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Category Archives: Hiking

Did I say how much I hate yardwork?

14 May

I guess it is Karma. Growing up I lived in my parent’s three-bedroom bungalow in the Westfort area of Thunder Bay. My parents were both immigrants from Italy, and they retained many of the Old World traditions when they came here. As such, our city sized yard only had grass in front of the house; the backyard consisted of patio and garden. Lots of garden. So, where I am I going with this? Well, despite the pathetically small amount of grass that we actually had, I hated cutting the grass. My dad would always yell at me for not cutting it, even though it took about 10 minutes to do it.

When my (at the time) fiancée and I were deciding where to live, we decided we wanted a bit more space than a city lot offered. So we bought property in South Neebing, and our house now sits on 1.5 acres of land. Although some of it is still treed and not landscaped, it still takes me over 3 hours to cut all the grass in the yard. I often curse at how much time it takes to cut the grass, edge, rake, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love where I live, but I swear I can hear my Dad looking down at me and laughing. The 10 minute job doesn’t seem so bad now. So Karma has bitten me in the posterior!

We’ve now reached the midway point of May and the time is flying by! This weekend is the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada, which usually marks the beginning of the summer season. We might make a trip to my in-laws camp for the day, which is located about 65 km east of our home. Speaking of camp, it is interesting how people in Canada refer to “camp” by many different names. I have cousins in Toronto, and their first reaction to the word camp was “what?” Isn’t camp like summer camp? You see, people in southern Ontario refer to it as the “cottage.” Sounds too citified for us up here in the north; camp is so much more outdoorsy. I’ve heard that in Manitoba they call it the “lake.” Anyway, whatever you call it, enjoy this weekend in the outdoors!

Since we’re on the topic of the outdoors, I’m getting even more excited about the hiking season. This week I decided it was time to post more videos from my archives to YouTube. It was really a response to a request on the Facebook page for information about communication on the railway, such as telegraph lines, etc. I had footage from my 1997 trip to North-Gunflint Lakes that contained a few old telegraph poles that I found on Little North Lake, so I decided to upload a video. While I was at it, I put together a bunch of other videos from that ’97 footage; I will be posting them over the next few weeks, but I did put a second video up. This one is of the “Gunflint Cross.”

The Gunflint Cross is one of the most interesting legacies of the railway. It is a small cross, approximately 18

Gunflint Cross, 2008.

inches high, carved into the south side of a rock cut along Gunflint Lake near the 84 mile marker. The cross was created in 1892 as a memorial to a tragic accident that occurred during the construction of the railway. On October 8th, crews were blasting rock for the right of way when one of the charges failed to detonate. After waiting about 20 minutes, workers began removing rock to investigate the cause of the “hang fire” when the explosives went off; Joseph Montegia was struck and killed by the force of the blast. He would be buried in Port Arthur at St. Andrew’s Cemetery and some of his fellow workers carved the cross in his memory. So after 120 years it still remains in its spot, a mute testimonial to the men who built the railway.

The cross makes me think about Gunflint, and today I came across a reminder that I will make my first presentation in years this summer. I’ve mentioned this event in previous posts, but today I found a reference to it on the net. I’m excited about this lecture, I titled it “The Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway and the Paulson Mine: Hopes and Failures in a Border Wilderness.” It is going to be very different from anything I’ve done in the past as it will be outdoors. From my experience as a teacher, I’m sort of used to an indoor environment with a projector and a Smartboard. I guess I will have to explain things very thoroughly since I have no visuals to accompany my information. Let’s hope it is a nice day and a good turn out!

Anyway, enough for this week. Until then…

 
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Posted by on May 14, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Dreaming of Summer

07 May

So why am I dreaming of summer you ask? You may reply that it is May, which is close to the northern solstice, and that means we’re pretty much there aren’t we? Well, reality is that we’re not quite there, and I really want it to be. Yes, this is very selfish of me, totally blowing off the month of May and we’ve just started it. I did write last week that I needed a break; the end of the year burnout is starting to set in and I’m getting tired. But truth be told, I really want to be on vacation so I can do all the things I enjoy doing…not that don’t like my job. However in a contest of what brings me more satisfaction, going to camp, hanging out with the family and hiking the railway is so much more fun! So let the countdown begin…only 38 more school days left!

