NIPIGON SNOW FALLS OF THE PAST

PHOTOS BY E.C.EVERETT
Nipigon Museum Archives

Not sure the date on these.

With the CPR Water Tower , 1969.

50,000 PAGEVIEWS SINCE AUGUST 2011

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We started the year 2014 at 27,555 Pageviews .

A very big thank you to all the old and new readers from across the globe.

BUZZ LEIN'S - PULP PIONEERS OF RED ROCK

In place of earlier link that didn't work.

Written by L.M. (Buzz) Lein February 25, 1974

Thirty-eight years ago (1936) a bleached kraft mill took shape and substance on the northwest shore of Nipigon Bay on Lake Superior. Closed down by financial problems before it could get rolling in 1938, it just sat there until the Brompton Pulp and Paper Company acquired the property in 1942, and started to turn out kraft paper on a converted newsprint machine some two years later.

During the early 1950's, the St. Lawrence Corporation became the operating company and so remained for about ten years.

In 1961, St. Lawrence Corporation merged with Dominion Tar & Chemical and Domtar Limited began its career on the north shore of Lake Superior.

From its start-up early in 1944 and through 1951, statistics are (un)fortunately scarce, but during this period the mill was producing about 250 tons of brown paper per day, six days a week. All the wood required was delivered in log form, nearly all by water during spring and summer. Some 130,000 cords of softwood were consumed yearly. The softwood was about 70% spruce and 30% jackpine.

During 1952 - 53, there was a milestone expansion. A new kraft paper machine was installed and the old one put back into newsprint service. In addition, facilities were added that would permit, for the first time, the use of poplar to make a pulp.

1953 also saw the arrival of the first consignment of wood chips. These were purchased from Great Lakes Lumber & Shipping in Thunder Bay and amounted to about 4,800 tons for the year. 1953 was the year for another first - 6 cords of poplar purchased from John Dampier of Nipigon and water delivered to the mill at Red Rock.

When the new kraft machine went into action in 1954 and with the newsprint machine running, production of paper jumped from 87,000 tons to 153,000 tons in 1955.  The big increase was in newsprint where from start-up production of 11,000 tons in 1954 it ballooned to 50,000 tons in 1955.  The delivery of wood to Red Rock followed the paper production pattern, From 115,000 cords in 1954, the jump was to 163,000 cords in 1955.

By this time the paper production pattern and wood delivery program was wet.  Over the following six years, not much change was evident. Kraft paper production was about 100,000 tons a year, newsprint 56,000 tons while into this was going about 224,000 cords a year of spruce, balsam, jackpine and poplar.  Spruce and balsam still made up 70% of the material with jackpine forming nearly all of the rest. The percent of poplar was quite small in relation.

In 1962, Domtar's mill began operating on a seven-day week and is still doing this in 1974. This immediately created more jobs, provided increased security for a paper based economy and increased yearly production by about 18,000 tons of paper. By year end 1963, annual paper production was now 195,000 tons per year.

More was to come. In 1964, the capacity of the sulphate mill was increased and major changes were made in the paper machines.  Production of paper was up again by 15,000 tons to 210,000 tons yearly.

Why sawmills and paper mills need each other

A change is noticed in the type of material from which the paper was being made. From a timid beginning with 4,800 tons of chips in 1954, ten years later in 1964, the tonnage of chips had worked its way up to 80,000 tons.  At this period, softwood chips were sawmill residue and it is to Domtar's credit that their people were willing and able to pioneer a process then regarded as daring in wood fibre use. The beneficial economic affect on the distant saw mill producers of chips may well have been incalculable because chips were their cash crop at a time when cash was scarce.

A major mill improvement program was again announced in 1969. This time, the emphasis was on pollution abatement with many in-plant improvements.

1969 saw the hesitant beginning of a new process to use another type of sawmill residue in the making of pulp. 133 oven dry tons of sawdust were purchased. This was in addition to the 165,000 tons of chips, 197,000  O.D.T. of limit wood and 7,800 O.D.T. of poplar chips that were used to produce 253,000 tons of paper.

By 1970, with the construction program on the go, millions were spent on a primary effluent treatment plant, revised wood handling facilities to eliminate the river drive of pulpwood to the mill, and to set up facilities to utilize some 100,000 tons of sawdust per year.

The effect of the 1970-72 improvements were best evident by the production for the year 1973 when kraft paper production was up to 210,000 tons; newsprint to 68,000 tons for a total of 278,000, the most paper Domtar's mill at Red Rock has ever produced.

And, to do this, it required 146,000 O.D.T. of roundwood ( 8 foot logs from Domtar limits), 195,000 O.D.T. of chips from out-lying sawmills, 94,000 O.D.T. of sawdust from far away sawmills, and 21,500 O.D.T. of poplar chips from two area plywood mills.

