Slabtown Remembered

By Sharon Smith

My name is Sharon Smith and I’m from Slabtown.

What is this place called Slabtown you may ask – where is this Slabtown? Well I’m here to tell you Slabtown is the beginning of the history of Keewatin.

The history books reflect that Mr. John Mather a developer, promoter, and wheeler-dealer recognized the wonderful economic development potential that the convergence of water power, a railroad and vast forests of pristine timber in this area offered. Although the Town of Keewatin was officially incorporated in 1908, unofficially the town began in 1879 when Mr. Mather started Keewatin’s first industry, “The Keewatin Lumbering and Manufacturing Company Limited”.

This sawmill was built in Mink Bay, in the west end of Keewatin, to manufacture ties for the railway. Labourers for this mill first settled north of the tracks in company houses built for the married personnel. In the early 1900’s, lured by work in the sawmills and flour mills of Rat Portage my great grandparents traveled by steamboat up the Lake of the Woods from Rainy River to settle here. Shortly thereafter, they found themselves living in the little town site north of the tracks. Slabs (which were used for fire wood) were a byproduct of the sawmilling process, and the name Slabtown became attached to that area.

The town section of Slabtown consisted of a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the tracks and the Winnipeg River. In some places this area was only wide enough for one lot length.

The name Slabtown stuck until sometime in the 60’s when it was renamed West Bay, and is still called that today. The “Slabtown” era is known to be the first era in the development of Keewatin as a town.

I own one of the first houses built by the company. Five generations of my family have lived in this house including my great grandparents Charles and Orvina Smith, my grandparents Wellington and Edna Smith, my Dad Gerald Smith and I and my son Shad. This house was built with lumber manufactured by the sawmill at Mink Bay. This is where I grew up and still live today and I’m here to tell you some of my memories of growing up in this area and Keewatin.

The sawmill burned in 1905 but there are still many existing indications of the Mill. When I was young, there was a tall rock structure that had been used to incinerate waste wood from the sawmill. It was appropriately called “The Burner”. For Keewatin kids it was a favourite hangout and we used to climb all around it. But what I most remember about the burner is that when I was around 13, a girlfriend and I would go there after school and smoke cigarettes. We were just learning how to smoke.

When I came home one night my mother said to me, “Someone saw you and “Kay” smoking behind the burner – wait until your dad gets home.” Now, my dad was a strict disciplinarian and smoking was definitely a crime worthy of a whooping – and furthermore he would be mad. I was, as the saying goes, “shaking in my boots”.

Well my Dad came home from work – and I waited. Nothing. We had dinner – and I waited. Nothing. I went to bed and still nothing. I couldn’t believe my luck – but I knew my mom hadn’t forgotten to tell him. She didn’t tell him because she knew how bad the whooping would be. I’ve never smoked a cigarette since.

That area is now a Provincially Designated Wetland and is part of the Mink Bay Wetland Walking Trail through Keewatin. The natural beauty and serenity of this wetland makes it possible for residents and visitors to enjoy nature up close and natural. When you walk this area and the water is low you can see the foundation of the mill. The old sawdust pile is still there, and for many years it would smolder and burst into flames, threatening the surrounding area. It certainly kept the fire department busy. The history of the Mink Bay area has been preserved more by accident than by design. It seems ironic that the area that started the economic history of Keewatin is now a beautiful, nature walking trail and is a blueprint for a different kind of economic development.

When heading down the road to West Bay there is a little bridge over a culvert, just down from the school. That area has always been known as “Happy Jacks”. I never knew how that name came about until recently. I always assumed it had something to do with a common practice in that area while I was growing up – spearing fish – specifically “jack” fish and that perhaps people were happy while carrying out that activity. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Apparently a man named Jack Whitmoore lived right at that location. Residing with several cats, he was always happy to see and talk to the children as they passed by on their way to and from the school – hence the name “Happy Jacks”. That quaint name has stuck, and is part of the historic uniqueness of that area.

Keewatin has a long and proud history of habitation, transportation, trading, manufacturing and tourism. Jobs were plentiful; labourers were hard to come by. Keewatin is also a town and geographic area that was important both for aboriginal peoples and later arriving Europeans. Scandinavian people, French Canadians and new comers from eastern and southern Ontario also helped create Keewatin’s rich cultural mosaic.

Aboriginal peoples have lived, traveled and traded the Winnipeg River and Lake of the Woods for thousands of years. When I was very young I remember seeing the First Nations people portaging from Portage Bay into the Winnipeg River and setting up their tents on an island close to where I live. I remember them paddling past my house in their canoes as they went down the river to harvest wild rice and to fish. It really was a sight to behold.

I also remember covering my head to keep the cinders out of my hair as the steam locomotives passed by. A lot of rock cuts had to be blown during the construction of the railway. One rock cut just west of West Bay was almost ready for detonation when the whole charge went off prematurely, carrying more than a dozen men to their doom. Ever since, this particular spot has been called “Dead Man’s Cut”. That name is still used to describe that area today.

