PALAEO POINTS - MAYBE

In all one hundred and thirty artifacts found in the Lake Nipigon "area" in 1976 and donated to the Museum this past month, not one had a notch. That puts them into either the Palaeo or very early Archaic time.
We hope to get the Lakehead University archaeologists to clear that up for us shortly.
Any way they are old, running 5000 to 7000 years.

These two photos go together. I was trying to get a close up of the workmanship.
 It is all in one piece.

These are large scrapers about hand size.

Bottom right is the second and third "point" in this post.
(circa 13 cm.) As you can see the colour is very bright
 compared to what we are seeing  in our photos.
The top left is a bone fragment with three lines/cuts.

Some of the large points

Good person also picked up the "pieces".

A broken "end" of a point?

Some "pieces" cut paper or drill holes.

Generally 3 to 4 cm.

THE HOUSEWIFE'S MARKET 1912

From the Daily News, Port Arthur April 1, 1912
Nipigon Museum Archives

1912 Prices in Port Arthur for Life's Necessities

• Butter, table, per pound ........... $0.45 or 2 lbs for $0.85
• Butter, dairy rolls, per pound.... $0.40
• Eggs, local, fresh, per dozen  ....$0.35
• Eggs, fresh, per dozen...............$0.35
• Potatoes, per bag (burlap)........$2.00
• Apples, cooking, per peck ......$0.40
• Apples, eating, per peck...........$0.60
• Lettuce, per bunch....................$0.075
• Oranges, per dozen.....$0.50 - $0.60
• Bananas, per dozen ................$0.40
• Lemons, per dozen .................$0.30
• Milk, per quart........................$0.10
• Cream, per quart ....................$0.50
• Bread, 3 loaves for .................$0.25
• Bread, per 2 lb. loaf ...............$0.10
• Beef, roasts, per pound...........$0.125 to $0.15
• Beef, boiling, per pound .........$0.10
• Beef steak, select per lb. ........$0.22
• Beef steak, round, per lb. .......$0.18 to $0.20
• Pork, roast, per pound ...........$0.18 to $0.20
• Pork,hams, per lb. .................$0.20
• Pork, steak, per pound ..........$0.20
• Lard, per pound, prints ..........$0.20
• Lard (pails) , per lb. ...............$0.15

You could keep your children busy on a rainy day comparing food prices now , one hundred years later.


I,  myself, have a local store flyer by my keyboard,

•  Beef, T-Bone Grilling steak,  is on sale for $5.98 per pound.

IT NEVER HAPPENED

Well, it DID and then again it DIDN'T.

Looking Back One hundred years ago


DAILY NEWS: Port Arthur April 1, 1912

NIPIGON SEES A BOOM AHEAD

Headlines:
MacKenzie & Mann have men surveying at Alexander Falls for big proposed power Development.

(Cameron Falls got the first dam in 1920, it was 1930 before Alexander dam went into operation)

Hope that Pulp Mill may be built there (Nipigon) - Some see a population of Ten Thousand in Next Five Years.

(The Little Mill of Nipigon went into operation in the 1920's - Red Rock started in the 1930'3 and got really operational after the war - the population of Nipigon never came close to that increase -)

Nipigon, Ontario, April 1, 1912 ... A dozen or more men in the employ of MacKenzie &Mann left Saturday for Alexander Falls, about 12 miles from here, on the Nipigon River, to do  survey and preliminary work on the proposed power development which it was announced a few days ago that this company would undertake in anticipation of the building of large pulp mills here or at Port Arthur.

It is generally believed here that the industry is a certainty and many hope that this point will be decided upon as its location.

As a consequence of the probable industrial development real estate holdings have already increased in value and convenient properties are in big demand.

Some of the optimistic ones can see a population of ten thousand within five years.

END

So, here we are one hundred years later, 2012  - Red Rock mill is closed; The Nipigon Little Mill closed in the 60's and was taken down; The Plywood Mill of Nipigon burnt some few years ago  and never rebuilt; all three hydro dams are still in operation.

CARNIVAL DAYS

With the Fall Fishing Festival coming up on Labour Day Weekend it is a fitting time to re-print E.C. Everett's account of a 1929 carnival. circa 1966.

THE EARLY NIPIGON NEWS

It is just 37 years ago, July 1,2, &3rd, 1929, that Nipigon had its biggest and most successful 3 day carnival, put on by the Nipigon Canadian Legion, and directed by Zan. Zantolas an Ex-Circus man.

The time and place was very opportune, since Nipigon was always looked upon as being a Tourist-Natural Mecca for hunting, fishing and natural relaxation. Our District was well supported by the Lakehead New media.

The second Hydro Electric project had just been started at Alexander Landing on the Nipigon River and now Nipigon was emerging from the trappers' trails and pulpwood camps to construction and Highway building.

The Trans Canada Highway had been opened from the Lakehead as far East as Nipigon in 1925 which trips took from 3 to 5 hours to make from the Lakehead and was considered more of an adventure than a pleasure trip. Construction horses were always on hand to give the motorist a pull out of the swamp.

Nipigon generally had a good baseball team; competition was keen between Hydro, Hurkett, Murillo, Port Arthur, Rossport and Schreiber. The local fans follow their team with enthusiasm.

The Nipigon Plywood's Mill is located on the old baseball grounds which was then chosen for the Carnival grounds. Most stores bought concessions and erected booths to display and sell their holiday goods in Midway style.

On display was a live sturgeon weighing 134 lbs. five feet ten inches long, which was caught in Lake Helen, also a young fawn. City bands were in attendance, Fortune telling, Ice-cream, Pop - at 5 cents - was sold out clean. Baseball games were competing against our Reeve and Councillors at quoits  & etc.

