Tuesday, May 31, 2016

May 31 – Ready to Fly ?

My exercise experiment continues to be fun, but I’ve been disappointed in my attempts to simulate a greater variety of ways to travel: rowing, cross-country skiing, kayaking. 
While I was taking a medical respite from rowing, the commercial gym installed a new piece of equipment for a different kind of back extension.  Stand at an angle, then bend down at the hips & straighten up.

Winged Victory (Nike) in Rome, Italy

People using it remind me of the victory stance of the couple at the prow of the Titanic (Rose & Jack in the movie).  It looks like victorious flying!

I was afraid of the equipment.  I was afraid of my own weakness.  Maybe I’d slip & fall off of it.  Maybe my back was too weak, & I’d flop down & be unable to lift my torso up for victory.  Because of these fears & my fascination, I knew I had to approach (cautiously) & continue to explore the possibilities it offered me. 
This equipment doesn’t adjust low enough for my short legs, so can’t use it properly to strengthen my back.   Pooh.  But I was able to get onto it & try a few stances.  I can maintain the victory pose, but it uses my butt & thigh muscles more than my back.  Bending down doesn’t bend me at quite the right angle, and I am, indeed, too weak to use it that way. 

The other back extension equipment that I’ve been using feels good during & after my exercise session.  I can do 3 sets of 15 reps, and I’ve increased the weight I can push with it.  But maybe I should strengthen my back on this before I try again to fly on the prow of this ship.

I had thought that when my virtual bike trip reached Sault Ste. Marie, it would be a good time to buy my plane tickets for my actual trip to Vermont.  But I’m feeling unready in so many ways.  My historical research has not progressed enough to take good advantage of a trip to the Vermont Historical Society archives.  I haven’t saved up enough money to afford a plane ticket.  All of my exercise has strengthened my muscles, but not caused any weight loss for a more comfortable plane ride.  I’m enjoying my journey!  I’m gaining skills in blogging, and it’s bringing me amazing experiences & understandings.  I think I want to finish my virtual trip and enjoy every day intensely before I start planning for my real one.


 images:  Google Image Search

Monday, May 30, 2016

Centennial Crescent, Corbeil, Ontario

2,483 miles

 After my adventure in Yellek yesterday, I certainly appreciate a C-store with clear signage!  It is certainly conveniently located here at the crossroad, and the parking lot seems to be massively graveled for long-distance truckers, as well.

The road going north from here is named “Centennial Crescent Road”.   It leads up to Trout Lake, curves back to Highway 17.  Exploring via Google Street Views, I can see that it is paved, and the land on both sides is either boggy or rocky.  There are houses along the way, most of them looking fairly recent (since the 1990s, anyway).  None of the houses near the road look like farms or hunting cabins.  Almost all look like suburban residences.  The houses right on Trout Lake may be more luxurious.  Although many family homes are listed on realty websites, none were found with waterfront access, so I don’t know what to speculate about them. 

So now I wonder what this Centennial Crescent is and why there are so many new houses and vacant lots around here?

I’m surprised to learn that there are many “Centennial Crescent” roads in sparsely populated Canadian townships.

1967 Canadian Centennial coins
The Canadian Centennial was a yearlong celebration held in 1967 when Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation.  Unique coins were designed & minted for this commemorative year.   The reverse of each coin showed an iconic Canadian animal: dove, hare, mackerel, bobcat, wolf, & Canada goose (ascending from cent to dollar).  
Centennial logo
designed by Stuart Ash
A Centennial Train traversed the country and schoolchildren were able to see exhibits raising their understanding of Canadian history and nationalism and rousing their enthusiasm to visit Expo 67 in Montreal that summer. Children born in 1967 were declared Centennial babies.  Communities and organizations across Canada were encouraged to engage in Centennial projects to celebrate the anniversary. The projects ranged from special one-time events to local improvement projects, such as the construction of municipal arenas and parks.