What stability of community looked like.

In the manufacture of paper, one does not progress by maintaining the status quo.  Already plans are being made for increased production that will go along with more efficient use of available fibre, mill operations that will be in harmony with the environment and processes that will foster the stability that has been in the area ever since that first mill started up on the shores of Nipigon Bay some thirty odd years ago.

Today we do not have stability

(2012 the mill sits dormant., gutted by salvage, but Red Rock still has hope.)

A POSSIBLE FUTURE THAT NEVER HAPPENED

Editorial

From: The Evening News-Chronicle, Port Arthur, Ontario

April 24, 1942   Page 4

Intimation has been given recently that an important war industry is to be located in Manitoba.

Since this war began (the) attitude of The News-Chronicle generally has been that  there should be no interference with or pressure of any kind used on government authorities  to the end that particular areas benefit by necessary war industry but, in this case, it does look as if the government might find it more profitable to consider the Nipigon area for its new enterprise than the proposed site in Manitoba.

The Winnipeg Free press, discussing the plans for what it describes as a $100,000,000 war plant, admits that there are difficulties with regard to power supply to be overcome in the Province.  It says “ To get the plant Winnipeg has to show that it can supply a minimum of 80,000 horse power of electrical energy.  This Winnipeg cannot do at the present .”

The Winnipeg paper then goes on to discuss the alternatives, describing the Seven Sisters development as one of the most practicable.  But even there, according to the same authority, it would be necessary to spend $5,000,000 blasting out rock.  The Free Press says “If many thousands  of tons of rock were removed the generating capacity of the Seven Sisters plant could be increased by 50,000 horse power without the installation of additional equipment.  Neither the City Hydro nor the Winnipeg Electric Company now has funds available to finance these undertakings.  It is assumed that if, as and when  the government decides to build in Winnipeg it will arrange to help finance the power plant extensions.”

The Nipigon power area, which includes Port Arthur, could present a much more attractive picture than that.  An additional 100,000 horse power could be developed on the Nipigon River with much less expenditure than apparently necessary in Manitoba.  It would not be necessary to blast out $5,000,000 of rock for a dam at available and now unused falls.  Only a fraction of that blasting would be necessary for the building of a dam and the remainder could be used for installation of equipment,  so that the power seems much more available on the Nipigon.

Furthermore, much of the raw material for the plant proposed in Manitoba is apparently to be brought into the country. Nipigon or the Port Arthur area because of their harbors could offer shipping attractions which are not available in Manitoba.

Furthermore, if the plan is to scatter the essential industries Nipigon still has it attractions.

WORDS TO " ROCK PAINTING 2"

In memory of Selwyn Dewdney (1909 – 1979), artist, teacher, novelist, psychiatric therapist, and Canada’s foremost researcher of Indian Rock Art. He grew up in Northwestern Ontario where he saw his first pictograph and over his lifetime he recorded hundreds more for the National Museums of Canada, Glenbow Foundation, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Quetico Foundation.

Selwyn wrote more than 20 books and articles on Indian art including Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes with Kenneth Kidd and Sacred Scroll of the Southern Ojibway in collaboration with James Red Sky of Shoal Lake. A graduate of the University of Toronto, he was Research Associate in the office of the Chief Archaeologist, Royal Ontario Museum.

His brilliant achievements made him Canada’s “father of rock art research”.

 

The following words go with the rock paintings of the previous Posts. Archaeology of Northwestern Ontario  2 Indian Rock Paintings and Carvings.

Page 4

The hundreds of Indian rock art sites adorning our cliffs and rock slopes supply elements of reverence and mystery to the Northwestern Region’s beautiful lakes.

The paintings, or “pictographs”, are figures in bright red pigment made from mineral haematite 9red ochre) and possibly a grease and glue from sturgeon fish.  They are nearly always found on spectacular, vertical, cliff faces at the water’s edge.

The carvings, or “petroglyphs”, are figures much like the painted ones but incised with a sharp tool or pecked with a blunt object onto smooth rock slopes along the shoreline.  In our region they have been found only on Lake of the Woods and may be related to the petroglyph sites in northern Minnesota.

WHO WERE THE ARTISTS?

The Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan was populated as early as A.D. 1000 by the Algonkian-speaking ancestors of the modern Cree and Ojibway people. Many of the figures on the rock paintings and carvings are similar to those on nineteenth and twentieth century Ojibway birch bark scrolls.

HOW OLD ARE THEY?

