biscuit bread like instead of light and flaky.) Using your hands, form the dough into a ball once the milk has been evenly distributed through the dough. You might need to use a kneading action to get it into a managable shape and to remove some dough fromt eh sides of your container, but try not to knead too much.



Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper or clean surface and roll out into a large sheet about 1/4 in. in thickness. Use a cup or biscuit cutter to cut rounds out of the dough. Do not twist the cup or cutter (unless you have already cut all the way through). Twisting will result in uneven or failed rising. Usually it's a good idea to press the top of the biscuit down a little or else you will get biscuits with rounded tops.

Now, biscuit placement is key to getting good rise out of the biscuits. Place the biscuit dough circles into two 9" cake rounds or onto a half sheet pan. Have the biscuits just touching. This should give enough air between the biscuits to allow even heating, but not so much space that the biscuits spread out when they rise. Bake in a 425°F oven until golden (about 15 minutes).

Oh .... what the heck ... may as well throw in the crockpot stew too ...




2 pounds cut stew beef
5 chopped carrots
2 large diced onions
3 stalks diced celery
3 large diced potatoes
2 cans tomatoes
3 tablespoons flour
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Take your beef and place it in your Crockpot and cover it with cold water. Place in your onion, tomatoes and flour into the mix add in salt and pepper and bay leaves, then cook for 8 hours on low. About an hour before you serve, add in your celery, carrots, and potatoes and turn the temperature up to high for the final hour. Oh ... and don't forget to take the bay leafs out!