Unfortunately my reality is that there is so much left to do before the end of June…I shudder a bit just thinking about it. Soon it will be time to start the process of timetabling teachers for next year, which is always good for a few headaches. And this year my term is up for my Curriculum Chair appointment, so I will have to undertake the somewhat stressful process of re-applying and re-interviewing for this job. I sent out an email this morning regarding our spring football camp, which will take up time and energy alike. Throw into the mix graduation, exams and all the little things that go on at this time, I will certainly need the vacation!

Well, I guess I should talk about some happy things instead of complaining and being so depressing. I was in Europe when this happened, so I never did mention that I was approved for my deferred salary leave in 2016. Yay me! So my wife and I will be off from February to June of that year…I am so pumped. In case you’re wondering, this is not at the taxpayer’s expense; my school board will be garnering 12% of my salary for the next 3.5 years which will be my pay while I am on leave. It means a bit less pay over the next few years, but that semester is going to be sooooo nice!

Library and Archives Canada.

What am I going to do you ask? Travel, hang out, go back to school…actually I’m going to do some research. I think I mentioned this fact way back when I applied for the leave in January, but in case you’ve forgotten or have not read that post, here is my rationale. My main goal is to finish all this railway research that I have been doing for the past 18 years so I can complete the book that I started writing many moons ago. I need to travel to Ottawa to visit the National Archives as there are a ton of files that I need to peruse related to the railway. I also need to pay a return visit to the Archives of Ontario in Toronto as they have a file related to the sale of the railway in 1899 that requires more intense scrutiny that I gave it the first time around. Once that is complete, I will have to spend some time at the Brodie Branch of the Thunder Bay Public Library going through about 30 years’ worth of microfilm. So to answer the question, I will be very busy on my semester off!

Chik-Wauk Museum.

Another reason why I am anxious for summer is that it means hiking season. I do manage to get in some walks during May and June, but unfortunately I’m restricted to the weekends. I like being able to go whenever, especially whenever the weather is most conducive. I started tentatively hashing out my big hiking trip for the summer, which involves spending several days on Gunflint Lake to complete some of the field work left over from last year. I have the presentation at the Chik-Wauk Museum on August 5th; the plan is to try to complete the field work in the days immediately following. Hopefully the weather cooperates; last year it was heat exhaustion one day and a monsoon another.

I’ll probably get some good images; they’ll make a good addition to the new Facebook page I set up. It was a bit of an impulse decision to create the page, but I’m glad I did. Getting “likes” on the page has been more challenging than I expected, but it’s only been a week I guess. One of things that I am groping with is what content to include on the page; what do I put on there without repeating what is on my website? Maybe this will make a good question for the page.

Anyway, need to run. Until then…

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Must remember to wear a hat!

30 Apr

So I woke up this morning to the look a nice, bright red head in the mirror. Yes, I am folically challenged aka bald, which some of you may think is unfortunate, but I’m okay with it (my wife actually thinks I look better sans cheveux). I have adapted fairly well to life without hair, and I am usually pretty diligent about sporting some type of headwear when I go out in the sun. However I forgot to grab a hat when I was out with the boys yesterday and thus my melon got slightly cooked. Lesson learned? I hope so, since the last thing I need is a burnt head; I take enough chiding for the white marks on my head from wearing sunglasses.

Last week I wrote about the craziness that is my life right now and things have not improved. I was just mentioning to a colleague today that it seems like every spring seems to be busier than the last. My usual comment is that “things cannot get more insane than they are” and somehow each year I seem to outdo myself. Needless to say I’m feeling the burnout and I’m looking forward to the end of the year. Yes I know that there are still two months to go, but one must think positive right?

So what’s going on? Well, where to start? First there is the marking; I certainly love my job, but I wish I could do without it. I know that one cannot teach without evaluating student progress, but sometimes I wish there was a magic marking monkey. It could start with my Gr.12 essays…that would take some stress off.

With the arrival of May, my attention has also been drawn to football. Yes I know that is a fall sport, but increasingly it is becoming a year-round endeavour. The winter months are filled with weightlifting sessions in the gym, which I spend an hour on Wednesdays supervising. All schools are permitted to run spring camps, and we hold ours in June. Even though it is a non-equipment event, there is still a lot of planning that goes into it. We try to draw students from our feeder school and this year we’re missing our “guy on the inside” which should make things a bit more tedious. We’ll see what unfolds.