We have not discovered techniques to date the sites. We can only guess at their age from the objects depicted. Petroglyph sites in northern Minnesota have been dated to as early as 3,000 B.C. because they depict atlatls, or spear throwers, which were used during the Archaic period (about 3,000 B.C. to 200 B. C. ). Some of the Lake of the Woods petroglyphs may date to that period, although others have been incised with modern metal instruments. The rock paintings may date to as early as A.D. 1000 – that is, the beginning of the period recognizably ancestral to the modern Cree and Ojibway – but we know that some are historic because they depict European-introduced items such as the horse and rifle.

Page 5

WHY WERE THEY PAINTED?

A Manitoba researcher was told the following story by Crees at Oxford House, a tale that gives us some notion as to why the paintings were done:

Page 7

A woman of Oxford House Band was very sick.  The woman’s family asked an old man named Mistoos Muskego to come and cure her of her illness.  The old man tried again and again to cure the woman but nothing seemed to work.  Finally the old man said that there was only one hope left and that was to go and ask the men who lived in the rock if they could give him the powerful medicine needed to cure the woman.  The old man left in his canoe and paddled to where he knew they dwelt.  (This spot is today a granite rock face rising sharply upwards from the Semple River even as it was in Mistoos’ day.)  The old man was very powerful and used his power to enter the rock, into the home of the men who lived there.  The old man talked for a long time with the men who lived in the rock and asked for the medicine that would cure the woman, and in the end he was given the medicine that he requested.  The old man then left the rock and paddled back to the home of the woman who was ill.  The medicine of the men who lived in the rock was given to the woman who was ill.   This medicine cured the woman.  The old man said that all should remember it was the men who lived in the rocks who were powerful and could give medicine to a powerful old man.  The old man then made a paint and asked all the people to come with him to the mome of the men who lived in the rocks.  The old man and the people then paddled  their canoes up to the rock ledge by the water.  He told the assembled people how he had  received the medicine.  He then said that no one should forget the men who lived in the rock and that he would draw a painting of them. (He then drew a painting about two feet high, stick-figured with lines running from the head giving a “rabbit-eared” look.)  The people now would remember where the men who lived in the rock lived and what they looked  like, and all returned home.

Clint Wheeler, CRARA Newsletter (Manitoba Chapter) 1:4

Page 8

The man who told the researcher the story had heard it from his grandmother, and her grandmother had been present, as a little girl, at the painting.

The above story links the painting to Cree Medicine and similar paintings may be an element also of Ojibway Medicine. Researchers have noted distinct similarities between the painted figures and the forms on birch bark scrolls of the Ojibway Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society.

WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

Many of the figures are executed in such an abstract fashion that it is difficult to recognize them.  Some are distinguishable as bear, moose, bison, etc., but some are simply generalized animal or human figures.  The abstract and symbolic figures makes interpretation difficult without access to the original artists. Indeed, the artists may have preferred abstractions so that only they knew what the paintings meant.

We can see that on many paintings there are groups of figures probably telling a story.  The Algonkian concept of spatial organization is not a left-to-right progression as in writing but a generalized grouping of forms as in a picture.  The figures, if they were meant to be used in the same manner as those on the birch bark scrolls, were meant simply as memory aids for the shaman-artist to recall a story – historical or mythological or both – related to the area where the painting was done.  The above recollection from Oxford House describes such a situation.

It is likely that each site has not one but several meanings depending on the audience.  Ojibway writer Basil Johnston has pointed out that Ojibway stories are not to be interpreted literally but have four depths of meaning: enjoyment, moral teaching, philosophic, and metaphysical.  Readers draw their own  inferences according to their knowledge and abilities.  The same is likely true of the rock art sites.

Page 9

Some figures may be spirits – the upraised arms of the human figures denote the spiritual quality perhaps of Maymaygwayshi, or Rock Medicine Men, who live in the cliffs and are known to steal fish from nets and bother Indians canoeing by the site, but they also have positive qualities as the Oxford House story relates.

Page 10

The animal figures are probably not only the ephemeral catch of the hunt but also the ethereal spirits of the Species – the Spirit Bear, the Spirit Wolf, etc. , who allow the Indians to kill animals for food and who have prominent roles in the Midewiwin both as spirit guardians and guides but sometimes as threats, depending on their positive or negative roles.

HOW SHOULD THE SITES BE TREATED?

The Indian rock art sites are considered by many Cree and Ojibway to be sacred and offerings are still left for the spirits at many sites in the Northwestern Region. The pictographs and petroglyphs are also valuable archaeological records of past Indian Cultures and therefore, under The Ontario Heritage Act, 1974, it is illegal to deface a rock art site, under penalty of up to $5,000 and/or up to two years in jail.