Aha!  “Local improvement projects”!  Could it be that many rural areas that had been depopulating since the 1920s decided that a road arcing away from the through-traffic highway would bring more year-round residents, citizens, small business employers, & taxpayers?  If that’s correct, it doesn’t seem to have worked well here.  Most of the houses appear to be much more recent than 1970, landscaping is sparse or nonexistent, and realtors advertise many newly-built houses.  Something must have happened to the local economy, perhaps in the 1990s, but then faded away again.

info: Wickipedia.com
images: Google Image Search & Google Maps

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Yellek, Ontario

2,468 miles

The moment I first saw this place name on the map, I was curious about its derivation.  It doesn’t resemble the Anishinaabe names in the area, although it looks like some of the Inuit names of Alaska.  Yellek is possibly similar to the Ukrainian names I saw in Saskatchewan, rather exotic & spiky.  It certainly bears no resemblance to the Scottish names that the Canadian Pacific Railway bestowed so abundantly.   Well, it turns out that Yellek was named for a Canadian Northern Railway trainmaster, R. J. Kelley.  Not a Scottish name, but Irish.  And not used as-is, plain & simple, but instead spelled backwards.  For ethnic political reasons or just whimsy?
side-tracked by a railroad siding

Yellek was established by the Canadian Northern Railway in 1915 as a rail siding.  A siding is just a section of railroad track next to the main track of the “running line” or “through route”, used for rearranging or side-tracking train cars.  It doesn’t sound like this place even rated a station.

Personally, it seems that the side-track should be my totem symbol, representing my distractible mind.  But I prefer the ampersand to symbolize my multidimensional curiosity.

As I was cruising into Yellek using Google Street Views to see what I could find, I saw the sign for the “How Convenient” store.  What amusing wordplay, I thought.  I assumed that it was a convenience store, also known as a c-store, at least in parts of the Midwest (Bruce Crossing, Michigan).  

On the roadside sign, the store advertises “Native Crafts” as well as groceries.  The few online listings I found for the store placed it in the category of “Gift Shop, Variety & Souvenirs”.  I began to suspect that it was one more “roadside attraction” trying to snag road trip tourists with cheap Sioux-like or Navaho-ish trinkets made in Asia.  And I began to suspect hidden racial stereotyping in the How Convenient name, as in the “How!” greeting heard in old western movies.  Was I being too suspicious?

Who owns this store?  Who is selling “native crafts”?  What natives made them?  Who is buying them?  I expect that if there are real native crafts made by Anishinaabe people, the store would have a website to display & even sell such distinctive merchandise.  Maybe just stickers, T-shirts, & keychains with Anishinaabe symbols.  Maybe wood carvings & small boxes decorated with beaver, trout, & moose.  I couldn’t find out anything about the store’s souvenir merchandise online.  I did come across an old picture of this store decades ago, but it did not tell me much.

I did – finally – discover that Yellek is on the Nipissing First Nations Reserve, so Anishinaabe people are a significant part of the regional society.  
Since this area has always been a geographical crossroads, it became an economic & cultural exchange point too.  To the west the Nipissing trade routes extended as far as Lake Nipigon and their Ojibwa neighbors, and to the north as far James Bay, where they traded with the Cree and, later, the English. Their trade network to the east extended as far as present-day Quebec City.  

Huron-style pottery example found
The Huron lived nearby to the South.  Long ago, the Nipissing integrated some Huron styles & techniques in their pottery.  

Today the Nipissing First Nation is a member of the Union of Ontario Indians, a tribal political organization representing many of the Anishinaabe First Nations in central and southern Ontario. 

I really started learning about the Nipissing Anishinaabe First Nation and the “How Convenient” store when I discovered Bob Goulais’ Anishinaabe Blog.  He elucidates many issues, controversies, and events around his community.  I was so impressed with his insights that I e-mailed him with my questions about the How Convenient store.

Bob Goulais’ response to my questions is so articulate & nuanced that I will include it verbatim:


Some may feel the name of the convenience store plays upon Hollywood stereotypes of indigenous people. Likely, the owners thought it was cute. In the grand scheme of things (and on the spectrum of negative stereotypes) this may be rather mild. I'll give them points for creativity.

 How Convenient and many other smaller stores on-reserve mainly sell cigarettes. They are often referred to as "smoke shacks". But in an effort to diversify their sales, stores also sell local handicrafts, gifts, food and convenience items for residents who live close by.

 There is a lot of controversy over smoke shops and First Nations tobacco products. Governments are critical over this market because it has little regulation and they do not get tax revenue from these sales.

The convenience store lobby has been critical over perceived unfair competitive practices and the lower costs of on-reserve tobacco products. Our products are not taxed.  As a result, our merchants and products are branded with terms such as contraband tobacco, smugglers, black market tobacco, smoke shacks, organized crime, etc.

