MHAC Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee

Pinawa Generating Station - circa 1926

Construction of the plant began in April 1903 after the Winnipeg General Power Company obtained a perpetual lease on the Pinawa Site. On July 26 1904, the Winnipeg General Power Company officially amalgamated with the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Co. This new company became known as the Winnipeg Electric Railway Company (WERCo.). The plant was officially opened on May 31, 1906 and completed in 1907 at a cost of $3,055,000. Power was distributed to the cities of Winnipeg and St. Boniface, the towns of Transcona, Stony Mountain and Stonewall, and the rural municipalities of Fort Garry, Assiniboia, East and West Kildonan, St. Andrews, St. Vital, St. Paul and Rockwood, serving over 25,000 people.

On October 25, 1951 the Pinawa Generating Station was retired from service so the full flow of the Winnipeg River could be restored to the main channel for use by the newly expanded Seven Sisters Dam (which had been opened in 1931 by WERCo.)

In the year 2000 the Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee was made aware of a lone grave located one half mile north of PTH 317 on Sikora Road. Investigations revealed the possibility that more graves were in the area. The Lac du Bonnet Municipal council placed a caveat on the property and a crew from the R.M. Maintenance Department brushed the area, did the necessary improvement work and built a cairn. The MHAC hired a company to conduct an electronic survey of the area and successfully located six graves that have been marked by cedar crosses. No identification has been possible to date. The cemetery has been landscaped and a plaque placed on the cairn which was erected alongside of the road to mark the cemetery's location.

The graves are circa 1912 and are of parishoners of the St. Mary Polish Church from the Brightstone area. The church was eventually located one half mile further north and one mile west at the north-west corner of Sytnick Road and Holyk Road (LS1, SE Sec.30/Twp.15/Rge.9EPM)

St. Mary Polish Church Cairn

IN MEMORY OF SGT. R. H. NICHOLSON

R.C.M.P. Annual Report, 1928 (excerpt) "On December 31, 1928, Sgt. R. H. Nicholson, in charge of the Lac du Bonnet detachment, was shot and mortally wounded while raiding an illicit still, thereby adding one more to the list of members of the Force who have fallen in the discharge of duty. In the company of the Manitoba Provincial Police, he visited the farm of the suspect and came upon a still in the bush, about a mile and a half from the house. The two approached it from different sides, Sgt. Nicholson arriving first and found the still in full operation. A rifle was nearby, standing against a tree and both the suspect and Nicholson seem to have rushed for it simultaneously. The rifle discharged, inflicting a terrible wound in the thigh from which Sgt. Nicholson died in a few hours. Cst. Watson arrived about the time the shot was fired and attended to Sgt. Nicholson, taking off his own shirt to form a tourniquet and working in his undershirt though the temperature was more than 20º below zero (-29ºC). His humane efforts resulted in his contracting a severe illness."

NOTE OF INTEREST

If the reader looks carefully you will see that some of the bricks facing outwards on this monument display the company initials "LBC".

JOHN DUNCAN McARTHUR
July 25, 1854 - January 10, 1927

John Duncan McArthur was born on the family farm in Lancaster, Glengarry County, Canada West,(Ontario after 1867), where he grew up, was educated and married Mary McIntosh. At age 25 he came west and around 1880 was cutting logs in, what is today, the Riding Mountain National Park for his sawmill near Birtle, Manitoba, on the Birdtail River. He worked repairing the rail line of the Pembina branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and gained further experience working on other railways in western Canada. By 1889 he received his own contract to build the Red River Valley Railway from Emerson to Winnipeg.

On February 24, 1898, The Lac du Bonnet Mining, Developing and Manufacturing Co. was incorporated and had commenced harvesting the local resources. In 1901 McArthur purchased the company and its holdings of 810 hectares (2,000 acres) of land and a brick manufacturing plant. He built a sawmill just north of what is now the Town of Lac du Bonnet and, in the following year, opened a logging camp near Old Pinawa.

Between 1898 -1901 McArthur had assisted in the building of the CPR branch line from Molson to Lac du Bonnet which would enable bricks, lumber and fuelwood to be shipped to Winnipeg and beyond. He built the first commercial "High Rise" building in Winnipeg, near Portage and Main, named the McArthur Building, later renamed the Childs Building, as well as other large structures in the city.

In 1905 McArthur contracted to build the Transcontinental Railway line 402 kilometres (250 miles) east from Winnipeg, then west to Edmonton, Alberta and thence to the Peace River country. By 1910 he contracted to build, and later to operate, the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway from Edmonton to Grand Prairie and also the Alberta Great Waterways Railway from Edmonton to Fort McMurray on the Athabaska River. When several companies declared bankruptcy, McArthur lost $30 million dollars outstanding on his contracts.

In 1911 McArthur contracted to build the first 290 kilometres (180 miles) of the Hudson Bay Railway from The Pas to Thicket Portage in Manitoba.

In 1920 McArthur secured Pulpwood Birth #1 from the Dominion Government and a permit for the Pine Falls power site (Great Falls) on the Winnipeg River. By 1924, with the Canadian National Railway line being built to Pine Falls, he succeeded in buying the land to be occupied by the new paper mill. He then formed the Manitoba Pulp and Paper Co. and became its first president.