Now for the past few posts I have been mentioning that I need to finish the article I wrote for Minnesota History Magazine. Somehow I haven’t managed to get to it yet, which is rather frustrating. It seems as if something gets in the way and I really need to get that out of the way. As I already indicated, my schedule is not going to get any better as we move toward to summer, so now is the time.

Rails, Rosslyn Brick Plant, Rosslyn Village, ON.

One of the things that will be filling my time is hiking. I did get out for a little walk on

Sunday with the boys in tow to re-visit to the railway around Rosslyn. I was last there at the end March, but I did not look at everything I wanted to and I did not shoot any video. It was a warm, sunny day and perfect for looking around at the last pieces of the railway left in the ground. I did find some other sections of rail that I was not aware of, hiding in the tall grass at the former Rosslyn Brick Plant. The video turned out great and it has already found its way on to YouTube. I certainly can’t wait for more opportunities to get out on the railway.

Last thing I wanted to mention was the fact that I did create a Facebook page for the railway. I had been contemplating this for a while, but I finally took the plunge today. I figured it would help attract more attention to the PD, and more people will probably “like” it than joining the Facebook group. Right now there’s not a lot of content on there, but I’m sure it will fill up soon enough. Be sure to visit and give it a like: https://www.facebook.com/PortArthurDuluthandWestern

Anyway, gotta run. Until then…

 
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Posted by on April 30, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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I can see that on Google Maps?

26 Mar

Why yes you can! If you have no idea what I mean, which is probably the case, I’ll explain later. Patience!

So what’s new Dave? Well, I’ll tell ya. As of today, there are only 8 more sleeps until I’m on a plane headed for France. As you can tell, I’m getting pretty excited. Even though there is a bit of nervousness for this experience, the thought of visiting some new places overrides it all. The only big concern I have so far is the flight. We fly from Thunder Bay to Toronto, then catch a quick connecting flight to Montreal and from there to Paris. We only have a 55 minute layover in Toronto, which is tight, but we are flying Air Canada the whole way so the transfers are all in the same terminals. There is also the benefit of flying with other people, as we are travelling to Europe with our sister high school St. Ignatius. In Toronto I’m assuming we’ll meet up with the third group that is on tour with us, a school from St. Catherines.

I guess the biggest concern right now is some of the labour issues ongoing with Air Canada; fingers crossed I’m hoping all will be okay! I know that the kids are getting pretty pumped as well and part of my excitement stems from their enthusiasm. It will be amazing to experience the history we talk about in the classroom. From what I’ve heard, there will be over 150 schools from across Canada converging on Vimy Ridge on April 9th. Representatives of the government will be attendance, as well as His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada. Who knows, maybe we’ll meet the GG!

On the railway front, I finally have finished my half of the Minnesota History article. It only took me two months, but I’m pretty proud of myself. There are still some tweaks that need to be made, but there’s nothing major left to do. The final word count is 3200, which is over my limit, but there is so much to talk about. I’m not sure how things will make it through the revision process, but I guess I will find out. Not having written anything of this nature does make me a bit nervous, as you do worry how people will receive your abilities and writing style. It will probably be fine, but I’ll be very happy when it makes it to print!

So, the Google Maps thing. I happened to be looking on Google Earth and noticed that they updated some of their maps of the area. Google Earth/Maps has been great in the past for helping me locate the railway and plot the data to my GPS, especially along areas like the Whitefish River that have been eroded over the years. I want to hike the area around Hymers this summer, so I thought, “hey, what if I do an overlay and see how they match?” Well, it isn’t the first time that I’ve tinkered around with Google Earth and map overlays, but probably the most successful I’ve been at it. Some of you may be baffled, so I’ll explain.

Map overlay of the Hymers-Sellars area.

Google Earth has a feature that allows you to overlay or superimpose scans of paper maps onto the satellite photos. It does take a bit of work, as you have to line up key geographic features between the two, but once it’s done it yields awesome results, especially if you are doing historical research.