 The reality is that indigenous people were the first to provide tobacco to the European explorers and settlers. We have been trading in tobacco for 500 years. The people that run these shops, as well as the wholesalers and manufacturers are selling the same products that are sold in mainstream convenience store, tobacco shops and gas stations.

 Tobacco is a sacred gift given to us directly by the Creator. It was the first gift given to our people to use in ceremony, in prayer and when we need to ask things of each other and the Spirit World.  When I speak to audiences, I always differentiate the good and proper use versus misuse of tobacco.

 But not all our people carry these teachings. The smoke shops, in reality, are an integral yet unhealthy means of economic benefit for many business owners and impoverished communities.  They provide jobs and local benefits as well.

 Interestingly, one section of gifts at How Convenient has fancy glass pipes, bongs, hookas and other paraphernalia. You can also buy Cuban cigars in a rather intricate humidifier.

 At this store and others you can also buy fish from Lake Nipissing. Our people have harvested and traded in walleye and other species for many generations. You can buy our walleye, 2 filets, vacuum packed and frozen for $7. Mmmmm.
beadwork
by Dean Couchie
of Yellek

Local crafts include medicine wheels, dream catchers, local paintings, beadwork, birchbark baskets and wood carvings. The vast majority of their crafts are authentic and made by Anishinaabe people.

birchbark baskets

 For such a small store, they have a rather large selection of moccasins. Some are locally made, but most are made by Canadian manufacturers such as Manitobah Mukluks and Bastien Industries. These are indigenous businesses and their products are made in Canada.

beaded moose hide moccasins
by Bastien Industries

 They indeed sell fireworks. Again the reason why fireworks are sold a lot in these on-reserve stores is because of lack of clear regulations. Their logo either has fireworks or brightly coloured feathers. I'm not sure. Lol”

I’m so grateful to this man for being so hospitable and enlightening me so thoroughly about his community.  He ended his letter by saying that, if ever I’m actually in the neighborhood, “You are welcome to visit and enjoy our First Nation.”  It’s a gracious invitation that I feel privileged to share with my blog readers.

beautiful tangle
I’m left with complex thoughts & mixed emotions.  Our North American cross-cultural interactions have been such an opportunity for growth, but they have been so tortured by fear & greed & misunderstanding & cruelty.  The playful double or triple entendre of the How Convenient store name is marred by hidden implications.  Tobacco, a sacred gift from the Creator, & spiritually useful on ceremonial occasions, is overused profanely & kills its users.  Same for alcohol, for that matter.  The First Nations & French & Metis & Anglo-Canadians try to live in harmony, but relations are so tangled!  And we keep trying, because that’s the only way forward.

info: Wikipedia.com
images:  Google Images
Bob Goulais' blog:  http://www.anishinaabe.ca/




Saturday, May 28, 2016

May 28 – Too Much Rowing

I was having so much fun!  I was using the cheap commercial gym and the community gym at the senior center as my own personal playgrounds.  It started with my notion to achieve some of my bike mileage by rowing along Lake Superior.  (Superior Rowing)  

When I explored the different gyms in my vicinity & their equipment (& fees), I didn’t find the perfect rowing simulation, or cross-country skiing either.  So I decided that, for a greater variety of exercise & for more playful opportunities than I was getting from cycling alone, I would use both cheap gyms like children’s playgrounds.  

I did a little of everything fun!  I met with the trainers at each place to set up a program & learn to use their equipment, but I was really looking for a chance to flex muscles & feel stronger & competent.

I was sure that by using machines that cradle my body & keep me in correct position for each exercise, I wouldn’t hurt myself.  I was just enjoying the sense of movement & expecting eventual gradual improvement.  I didn’t strain any muscles, & awoke the next day with a pleasant soreness in the muscles I had used.

But before I knew it, my arms were prickling, like pins-&-needles when a limb “falls asleep” & then wakes up.  And it was getting worse!

I was so afraid that this was a neurological problem, probably progressive & incurable! 


My doctor told me that I must be overworking my shoulders & neck.  I learned that the prickly pins-&-needles feeling, since it’s not really numbness, is called paresthesia.  I felt betrayed by the very thing I was doing to feel better.  I stopped going to the gym for a week to let my shoulder nerves calm down, but continued cycling for mileage. 