Growing up in Slabtown was a social affair – families were large and there were many kids to play with. We didn’t have TV and we loved to be outside. We swam in the river, jumping off the rocks because we didn’t have docks. There was always something happening, baseball, football – we were never bored. We played outside from morning to night. In fact our curfew would be when the “Canadian”, the passenger train, passed through in the evening. We were happy when it was late, and often it was.

My whole family spent a lot of time at the Keewatin Memorial Arena. My Dad worked at the rink and we all played hockey, ringette, figure skated and were always at the rink during public skating.

Before artificial ice, the ice had to be made. And that meant that it had to be shoveled to clean it before flooding. Well, only the boys were rink rats and they were the biggest boys and the best skaters. Years of figure skating and spending most of my time at the rink made me a good skater. I always wanted to be a rink rat so one day I just started shoveling when the ice had to be cleaned.

The Rink Rats would line up on Sunday (which was payday) for the 25 cents for their week’s worth of work. My Dad wouldn’t pay me because he was concerned that his daughter being on the payroll would look like favouritism. After a couple of weeks I earned the respect of the other Rink Rats and the Head Rink Rat suggested to my Dad that I should be paid. After that I earned a wage like the other Rink Rats.

The rink was a huge part of all the kids’ lives in Keewatin. Public skating was always packed and it was our social life. We hoped that the boy we had a crush on would ask us to skate. We always tried to play crack the whip – hoping not to get caught by my Dad – but we usually did – and then it was: “You – off the ice!”

Nobody ever argued with him. My Dad was well respected and loved by the kids of Keewatin, and there were very few kids who didn’t have their skates tied by him.

We were fortunate in Keewatin that the Lake of the Woods Milling Company built the Memorial Building after the First World War and the Memorial Arena after the Second World War. We were also fortunate to have forward thinking Councils who recognized the importance of supporting these facilities. We would not have the Keewatin Beach if council of the day had not purchased lots on Beach Road so that the general public could have access to a beach.

The Portage Bay Recreation Area is another example of a Council that invested in the people of Keewatin. We still have all these resources in Keewatin and these recreational facilities will continue to attract people to our community.

I remember that my dad wouldn’t let me hang around the Memorial Building, or another old haunt the Kee-Wat-Inn. But I have heard that my dad was known to be a pool shark and played pool at the Memorial Building as did many Keewatin kids of his generation.

I particularly want to mention the history of Keewatin during World War 1 and World War II. In WW1 Keewatin lost 38 men and in WWII we lost 15. It is a well known fact that Keewatin (per capita) contributed more people to the armed forces than any other town in Canada. My Granny and Grandpa lost my Dad’s brother, their son Andrew Smith, in the Second World War. He was killed during the invasion of Normandy. He never came back home to Keewatin.

The image that most stands in my mind was one told to me about my Granny. Not long after the war, during a neighborhood party, they began to sing a war song and my Granny burst out crying. It is hard to imagine the suffering and loss of people like my grandparents during this terrible time in our history. It makes me proud to live in a town that on the 11^th hour, of the 11^th day of the 11 month reads out the names of the boys that never came home. Lest We Forget.

My affinity for Keewatin is most connected through my dad’s family as they were early settlers in this area, and continued to live and raise their families in Keewatin. I know times were tough for my parents and their parents. They were working people and there was never a lot of money to spare. I know that for my dad, following Grade 8, he was very excited about going to high school. My dad really liked school and he was a lifelong learner. One day my grandfather, his dad, came home from work and said, “You start work in the Mill tomorrow.” My Dad never had the opportunity for an education. He never complained about it. That was life at that time.

We never thought money was a problem while growing up. My brothers and sisters were always involved in sports, and my parents always made sure we were able to participate. Although times were tough for people like my parents, they always made their own fun by getting together in the neighbourhood for card games and parties where neighbours would bring musical instruments and have their own dances. My grandfather, who was a quiet man, would be the square dance caller and my Granny apparently was the life of the party, never sat out a dance and loved to whoop and holler.

One story told about her was that at one party she was having such a good time that she swung her brother, my Uncle Kenny, so hard that he slammed up against the wall and fell down. Now, I’ve been known to have a love of “hot footing” and it is interesting for me to know that I inherited my Granny’s “partying” gene.

Like many families in Keewatin we relied on hunting and fishing to supplement our grocery bill. We were particularly lucky living on the river and fishing has been a family activity for generations. Sitting on a pail, ice fishing, not talking, just enjoying the quiet of a crisp winter day with my dad is an experience that needs no words. Out hunting with him, knowing how much he enjoyed being in nature was a bond between us. Dad and I both thought, and I still feel, that living in an area like Keewatin, enjoying what it has to offer is priceless.

Some events over the last few years within our community have made me more aware of the need to remember where I come from and why I still live here. Because money was scarce in my family my dad never had a car. We were lucky to live in a community where every amenity you needed was within walking distance. We used public transportation when we went to Kenora. It’s a wonderful lifestyle to be able to live in a town that you can walk from your home, pick up your mail, do your banking, have lunch, pick up books at the Library, and grab a bottle of wine for dinner and the newspaper and head home.

I am Keewatin born and bred, and cannot imagine living anywhere else. I’ve traveled throughout Canada, the States, Europe, southern hotspots, and I have always been happy to come home. Keewatin has a special place in my heart and I’m proud to be part of its history.