So I took a copy of the 1960 Geological map of the Hymers-Sellars area, scanned it and did the overlay. It is a good quality map and lined up quite easily. I was amazed when I began playing with the transparency of the map and comparing the current topography with the one from 52 years ago…what a difference! The technology certainly gives you an appreciation of the forces of nature and changes it undergoes. The Whitefish River has changed its course significantly and it makes me wonder how things looked when the railway was built in the early 1890’s. When I hiked the railway back in the 90’s I would often lose the grade where it had been eroded by the river; now with this overlay I can mark the data points on my GPS and hopefully track the railway without any complications. I’ll be trying this overlay with other map areas in the future.

The main reason why I was playing with the maps was due to a request I received last week via email. The Municipality of Oliver-Paipoonge is looking into creating some recreational trails within their boundaries and contracted a landscape architecture firm to do some consultations. I was contacted by a gentleman at the firm who saw some of my photos on Google Earth and was looking for more information about the railway and the old grade. I dug up some of my maps of the railway for his research, and that got me looking at them. You know the rest of the story.  I will be attending the open house meeting on the trails that is being held at the Murillo Town Complex (4569 Oliver Rd) tomorrow from 4-8pm as the architects have some questions for me.

Last tracks of the PAD&W Railway, Rosslyn, ON.

Now because of the meeting and the recent mild weather we have been experiencing, I decided to take a little

drive yesterday (though the warm temps seemed to have disappeared). The real motivator however was the 74th anniversary of the last train run on the railway. On March 24, 1938 engineers discovered that several bridges near Hymers had been weakened by high water on the Whitefish River. No passenger trains would ever travel the rails after that day. Faced with increasing competition from buses and trucks, CN had lost $79,000 over the two previous years. The line was probably in poor shape due to years of neglect so the decision was made to abandon it in October. The rails were taken up the next year.

Tracks and switch, Rosslyn, ON.

I drove to Twin City Crossroads, which is just east of the village of Rosslyn. Here can be found the last remaining tracks of the railway. They are not the original steel (dated 1903), as they were replaced when Canadian Northern took over in 1899. However, they are the closest one can come to the old railway. After photographing the tracks, I drove further west, past Rosslyn to the site of the old Brick Plant. More tracks can be found here, along with a switch that allowed rail cars onto the factory spur. From there the rail bed continues west, just south of Rosslyn Road until you reach the intersection of Fraser Rd, at which point the road becomes Harstone Drive and sits directly atop the grade. I went about 2km west, to where there was a spur that ran to the Stanley Ballast Pit. I think I found the spur, but it was too wet and cool to do any real exploration.

Anyway, until next week…

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Family Day 2012

20 Feb

Today here in Ontario is Family Day and it was the perfect day to spend with the family. I arrived home from the clinic in Minneapolis last night and since I didn’t see my wife and the boys for four days, I really wanted to spend some time with them.

If you read my previous mini-blog, you’ll know that I was having a great time at the clinic. We did have a nice dinner on Saturday at the Fire Lake Grill and an awesome evening. All in all, our fourth trip the Glazier Clinic was another great experience. The speakers and the information they presented were very beneficial; definitely hopeful that we can get back in a few years. Kudos to my wife Jo-Anne for looking after all the parenting while I was away; I’m a lucky guy.

Now getting back to Family Day, it was an equally great day. After returning the rental van this morning, I

Loch Lomond, Nor'wester Mountains

decided that a nice hike up the mountain would counteract a relatively unhealthy and inactive weekend. My wife is not really the outdoorsy type, but she decided to join the men in her life on our little jaunt. Well, the “little” jaunt actually became a 9.1k, 1300 foot ascent marathon, but who’s counting? We took another trail that led us close to Loch Lomond and my legs are absolutely rejoicing at that decision. Ah, you only live once right?

Tomorrow it’s back to the grind. Another short week; not only because of the holiday today, but I have a meeting on Friday that will take me out of the classroom yet again. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to get back to the article this week after all of the distractions of the last week. That being said, I better do it before Saturday, since our basement floor finally arrived last weekend and I’ll be trying my hand at laminate installation for the first time. I’d really like to have a rough draft done before the March break since we are heading down to the states and maybe I’ll have a chance to discuss it with my writing partner Lee.

Speaking of the railway, I likewise did not get much of anything done last week. There was a little research here and there, but no great discoveries. I did take a few minutes to do some filing today, and while doing so I came to the realization that I may have my work cut out for me on my trip to Ottawa. I thought that I should probe the files of the Canadian Northern Railway, which might be a huge undertaking. Is 6 days enough?