After a week, my nerves had, indeed, calmed down, and I went back to the gym to find out what I could do for my back without overworking my shoulders.  I was amazed at how many of the back-strengthening machines involved shoulder action.  I had to cut out 2/3 of them.  I decided to imitate an allergen re-introduction approach: cut out all shoulder activity, then re-introduce one at a time.  I’m moving again!

Friday, May 27, 2016

Crystal Falls, Ontario

Landfill Site Road off Highway 17
2,453 miles

May 27 – Today’s 15 miles of cycling brought me to the intersection of Highway 17 & Landfill Site Road.  I was impressed by the plain practicality of this road name, but concerned about a landfill being so close to something as pristine as Crystal Falls.  So I began to explore.

The names of the roads around the community of Crystal Falls are simply descriptive & practical.  Shoreline Road roughly follows the shoreline of the Sturgeon River.  Crystal Falls Road is the main street through the community, but does not go to the site of the waterfall.  
hydroelectric power station at Crystal Falls
Instead, Hydro Dam Road leads to the hydroelectric power generation plant where the waterfall used to be. 

From 1848 to 1879, the Hudson's Bay Company operated a fur trading post called Sturgeon River House on this river.  Until the middle of the 20th century, the river was used to transport logs to sawmills on Lake Nipissing.  Now Ontario’s rivers seem to be filled with hydroelectric dams & power stations for the larger cities. 

West Nipissing dump/landfill
But it was a surprise to me that he administrative “municipality” of West Nipissing is full of landfills, too.  There are 7 landfill sites located around the district, 4 recycling sites, & one household hazardous waste facility.  These all seem to be set up to deal with the locally-generated waste.  I didn’t see any indication that this rural area is processing big city waste. 

This landfill site is named Sturgeon Falls Landfill, even though it is closer to the eastern side of West Nipissing.  This naming seems to be more motivated by public relations than the straightforward local names.

landfill on Landfill Site Road
In 2012, the municipality struggled to deal with pressure on the capacity of the landfills.  Even though people were participating in the recycling program, Waste Diversion Coordinator Jason Sullivan said that the community needed to review rules on certain materials such as cardboard, electronic waste, and scrap metal that were ending up in landfill sites.  According to Municipal Councilor Paul Finley, "Response from the municipality has been absolutely amazing to recycle; West Nipissing is the best community in Ontario because they were led by our staff initiative, education in schools and the public.”

approved curbside waste collection (Sudbury)
Even so, the municipality was considering stricter rules about recycling, higher garbage rates, & building additional landfills.  I’ve found no newer news about their environmental problem-solving.


info:  Wikipedia.com

images: Google Images

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Verner, Ontario

2,438 miles

May 26 – Verner is one of 17½ former towns, villages, townships and unorganized communities that were amalgamated into West Nipissing, an administrative “municipality” surrounding the western half of Lake Nipissing.  

It is the most bilingual community in Ontario, with 73.4% of its population fluent in both English and French.  Verner, in particular, is a strongly francophone community.  When I “bike” along the streets of the town, I see that most signs are bilingual, with the French first.  I haven’t seen much of this kind of signage farther west, and now I expect that I am approaching a truly mingled culture. 

Many of the late 19th century settlers immigrated to the area from Southern Michigan in order to preserve their language, and many Ontarians emigrated to Michigan.  It has been estimated that one in four people in Michigan have ancestors who were born in Ontario. 
Next to the large stone Catholic church of St. Jean Baptiste, is an historical plaque honoring one man who urged French-speaking Catholics from Michigan to settle in the region of Verner.  

This Catholic Oblate monk[1], AbbĂ© Charles Alfred Marie Paradis, came from Quebec as a missionary, and recommended the colonization of the region.  




Building the Log House
He prospected for gold at Nighthawk Lake, wrote pamphlets, painted in watercolors, & worked on the compilation of an Ojibwa dictionary.  After retirement, he took up farming in this area. 

Co-opérative Régionale de Nipissing

The Verner community serves as an agricultural hub for the surrounding area.  It has farm equipment dealers, an agricultural co-op, & a consumers' co-op as well.  I wonder if any Michigander Finns were involved in this co-op movement, or if it's the result of such a strong multiethnic agricultural co-op movement from the 1920s.