The sites should be treated with care and respect. DO NOT TOUCH THE ROCK PAINTINGS. Human perspiration can break down the bond between rock and paint. Do not use an abrasive such as sand, in the rock carvings to get a clear outline. The sand will eventually wear away the rock and destroy the carving.

TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY  (pre-digital)

1)      Use ASA 64 film for colour slides or prints.

2)      For pictographs, try for a slightly overcast day: one that is bright, but not sunny. Sun tends to produce a glare on the rock face and too much shade produces pictures that are too dark with unnatural purplish tints in the pigment.

3)      “Bracket” the f-stop setting on the camera. If your light metre calls for an f-stop of 8, take shots also at 5.6 and at 11 to make sure you get a good picture.

4)      For petroglyphs, visit the sites either early in the morning or late in the afternoon to get slanted sunlight on the rock slope that creates deep shadows in the figures and makes them visible.  Overhead sun blots out the figures. Page 11

 

Page 12

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Canadian Rock Art Research Associates (CRARA), founded by the late Selwyn Dewdney, is a group of amateur researchers and professional archaeologists dedicated to the preservation of Canada’s Indian rock paintings and carvings and to the dissemination of information on the subject.

Department of Anthropology and Archaeology

University of Saskatchewan,

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

S7N 0W0

 

The Regional Archaeologist’s Office, Northwestern Region, Historical  Planning and Research Branch, Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation, has recorded many of the rock art sites of the region

207 First Street South

Box 2880

Kenora, Ontario

P9N 3K8

 

FOR FURTHER READING

Dewdney, Selwyn, Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes.  University of Toronto Press

Dewdney, Selwyn. Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway.  University of Toronto Press.

Studies in West Patricia Archaeology Nos. 1 and 2.  Edited by C.S. Paddy Reid. Toronto: Historical Planning and Research Branch, Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation. (Archaeology Research Report series.)

 

Page 34

HERITAGE CONSERVATION

Archaeological sites are fragile heritage resources containing society’s only source of information about most of its past.  Broken bits of pottery and arrowheads are more than interesting curios – they are important fragments  of scientific evidence.  Urban development, highway construction, and thoughtless artifact collectors are destroying this evidence at an alarming rate.

 

It is the responsibility of the Historical Planning and Research Branch, Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation, to identify and preserve archaeological and historical resources.  This aim can be achieved only with the help and support of all citizens of the Province. For further information please contact the Regional Archaeologist in your area.

continuing INDIAN ROCK PAINTINGS 2

BLOODVEIN RIVER  (detail)
0  to 10 cm

JACKFISH LAKE NEAR RAINY LAKE

JACKFISH LAKE NEAR RAINY LAKE

CUTTLE LAKE LARGE SITE NEAR RAINY LAKE
0  TO 2CM
2m 3cm above rock ledge

CROWROCK INLET, RAINY LAKE
TOP   0  TO 2cm
10m  50cm W
38cm N
BOTTOM  0  to 2cm
10 m 50cm W
15 cm N

The booklet list Petroglyphs of Sunset Channel, Lake of the Woods and another site near Zigzag Island , Lake of the Woods. No way could I scan these photos as they were all reddish on reddish.

RED LAKE
0  to 15cm

BERENS RIVER
0  to 5cm

BERENS RIVER
0  to 5cm

PUKAMO ISLAND, RAINY LAKE
0  to 5cm
320 cm above water level June 24, 1979

CROWROCK INLET,  RAINY LAKE
Datum: 86cm above water level, August 21, 1979.
0 to 2cm

CROWROCK INLET, RAINY LAKE
0 to 2cm
8m  39cm W
46cm N
 

CUTTLE LAKE SMALL SITE NEAR RAINY LAKE
0  to 2cm

PICTURE ROCK ISLAND, LAKE OF THE WOODS
0  to 10cm

PICTURE ROCK ISLAND, LAKE OF THE WOODS
0  TO 10cm

PICTURE ROCK ISLAND, LAKE OF THE WOODS
0 to 10 cm

DEER LAKE

INDIAN ROCK PAINTINGS 2

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
2
INDIAN ROCK PAINTINS AND CARVINGS
MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND RECREACTION HISTORICAL PLANNING BRANCH
C. 1980
Hon. Reuben C. Baetz   Minister
Dr. Douglas Wright   Deputy Minister
ISBN 0-7743-5583-2

The Cuttle Lake Large Site Near Rainy Lake

Crowrock Inlet, Rainy Lake - A "Rock Medicine Man?"
 

Annie Island, Lake of the Woods

0 to 25cm
 

Pineneedle Lake
0  to 15 cm

Blindfold Lake
0  to 10 cm

Bloodvein River
0  to 50 cm
I will continue the rock art in the next post.