Nipigon Historical Museum 1989 Room by Room

 Four rooms...the Kitchen Room; Bottle Room; Rock Room and the Nepigon Nipigon Room as they were in 1989 before the fire of Feb 11 1990

The high chair from Bottle room after the fire. Cleaned up pretty good, too.

MRS. INGET ,,,Dairy in Nipigon

 

NIPIGON HISTORICAL MUSEUM JANUARY 30/06

 

MRS. INGET

Resident of Red Rock/Highway 17

 

Husband: Oliver Inget

Children: Wayne, Shirley, Diana, Billy

Husband’s Parents: Magnus and Hanna Inget

 

My husband’s parents immigrated from Finland.  Magnus came to the States first and then they homesteaded here in Red Rock in 1921.  He sent for Hanna in Finland and then they were married in Thunder Bay.  They homesteaded here and they’ve had the farm here ever since.  On their honeymoon Magnus cut wood for Mr. Arolla’s Saw Mill in Hurkett and Hanna cooked there.  They also worked for Oivo Paju’s dad who had a logging business too.  Magnus passed away in 1954 and Hanna died in 1962.  Hanna worked as a maid for Magnus’ family in Finland.  When he homesteaded here he sent for her and they were married.  Magnus and Hanna started a farm here at the homestead and they sold milk to Mr. Ruoho in Nipigon.  We bought the farm from Hanna when Magnus died and we took over and sold to Ruoho’s and then Palm Dairies who bought Ruoho’s out.  We would send the milk to Thunder Bay, we would drive it to Dorion and then a truck would pick it up from Dorion, We increased the cows and started to sell more milk eventually. 

We quit farming in 1963 completely in 1963.  I came to the homestead in 1946 and have been here ever since.  We sold our older home to our son Billy and in 1986 we moved in to our house that we built here on the property. 

 

There was a lumber company in behind our property called Newago Lumber, they used to cut pulpwood there and they shipped it through the creek, they did a water drive there.  In 1940 there was a fire behind our homestead and so the Newago Co.  Was picking up all the burnt wood.  My husband worked for them as a cook, camp 11 was the name of it.  He was a kid when he started in the bush camps.  He was 14 when he quit school to go to work.  He worked for the bush camps until he joined the Air Force in World War II.  We got married in 1946 and he was discharged in March and he was in the war for four years and was discharged in march 1950.  He was 18 when he joined because at that time they were supposed to get called in but he didn’t want to get called into the army so he decided to join the Air Force to avoid the Army.  Alec Fraser was with my husband in the war and there was someone with them who had written a book on what happened to them there. 

 

I am Ukranian and I learned a little bit of Finn from Mrs. Inget and she couldn’t speak a word of English.  So we taught each other what we could and we got by pretty good.  When I listen to someone speaking Finn, I can pick out a little bit here and there but I don’t understand it the way I used to.  Most of the people that Oliver and I knew are gone now and there aren’t too many Finnish people around anymore.  They used to have May Day parade in Nipigon before, it was a celebration for peace and the Finnish people would gather for it and they had it in Finnland too.  I think they still celebrate it in Thunder Bay.

Nipigon Historical Museum room by roomThe Main Room

Nipigon Historical Museum 1990 before the fire of Feb 11 1990  Views of the Main Room 

LIMESTONE LAKE AREA MULTI USE

 

Limestone Lake Area – Multiple Uses

By: G.T. Marek, Management Forester

Weekly Report  March 4^th, 1970 

District of Geraldton, Ontario Department of Lands and Forests

Many people from the Nipigon-Red Rock area are familiar with Limestone Lake.  This small spring fed lake is in the centre of an unique 45 square mile territory located a few miles north east of Nipigon, between Jackfish River and Highway 11.  Large grassy meadows on lower land alternate with brushy rolling hills in generally open country. Cedar Mountain – highest point in this 30,000 acres of “God’s Country” – presents an excellent and picturesque view of the Orient Bay rocky cliffs to the north and Kama Bay on Lake Superior to the south.

While the rest of our bush country remained relatively unchanged many changes occurred at Limestone Lake in the past forty years.  Some old timers still remember logging for large white spruce which took place there for many years before the Second World War. It was started by these people that timber cut at the time was the best and biggest in Thunder Bay District. One old lumber jack put it this way, “I was given a strip to cut and I stayed in it and kept cutting for a whole year”.  Then fire swept through the cut-over in the very dry year of 1940, and the area was burned again in 1948.  After these fires the grassy and bushy land lay barren.

In the fall of 1960 the first steps to reforest these very productive sites were undertaken by the Department of Lands and Forests, and a plantation of 600,000 trees was established.  The only access to the area was the old Limestone Lake Road over Cedar Mountain which presented some difficulties but was pressed into use.  After two years of observing the first planting, a second plantation was established in the fall of 1962, and it became obvious at that time that a new man-made forest of white and black spruce could be established without difficulty.  After 11 miles of all-weather road were built during 1963-64 large scale reforestation was undertaken, a permanent camp established, and at this time over 12 million trees have been planted in an area of approximately twenty square miles.   This represents a investment of more than half a million dollars.  The planting, which is still incomplete, was successful and some exceptional growth of spruce can be seen.

Through intensive management of the total area of 15,000 acres, we hope to grow approximately one million cords of wood in the next 50 to 60 years for our industry. (ed. It is now 2018 at this printing…so that time is come.) Of course the establishment and growth of these trees is not our only responsibility.  Consideration must be given to fish, wildlife, recreation, etcetera, and all aspects of multiple use must be made compatible and must be of benefit to all of us.