Anyway, I’m going to sign off for this week since this is already my second go around. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to report on railway matters next week. Until then…

 
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Posted by on February 20, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Of mountains and railways…

16 Jan

So, what’s with the title Dave? Well, it’s sort of a play on the Steinbeck novel “Of Mice and Men,” which I haven’t read by the way. I don’t really read much outside of history (go figure), mostly because I don’t have time to with all the other stuff I need to read. Anyway, I was stuck for a title and that just popped into my head. I think it’s appropriate though; just as Of Mice and Men was based on Steinbeck’s experiences, this blog was talks about my past week. So, there is a decent explanation!

Well, since I have now opened the proverbial can of worms, I guess I should elaborate on the events of the past seven days. It did take me a few days to get back in the swing of things after returning to work, and I was certainly feeling drained by Friday. I was struggling to clear up that backlog of marking, which by the way I’m still not all the way through (I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though). Saturday was our second cross-country ski lesson, which was a bit more active than the first. The kids got to experience going down a hill, and so did Dad! However, going back up the hill was interesting, especially since I didn’t have poles to help me out. My glutes were feeling it a bit later that day.

Sunday afternoon found me and boys back on the trail up the mountain, determined to surpass last week’s distance. So we headed up another level on the mountain, which unfortunately has some tough sections. One area, which is too rough and narrow for snowmobiles (most of the trails are used by both hikers and snowmobilers), includes a 250 foot vertical rise in 1100 feet. That’s a thigh-crushing, hamstring-tightening, lung-popping 23% grade…how’s that for a description! Trying to get two little boys up that is not easy, nor is the fact that I could stand to lose 10 pounds and am somewhat out of shape. However, the view makes it all worth it, as does the time I get to spend with my sons. I really hope they grow up to appreciate and enjoy the outdoors as much as I do. I’m already mentally planning where I’d like to take them on my personal day in June…Leeblain comes to mind 🙂

As for railway related events, I did not get to the article as I expected to (I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope). However, there were some interesting developments. On Wednesday I received an email from the Chik-Wauk Museum, which is located at the end of the Gunflint Trail (just across the border in northeastern Minnesota in case anyone is wondering). They wanted to know if I was interested in doing a presentation there at some point in the summer; of course I said “yes.” It’s been quite a few years since I done a public lecture, probably dating back to 2000. In a four-year span I gave a series of presentations on the railway (twice), mining and logging at the Paipoonge Museum (now known as the Duke Hunt Museum). There is no date yet, but hopefully I will know by the end of March. I must say that I’m excited; it love to talk about the railway and I know there will be a receptive audience. I also relish the opportunity to bring a little Canadiana to our neighbours to the south and describe how closely related our histories often are.

My second development was another contact in the ongoing Alexander McEwen saga. I received an email from a kind lady across the pond in Britain, who as it turns out is the great-granddaughter of McEwen’s mistress. Wow, quite the interesting tidbit! While she was not able to offer any additional information, it is another piece of the puzzle and might help me get to my goal of finding a picture of him.

Digging through my files for his information led me to a few other things on the weekend. First I continued with my article filing that I mentioned in my previous post, which unfortunately I did not get entirely through (damn US railroads!). From that I spun into looking at the book chapters and a new chapter I added regarding the sale of the railway in 1898-99. As I looked at the file, I really wished I could get to Toronto sometime in the near future. There is a file at the Archives of Ontario on the sale of the railway that has some really important information (I looked at it in 1999, but I need a second go-around). In the meantime I think I will email the archives at CIBC to see if they have any documents related to the money loaned to the railway in 1890 and how it factored into the sale. Wow, I have some work to do, never mind working on the article!

Until next week…

 
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Posted by on January 16, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Ugh, back to work!

09 Jan

That pretty much says it all…the vacation is over! Two weeks flies by quick, though I shouldn’t complain since many other people don’t get time off over Christmas. It is tough to go back though; the first couple days are always exhausting. I never sleep well on the last night which leaves me half-asleep and since I don’t drink coffee (I can’t stand the taste or smell of it), it makes for an interesting experience. You really need every ounce of energy since teaching can be mentally challenging, so I did flub a lot of things in my sleep-induced stupor.

