Gatchell, Ontario

2,393 miles

May 21 – The mining community of Gatchell has become a neighborhood within Greater Sudbury.  The whole city has been affected by a century of mining & pollution.  Gatchell has become a symbol of environmental degradation and efforts at renewal.

beaver dam near Sudbury

Anishinaabe people lived in this area before European settlement.  They were displaced when Euro-Canadian settlers came to cut down forests, build railroads, & dig up minerals. 

During the construction of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883, a CPR blacksmith discovered nickel ore.  Capitalists set up mining companies & settlers arrived to work in the mines. 

The Sudbury region became a major lumber center and a world leader in nickel mining.  Mining and related industries dominated the economy for much of the 20th century.

blackened rocks

The people of Sudbury live in an urban core and many smaller communities scattered around 300 lakes and among hills of rock blackened by ore smelting.  Sudbury's economy went through boom and bust cycles as world demand for nickel fluctuated.  Sudbury’s landscape changed after a century of mining activity.

roastyard at nearby Copper Cliff mine

As explained by Kaleigh Bradley, in an article for ActiveHistory.ca, “The process of smelting ore released sulphur into the atmosphere, which later combined with water vapor to create sulphuric acid, the recipe for acid rain. Vegetation throughout the region was decimated by the acid rain, along with logging practices that were used to provide fuel for the infamous outdoor roastbeds (an early smelting technique). The open bed roasting only added to the environmental degradation during Sudbury’s early history. The lack of vegetation ultimately led to the erosion of the soils and the exposure of bedrock. The bedrock became black and charred as a result of pollutants and acid rain. Birch and blueberries were some of the only species that could thrive in the highly acidic soil and they are prevalent in the area to this day.”

Copper Cliff moonscape at mid-20th-century

Gatchell was one of the mining communities surrounding Sudbury.  Immigrant families arrived in Sudbury to work in the mines, and settled in communities close to where they worked.  Gatchell was settled mainly by Italian immigrants, especially after World War II.   Mining and the pollution that it caused affected the community profoundly.  A century of slag dump built up slag heap hills 300m high.  The environment of black rocks, stunted trees, & slag hills has been called a moonscape.

Stacey Zembrzycki, a Sudbury-born adjunct assistant professor at Concordia University, is studying how mining affected the day-to-day life & the health of the people living in these communities.  She wants to interview men and women who came to Canada in the postwar period — as well as their children — and lived in Copper Cliff, Coniston, Gatchell or the Donovan.   Zembrzycki says: “As a historian, I want to go talk to the people just about their memories and see if we stitch together a story about people's perspectives about living here through some really tough times and into today.”

re-greened slag heap becomes a city park

The city of Greater Sudbury has made significant efforts to improve the livability of Gatchell.  The slag heaps framing the neighborhood are in the process of being turned into green hills.   Zembrzycki says: “It's amazing how they've limed it (and regreened the area).  It's like a green halo.  It's amazing.  I'm thinking how we could put some historical pictures up to that and people can hold up their phone and literally see the slag right against the green.”

Gatchell neighborhood in 2014

The community is still a working class neighborhood, and there are a large number of rental apartments, with 4 public elementary schools and 3 Catholic elementary schools.

There are still several large commercial and light industrial businesses, plus small shops and services conveniently scattered throughout its own commercial district.  There is a public indoor swimming pool & a sports complex named after a prominent Italian-Canadian local politician, Delchi Dozzi.   A section of the Trans-Canada Trail is being constructed through the vacant lands along the banks of Junction Creek.

Big Nickel & smelting smokestack

And what small Canadian community would be complete without a gigantic replica of a small everyday object?  At the Dynamic Earth Science Centre & park is the Big Nickel numismatic monument. The Big Nickel is a 9-meter (30 ft) replica of a 12-sided 1951 Canadian nickel, intended to honor the place of nickel mining in Canada’s history.

info: Wikipedia.com
Kaleigh Bradley info:  http://activehistory.ca/2015/08/our-bodies-and-inescapable-ecologies-a-look-at-the-mining-community-of-sudbury-ontario/

Zembrzycki info:  https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/prof-looking-for-tales-of-life-in-sudburys-moonscape-255744
images:  Google Images