[1] Oblate monk:  dedicated to God’s service, but living in the world.


info:  Wikipedia.com
images: Google Images & Google Street Views

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

May 25 – Debatable Immortality

In the last half of the 19th century, Miles Grant became famous as a great debater on religious questions, and his ideas influence the Smith-Horr-Blakely family of Vermont. 

Miles Grant childhood home
Miles Grant grew up on a farm in Torrington, Connecticut.  His mother was “a praying Christian”, and his father donated to the construction of a Baptist church in Torrington, Connecticut, but the family did not attend church regularly.  

As a young man, Miles Grant became a schoolteacher.   He was an atheist, and frequently criticized religion.  One time, he bought a Bible at an auction with the express purpose of making fun of it.

In December 1842, he attended a series of religious lectures by an early “Millerite” preacher, Henry Chittenden, in a Methodist meetinghouse, in order to mock him.  But at the very first lecture, Grant became convinced that “the Bible is true.”  He went to his room in Humphrey’s Hotel where he prayed secretly for four days, and “obtained pardon, peace, and joy.”  He returned to the lectures, which were extended into a month-long revival.  Grant renounced the drinking, dancing, and card-playing that he had enjoyed, and “discarded all questionable habits”.  

Miles Grant, age 30
For the next few years, still within the Methodist church, he joined frequent study groups and prayer groups, and continued teaching.  He began to be invited to small prayer groups in homes & schoolhouses, then was invited to meetings in other towns.  He married another believer, Mary Augusta Tolles. 

By the spring of 1850, he was convinced of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and dissatisfied with the response within the Methodist churches, so he quit his local Methodist church and his teaching job to become a full-time evangelist.  In 1852, he published a notice for a camp meeting, saying: 
“We are satisfied that the end is emphatically near, and that all who are not ready for the “crisis,” have no time to lose, if they intend to be saved when the king comes to gather his faithful ones.”

The most important tenet of Grant’s belief was the new doctrine of Conditional Immortality.  He rejected the traditional belief in the immortality of the soul & eternal torture of sinners & non-believers.  Adventists developed the belief that human souls were not naturally immortal, and they would merely sleep between their own death and the Second Coming (Advent) of Christ, followed by the Last Judgment before the World to Come.  This doctrine was called Conditional Immortality.  Only God’s grace could confer immortality upon righteous souls.  In Adventist literature, there is great emphasis on “awakening” the soul during one’s lifetime so that it could be reanimated at the final Resurrection.  People outside the movement were called “sleepers”. 

In arguing for the idea of Conditional Immortality, the Adventists rejected not only the eternal tortures of Hell, but also the Spiritualist notions of a limbo existence of intermediary souls, a “spirit world” afterlife seeming to be independent of God.

This new idea of Conditional Immortality appealed to educated people, and Elder Grant made it sound like a scientific truth.  
“When honest truth-seekers differ, what shall be done? Reexamine the evidence and appeal to the highest authority. In this case there are three standards to which we may appeal: science, the Bible, and current theology.  Many will not accept the Bible or current theology as a standard, but they will agree to abide by the voice of science. Then let Science speak first. “ 

Grant taught that Christians should be a holy people, consecrated to an ideal life, to earn their resurrection. 

In 1854, Miles Grant moved to Boston and began to lead his own Free Chapel in a meeting hall.  He could claim that the prayer meetings drew 40 to 50 participants and several hundred on the Sabbath.  In 1856, Elder Grant became the editor of a weekly Adventist newspaper, The World’s Crisis, with his wife’s help. 

He began to travel around New England to preach, and he was often challenged by mainstream preachers to debate religious questions on which they disagreed.  One of Elder Grant’s most famous early debates was held between Adventist preachers in Boston in November of 1858.  The question at issue was about Conditional Immortality:  “Do the Scriptures teach the doctrine of the eternal conscious suffering of the wicked?”

festive 1868 Methodist camp meeting in NY
In December 1859, a 4-evening debate was held in Seneca Falls, N.Y., on “The State of the Dead”.  Adventist Elder W.W. Clayton argued against the idea of Conditional Immortality, affirming that “When man dies, his spirit remains in a conscious state, separated from his body, until the resurrection.”  Large crowds attended. 