The only drawback of my holiday was the pile of marking that I procrastinated about and only managed to get through a small amount of. Sort of makes me wonder how beneficial the two weeks off really is, though the stress relief is very necessary. The visit to Duluth was great, and I was able to do a few other things as well. This year my wife and I signed the boys up for cross-country skiing. I have not cross-country skied since I was 11 or 12, so it’s an interesting experience. We bought some used equipment at the fall ski-swap and filled in the missing pieces after Christmas. Saturday was the first lesson at Kamview and I didn’t even get into my skis as I spent my time keeping the boys on their feet. I think they are enjoying it, which is great since it’s a terrific family activity. I also need to exercise so I can lose a few pounds!

Speaking of winter activities, I was also able to make my first hike up the mountain last week. I live close to the Nor’Wester Mountains and there are many trails on the mountains that can be accessed from the end of my street. Three years ago I began taking my oldest son Ethan up the mountain on the toboggan as a way to exercise and have some father-son time. I’ve been doing it every winter since, however now I also have my youngest Noah as well, which makes pulling a nearly 100 pound sled very interesting (Ethan walks the hills). We did 5k, not bad for the first time out; maybe this week we’ll push it up to 6 or 7k.

On the railway front, things have been progressing, albeit slowly. I did make it to the library last week to get a few articles that I needed and boy have things changed since the last time I did that. Well, I guess it’s been about 14 years since I’ve looked at a roll of microfilm so I guess it can be expected. Now things have moved into the digital age with computer-run scanners that can save images to .pdf. Too bad I didn’t bring a flash drive! I’ll have to remember that for the next time. At some point in the future I’m going to have to spend some time going through newspapers again, since I need to find articles from roughly 1900 to 1938. To compound things, since this town used to be two cities, there are two newspapers worth to look through!

I spent some time at home printing out articles I had saved and neglected to make hard copies for my files, and subsequently attempting the file them with varying degrees of success (there’s still a bunch in the “to be filed” stack). I also decided to take my plan to Facebook/Tweet important events about the railway to the next level. I set up a Google Calendar where I can input dates (there is a page on this site as well); all I need to is figure out how to post those dates automatically, which is proving to be a bit of a chore. Stymied by technology!

So I’m hoping by the end of the week to resume writing the article, though that is contingent on me clearing up that backlog of marking. Maybe by next week’s ramble I’ll have some news to report.

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2012 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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The Polar Express meets LMFAO

12 Dec

What does a children’s book about a train that takes kids to the North Pole on Christmas have to do with an electro pop band from California? Well, nothing really. Talk about two completely unrelated topics; however, they are the things that are currently on my mind. Surely you jest Dave! No, I haven’t started reading kids books on a whim, nor have I changed my musical tastes (LMFAO is not at the top of my playlist on my Ipod or Blackberry). I’ll explain.

The football highlight video finally made it on to the web (for all of an hour) after I made a few tweaks this weekend that were wholeheartedly embraced by the players. This year, the team (or at least the offensive pretty boys…can you tell I coach defence?) adopted the LMFAO song “Sexy and I Know It” as their motto. They even named our offensive spread package after a line in the song, “Wiggle Wiggle.” So, at the behest of the coaches, I added this song to the end of the video. The words have been stuck in my head since. Unfortunately all my efforts have come to naught; when I uploaded the video, the audio was disabled because of a copyright issue. So I deleted it and I’m back to the drawingboard looking for new music.

As for the Polar Express, I’ve been thinking a lot about one of the images in the book that I saw while I was reading it to my son Ethan one night. The picture was of the train, pulled by a steam engine, passing through a forest of conifers as it picks up children on its way to the North Pole. It was snowing and dark, and it had an almost mystical sense to it. That image made me think of the railway, and something I seldom envisioned. Most of my exploration of the PD has taken place in the summer, mostly because it makes it a lot more difficult to see things with snow on the ground. I’ve often found myself picturing what it would have looked like in the area that I am exploring when the trains were still running. The image from the book made me think of a forested and remote place, and my mind was immediately drawn to the boundary waters of North and Gunflint Lakes. I visualized a train, similar to the one in the book, gliding along the snow-covered tracks in those early years (1893-94ish) in what was a very lonely, but probably beautiful and breathtaking place. It must have been an amazing sight and I would have loved to see that!