All stores were decorated with flags and bunting. Votes for the Carnival Queen were given with all purchases for weeks in advance. Competition was keen between the Finnish and Canadian girls, which was finally won by Miss Mona Hill sponsored by the Consumers' Co-Operative Store in Nipigon. Her reward was a free trip to Toronto to be honoured there with a  letter from the Reeve of Nipigon.

On the second day the food in Town ran short, no wieners, buns nor milk. Special trips had to be made by train to the Lakehead to get more supplies which were again soon used up.

Then, Alas! The sleeping accommodations was overtaxed, many slept in the corridors while dozens walked the streets all night. Some store stayed open most of the night entertaining the people with gramophone music and serving coffee. Some slept on the counters. The C.P.R. sent 3 sleeping coaches for the final night spotted by the water tank on the siding.

The weather was ideal, hot the first two days, straw hats was a sell out. The third day was cool and all turned to sweaters. What a boon to Nipigon.

In all, Nipigon was booming that summer, while the depression hit many other places. Locally the depression started in 1930 and continued until 1933 when the mining boom started in Beardmore and Geraldton.

Nipigon has had many ups and downs and no doubt it will continue that way for some time yet; but it never fails to come back.

The Carnival finally ended up with a monster dance and the crowning of the Queen and a scramble for any loose change that was left.

FLORIAN ZECHNER

From a 2006 Interview with his daughter, Doris.

Nipigon Historical Museum Archives

"I know my father came to Canada in 1922."

"My Great Uncle had a farm in Hurkett and he needed one of the boys from my father's family (there were ten children). My father, being the most adventuresome agreed to come as a labourer farm boy."

"He travelled from Austria to Germany and then across that big ocean to Halifax. When he got to Halifax he had spent what little money he had on the boat. The immigration people didn't know quite what to do with him. He says they gave him a loaf of bread and a roll of garlic sausage and put him on the train for Hurkett."

Florian never got interested in farming. He tried working for Ontario Hydro putting in the new line from Alexander to Port Arthur. Then he worked a bit for the railway. What he really liked was working in a grocery store, which he did in Hurkett. In 1930 he became a Canadian citizen and in 1932 he married.

"My father came to Nipigon to work for E.C. Everett." (1936) " We lived in one room behind the store."

"Life was quite difficult then until my my parents decided to put an apartment in behind the store, then things  were a little better. We had four bedrooms back there but every time my father wanted to expand the store I lost a little more of my bedroom."

"My Dad was working for Everett in this particular store, probably about where the theatre is now, then, E.C. somehow got another store down the street where the pharmacy is now and E.C. went down to that store and my Dad stayed ."

" My father was doing a better business than E.C.. Then E.C. made my Dad go down to the other store that was not doing so well. So, after Dad started running that store he decided he was going to buy it and he made two or three payments to E.C. before he realized that E.C. didn't even own the store! My Dad laughed about that so many times."

"So, my Dad bought that store. The Royal Bank was right beside it and there was a furrier, Anderson Furrier.  He ended up buying them all. That's what the Drug Store is comprised of now and Dad also had a store in the basement. It had a big staircase you went down on. He had dry-goods and groceries on the main floor and down below he had hardware...that came after a few years

".Dad was the butcher of the store and he built up the business by being the butcher. He was always so good natured and he was always whistling and laughing and happy. He loved his job and was always up in the morning whistling and cutting meat. We lived right behind and we woke up to that every morning and it was wonderful."

Florian built a temporary store at pine Portage during the dam construction and he had Gordon Waghorn run that. Florian also exported Blueberries to the Poplar Canning Company in Poplar Wisconsin. In 1950 Florian built the Liquor Store on Third Street leased to the LCBO. In 1958 he built the Royal Bank building ,( now used by an Insurance Company), and leased it to the Royal Bank. He bought the old Consumers' Co-Op building on Railway Street and moved his hardware business there with Uno Mannila as manager.( Beside that building is the "new " Zechners' Store built in his lifetime.) Soon he became the sole owner of the Beaver Motel on Highway 17.

Florian died in 1987.

This year , 2012, marks the 75th anniversary of "Zechners" store in Nipigon. A FAMILY, now into the fourth generation, that has stayed and helped build a community, Nipigon.

A TIME OF TRUST

From a 2006 Interview with DZ.
Nipigon Historical Museum Archives

"You know, living behind the store you got to see a lot of different people."

"Some guys would come in from the bush and they had spent the whole winter in the bush and they would come in with their cheques and they would give them to my Dad. Dad would cash them and put the money in an envelope in the safe for them and then they would head for the beer parlor, then they would come back every so often for more money. When the money was all gone they would go back to the camps to work again."

"I saw that many times."

"Imagine, they trusted my Dad with their money. He would cash it and put it in an envelope and away they would go."

"There was a lot of trust in those days."

A TIME OF INNOCENCE

From a 2006 Interview with DZ
Nipigon Historical Museum Archives

It was good growing up in Nipigon.

It was very innocent times.

It was a time of having lemonade stands on the main street and making 25 cents and running next door and spending it.

We had an outdoor rink.  You had to cross over where the old CPR station used to be and then there was a trail through there in the winter-time. A hard trail that you just walked on over to the rink. The one we remember is the one over on First Street, and we went skating every night and then we would gather in this old shack with the pot-bellied stove to get warm and take off our skates.  We played all sorts of games on the ice and came home about nine o'clock and went to bed, and that was it.

They were good days.