Between these two highly publicized debates, Mr. Grant came to Castleton to speak, probably to debate his favorite question with another preacher at Castleton Seminary.
  
In March, Hiram Horr’s sister Sarah came from neighboring Poultney to Castleton to attend the meetings.  (see letter excerpt in Mr. Grant in Castleton post)  She brought her 21-year-old nephew Lucius and a young lady from just over the state line in Hampton, New York, Miss Betsy Ann Hotchkiss.  It is unclear what the relationship may have been between Lucius & Betsy Ann.  Attending edifying lectures was one way for young people to get together at the time.  The topic for debate was probably Conditional Immortality, since he was developing his reputation on that subject at this time.  He appealed to the rationality and scriptural authority.  Sarah, Lucius, & Betsy Ann were reportedly “quite in favor of the man”. 

In 1862, Sarah Horr visited Castleton again for a week to hear Mr. Grant.  Sarah Smith Horr does not express her own opinion of the preacher’s beliefs, but she believes that he is sincere and worth listening to, whether or not he is theologically correct.

info:  Wikipedia.com
info & images:  Piper, Fred LeRoy.  Life and Labors of Miles Grant. Boston: Advent Christian Publication Society, 1915.



Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Hagar, Ontario

2,423 miles

May 24 – Hagar was once the figment of a railroad magnate’s imagination, and now it’s another cluster of houses on the roadside.  
One interesting business on the side of that road is Creative Meats, a locally-owned butcher and processing plant, with a creative graphic designer.  They specialize in local beef, pork, lamb, goats, deer, bison and all wild game meat products. 
They perform all of the processes involved “Gate to the Plate” service: slaughter, processing, & manufacture of sausage & all kinds of meats products.  They take pride in processing wild game animals. Hunters can have their wild game animals turned into quality food by cutting, wrapping & freezing.  

Products are processed with the least additives possible while following the strict guidelines of the OMAFRA.  Special recipes are prepared for people with allergies or other special requirements.


Monday, May 23, 2016

Stinson, Ontario & Victoria Day

Victoria Day fireworks
2,408 miles

May 23 – I'm visiting Stinson today, but I’m celebrating Victoria Day (French: FĂȘte de la Reine) with people all across Canada!  It’s a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday preceding May 25, in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday, and thus is always the penultimate Monday of May.  (I just had to take this opportunity to use the word “penultimate”.)

unofficial "Maplejack"flag
On Victoria Day, all government buildings must fly both the Canadian national flag (the maple leaf) & the Union Jack, if they have enough flagpole space.  It is also the day on which the birthday of the current British monarch is officially celebrated, to avoid too many shenanigans with the calendar.

summer bug jacket
Across the country, no matter the actual weather, the long Victoria Day weekend is the unofficial marker of the end of the winter social season, and the beginning of the summer social calendar.  It’s time to put away the warm flannels & wear lighter-colored summer clothing (such as bug jacket?).  In Alberta, Banff Sunshine Village ends its lengthy ski season on Victoria Day and many summer businesses—such as parks, outdoor restaurants, & bike rentals—open.  Victoria Day also begins the summer “cottage season”, when cottage owners reverse the winterization of their property and prepare for summer fun.  Gardeners can – finally – be fairly certain that frost will not return until the next autumn.

Stinson houses by the highway
Stinson, a cluster of houses by the roadside of Highway 17, is another example of Ontario’s administrative consolidation of former railroad-logging-mining camps that are no longer viable as towns.  This railway stop was named for the Stinson Lumber Company.  Stinson is a part of Markstay-Warren (itself a conglomeration), which lies within Sudbury East, which is part of the Sudbury District (like a county, but outside of the city of Greater Sudbury).

Most early settlers of this area were French-Canadian Roman Catholics who came by rail from the province of Quebec.


Ontario Hydro dam at Stinson
Because of its proximity to Sudbury, many area residents were employed in the mines of the Sudbury area.  In 1925, a dam & hydroelectric power station was built nearby on the Wahnapitae River.  Ontario Hydro & the Ontario Provincial Police became major employers.  Since the 1990s, economic recessions, corporate restructuring, & downsizing at Ontario Hydro & O.P.P. have reduced employment opportunities, and many residents moved to Sudbury or North Bay.
Stinson postal delivery boxes


info: Wikipedia.com
maplejack image:
http://www.maplejacks.ca/about.html