While composing this, the writer asked his seven year old daughter to write down what she likes to do at Limestone Lake.

Based on the experience of family outings there, I quote: - “What I like to do at Limestone Lake.  I like to see the beaver house and dam.  I like to see the moose run.   I like to pick berries and eat them all.  I like to see the geese fly.  I like to have picnics at the lake.  I like to see the rabbits run too.  I like to see the butterflys fly.  I like to see the deer eat.  I like to see the birds fly over our head.  I would like to go swimming at Limestone Lake”.

Further elaboration on the subject is not needed after a statement of this kind.

One aspect which must be mentioned in conclusion is the still ever present danger of fire.  Fire in the dry grass in Spring is always a danger to the very young plantations.  Therefore, until they grow, choke out and eliminate the grass, special attention must be afforded the area by the Department and extra care must be taken by the public.

D.E. Gage, District Forester.

DAM THE NEPIGON 1900 PROPOSAL

 

The Citizen, Ottawa, Canada  April 14, 1900

OBJECTED TO

Dam on Lake Nipigon Vigorously Opposed

A Pulp Mill Scheme

Which Would Destroy the Beauty of a Sportsman’s Paradise

A gentleman interested in the Ontario Colonization and Repatriation Accommodation was in the city yesterday, and his conversation stated that there is a growing opposition to the request of the North Shore Timber Company to the Ontario Legislature for a charter to go into the pulp business on Nepigon River and to construct a dam about 20 yards above the C.P.R. Bridge at Nepigon of sufficient dimension to raise the water twelve to fourteen feet the contention being that the dam would raise Lake Helen up to the first fall at Camp Alexander.

The objections are based on that Nepigon is the finest Trout stream in the world and should be preserved for all times to come as a resource for sportsmen from Canada and foreign parts. 

To do that properly the Nepigon River and lands for an average width of five miles on each side of the river should be set aside as The Nepigon  National Park and no timber cut thereon.

The building of a dam would prevent the fish ascending and descending the stream.  It is said that C.P.R. is strongly opposed to the proposal on the grounds that it would be detrimental to the tourists of all Canada now assuming such large and profitable proportions and which is so beneficial to all Canadians, and Canada Commerce generally to destroy one of the chief points of interest in Canada which unfortunately would be done if the Nepigon were utilized for manufacturing purposes.  Particularly when there are so many other water powers in that vast country available.

In reply to Mr. J.P. ….before the Ontario Legislature rose on Thursday the attorney general said that a new agreement in connection with the Lake Nipigon concession had been a subject of regulation  recently and it was more than possible that would be submitted for ratification this session.

The Sitting Room was down this Hall

 

After the fire of Feb. 11, 1990

Nipigon Historical Museum

looking toward the Sitting Room

NIPIGON HISTORICAL MUSEUM ROOM BY ROOM

 Leading up to our 50th Anniversary year 2023 I will be posting memories of the museum Room by Room.

NIPIGON HISTORICAL MUSEUM

ROOM BY ROOM  MEMORIES

THE SITTING ROOM

THE ROUND TABLE

The Round Table came from the Polly Lake Girl Guide Camp.

From 1972 to the mid 80’s most Board meetings were held around the Round Table in the Sitting Room.

In the early years it was the Museum Board members, the Secretary and Roland and Elvie representing the Nipigon Historical Museum Society (membership of 149) who “looked after” the museum for the first two years until we proved that we could operate  (be open to the Public) for xxx amount of hours  in a “season” 1973 and 1974.  Then the Museum was given a 5000 dollar start up fund from the Province.

Later the meetings were held upstairs in the large Workroom.

Once acquired, E.C. Everett’s Wallpaper Album was its centerpiece until the fire.

The Firemen were able to chop a hole in the roof and get a shower of water into the front rooms, thus saving most items in various conditions.

The rescued album went to the arena ( remember the arena roof had been condemned at that time) so the rink was cold and empty …just right for frozen storage until the conservers could thaw them out  in the entrance halls of the arena.

In 2005 our summer students  took the photographs off the album pages  using Goo Gone to release the tape and glue, then number each photo by the page it was on, scan each photo and then place it in large display albums using photo corners and spacing . So when on facebook you see ECE 15. 2 designated for a photo that means it was the second photo on page 15 of the Wallpaper Album.  They were going to stick the photos altogether on a page just like ECE had done. I nixed that idea.

You can see the Wallpaper Album in the ECE Display case.  The “New” display albums are usually on a table for viewing.

Sometimes the Round Table was just a table.

Like when Jack Stokes brought one of the Directors of the Henry Ford Museum of Dearborne Michigan for a visit.  Roland and Elvie cooked up a super doper dinner: white bean soup, homemade bread and Blueberry pie for desert.

When the Director saw our pottery sherds in the Archaeology Room 1, he offered to have his staff make us a pot to show what it would have looked like. We never did take up that offer.

So now  the Round Table can be seen in some of our Nipigon Narrations, Their Voice in History video Interviews.

Sometimes it has been used for Board Meetings.

Dan Gapen did his book signing at the Round Table.

Currently covered with a cotton crocheted table cloth from the 1930’s.

It is central to our small creation of The Sitting Room with the Black Piano, Jackfish Organ and the Wooden Bowl.