Speaking of the railway, things having been plugging along. The research continues unabated, though nothing substantive in the last few days. Last week my investigation on Alexander McEwen (yes, apparently this is the spelling of his name) continued. I did find some bio material of his life in a June 1891 obituary, but I’m amazed that there is not more information out there on a man who is supposed to have been such a big investor. I posted on Ancestry looking for help, which netted the following response; “type Alexander McEwen 1831-1891 photographs into Google and you’ll get tons of hits.” Ah, thanks, but I posted because I couldn’t find anything on the net! Well, hopefully my plea turns up something.

As for the article, I’ve started clicking a few keys;  I’m officially up to a whopping 128 words! I must say it was a bit of a struggle. I guess I need to spend some time refining my outline to make it more specific. Maybe that will help me focus my thoughts since I have little wiggle room with the word count. It’s really tough trying to figure out what I NEED to include and what I can leave out. Makes for some tough decisions. Hopefully I’ll have time this week to write a bit more.

 
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Posted by on December 12, 2011 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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Christmas Trees, Grey Cup, Football Highlights and Pierre Berton

29 Nov

So I spent a very interesting Sunday. After cleaning up some of the snow that fell on Saturday, it was that time of the year to put up the Christmas decorations. Needless to say my boys Ethan and Noah were ecstatic, probably more so about the approach of the season that about the tree(s) coming out. Had I had more time, I would have done my part which is to put up the lights outside. Unfortunately some of my talents were needed inside and I also had plans for later in the day.

The last Sunday in November is traditionally a football day here in Canada as it is playing of the Grey Cup. For those of you outside Canada, football here means the gridiron (not soccer) and the Grey Cup is the Superbowl of the Canadian Football League. This year was the 99th installment of this great tradition and since 1992 my good friend Dave (yes, another Dave; there are three of us!) has hosted a Grey Cup party. Unfortunately my Eskimos were not in the big game, but it is a good excuse to get together with the guys (btw, BC beat Winnipeg 34-23).

Speaking of football, much of my time over the last few days has been devoted to putting together a highlight video of our past season. I use this video for recruiting in the off-season and for promoting our program. I know the kids also love to watch the video; keep an eye out for it in the next week or so on YouTube.

My railway work over the past few days has consisted of a mixed bag of things. In preparation for writing the article, I pulled some material from my files regarding the need for railways in Canada and how it became part of our national identity. I also busted out my copy of Pierre Berton’s The National Dream as it had some great stuff about Canada’s enchantment with railways.

I’ve also spent some time doing a little light research on the net. It is very interesting how you can find yourself bouncing around from subject to subject as you get ideas or some other sort of inspiration. I found myself on Saturday night looking up some material on John Paulson; I was able to find a few good tidbits. First, Paulson was involved in another railway project before his Paulson Mine days called the Lake Superior, Willmar and Dakota Railway (I have no idea if it was ever built). My other interesting development was stumbling upon a website for the Eagle Lake Lutheran Church, where Paulson’s brother Ole was pastor for 11 years. The site talks about how many parishioners moved to the Willmar area from Carver County after the Civil War.

Yesterday I found myself vainly trying to find information about the establishment of the customs house at Leeblain. At the same time this city was being abandoned (trains stopped running to Gunflint in 1903), the Pigeon River Lumber Company was starting its operations at the east end of Gunflint Lake. They built a short logging railroad called the Gunflint and Lake Superior and both US and Canadian governments established customs houses in the area. The office on the Canadian side became know as Leeblain (even though it was several miles away from the original location). It was opened in July 1903 and closed in April 1909 (it was moved to North Lake). Unfortunately I could only find a short excerpt on the net; I’ll need to try to get a copy of the Acts of Parliament for 1909.

There was one curious and unexpected revelation that came from my digging yesterday. I had heard stories that there was a gold exploration north of Leeblain during the 1890’s; I believe it was Justine Kerfoot who first told me about this. I found a report from the Ontario Bureau of Mines that mentions this small development. Maybe at some point I will have to try to locate this shaft, but given its location it might be quite the undertaking. I’ll be sure to write about the mine if I ever get there.

 
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Posted by on November 29, 2011 in Hiking, Miscellaneous, Research, Writing

 

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