We found what we were looking for

May 29

Do you remember the childhood story of Paddle-to-the-Sea?  It’s a story about a boy who wanted to see the world but wasn’t able to so he carved a little person in a canoe and set it in the snowbank along the river, hoping it would find the sea.  The story then continues of how the little carving makes its way down the river, through the Great Lakes to the sea, averting disasters.  I remember watching the movie as a child and being intrigued by the tale.  In Nipigon, Ontario, where the story begins, there is a children’s park that creatively imagines this story through a variety of very unique play structures.   It had been on my list of things to see when traveling through here two years ago.  This time we found it.

As we were planning this road trip, Dave said he wanted to take the ‘northern’ route through Ontario, not the one around Lake Superior, because he wanted to find where his dad had lived during the first few years of his life in Canada.  Dad’s family was part of a group of Mennonites who had homesteaded around Reesor, Ontario around 1925.  Apparently, the Canadian government had encouraged them to go north and try to farm because if anyone could farm in this marginal land, it would be the Mennonites.  Although Dad was too young to remember any of this, we heard stories of the challenges they encountered.  There was frost every month of the year making farming almost impossible even after clearing the bush off the land. The cattle had to graze along the railway tracks as there wasn’t much grass growing.   The most they could do to make a living was haul logs out of the bush in winter.  Dad’s family moved out to Alberta after a few short years there.  In fact, the community had dissolved completely by the 1960s. 

We wanted to find where Reesor was.  Would there be any evidence of any former settlement? With some internet research to get us on the right track, we found a Reesor Road and next to it, a beautiful park-like setting with a cairn dedicated to these Mennonite pioneers.  At the back of the grounds was a cemetery.  It was a special place as a remembrance of Dad’s roots.  Otherwise there was no evidence along the highway of a community. 

After seeing this, Dave’s mind is full of more questions, wondering what life was like for his grandparents and the other families.  Where did they all go?  Who of the descendants were responsible for maintaining this lovely spot?   Time to do more research when we get home.

Imagine trying to start a farm in this bush.