At the time of his death, age 72, McArthur was president of the J.D.McArthur Co., the Northwest Lumber Co., the McArthur Land Co. and the McArthur Lumber and Fuel Co., vice-president of the Manitoba Pulp and Paper Co., and a director of the Western Trust and the Beaver Lumber Companies. He served as Post Master of Lac du Bonnet from October 1, 1906 to September 6, 1923. Considered as one of Canada’s leading business men, John Duncan McArthur built more miles of railroad than any other Canadian contractor.

McArthur Falls, on the Winnipeg River, and McArthur Street, in the Town of Lac du Bonnet, are named in his memory.

WALTER WARDROP SR.
April 12, 1854 - 1942

Walter Wardrop Sr. was born on August 27, 1854 in Paris, Ontario, the son of John Wardrop, a Cotton (hand loom) weaver and wife Janet Barr. His mother died when he was three weeks old and he was raised by his grandmother, Mary Wardrop, in Port Elgin, Ontario. On March 3rd, 1877, he married Sarah Jane McCleod. Walter came west to Manitoba between 1882 - 83 and later was followed by his wife and their children. First employed by the Dan Mann Tie Company of Whitemouth, he later joined the D.A. Ross Company staff as a "Bush Foreman". This involved "stream driving", when the cut logs were floated down the Winnipeg River in the spring log drive to the sawmill. As a show of confidence to other company workers, Walter was the first to volunteer to be vaccinated by Dr. Charlotte Ross (the first woman doctor in Manitoba) with the newly developed Small Pox Vaccine.

Around 1896 Wardrp moved to Lac du Bonnet where he became General Manager of the Lac du Bonnet Mining, Developing and Manufacturing Company Limited. He later hauled the equipment for the new brickyard on a winter road from Shelly, located on the Canadian Pacific Railway. At that time, Lac du Bonnet was locally referred to as "Eureka", because of the mining potential in the Winnipeg and Bird River areas. In 1899 he built two boarding houses and a store that was managed by W.D. Halliday. From 1900 to 1901 Walter Wardrop became the first Postmaster for "Lac du Bonnet", a name first used by the explorer La Vérendrye in the 1700s, for a wide spot in the Winnipeg River seven kilometres north of the settlement. He also had a contract to deliver mail to St. George and Fort Alexander, using a canoe in the summer and a dogsled in the winter.

In January of 1901, having disposed of his interests in Lac du Bonnet, Wardrop moved his family to Sparwood, British Columbia, where he operated a large lumber mill to supply the mines in the area and a "first-class tie making plant". Following a previous disastrous fire, he disposed of his properties and on June 16, 1905 moved back to Whitemouth where he built a home west of town. At this time J.D. McArthur had contracted to build the Transcontinental Railway from Winnipeg to Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) where Wardrop built a number of the railway trestle bridges and several miles of rail grade. In 1924 he moved to the family farm in the Crescent Bay area, north of Lac du Bonnet which was flooded out in 1954 by the construction of the McArthur Falls Hydro Electric project. William Walter Wardrop died on March 5, 1942, short of 89 years of age. Sarah, his wife, predeceased him on November 5, 1927. "Wardrop Creek" passed through the original property.

ALEX McINTOSH
September 04, 1889 - February 18, 1982

Alex McIntosh was born on a farm in Lancaster Township, Glengarry County, Ontario, the son of Scottish immigrants who had arrived in Canada in 1832. He was raised on the family farm and at 18 years of age came to western Canada on the "Harvest Excursion" of 1907-08 and, for that winter, worked in Transcona, Manitoba. For the next four years McIntosh worked in the Caribou District of British Columbia for a lumber and navigation company and for three more years for the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway where his uncle, J.D.McArthur, had contracts to build the railways. He then joined the Royal North West Mounted Police (RNWMP), was stationed in the Peace River country and, during WWI, served overseas with the RNWMP. On his return to Canada he homesteaded at Rio Grand in the Grand Prairie region of Alberta .

In 1923 McIntosh arrived in the Lac du Bonnet area to work as a carpenter’s helper for J.D.McArthur. He worked for a while at Beaconia and the Manitoba Paper Company mill site in Pine Falls during its construction. However, he spent most of the next five years in charge of a sawmill at Great Falls.

By 1925 McIntosh acquired the 810 hectares (2,000 acres) of land from J.D.McArthur and an additional 10,880 square hectares(42 square miles) of forest along the Winnipeg River north of Lac du Bonnet. He continued to farm, operate sawmills and cut pulpwood. He had cut and delivered up to 10,000 cords of pulpwood a year to the Pine Falls mill.

During WWII as many as 200 men were employed running his saw and planing mills, operating his local lumberyard and cutting and hauling pulpwood to the Pine Falls mill.

McIntosh subdivided some of the 810 hectares (2,000 acres) for the development of residential lots in Lac du Bonnet. He often sold lots on credit and loaned lumber and bricks to buyers to build their homes.

McIntosh retired in 1950 having passed his farming and other enterprises on to his son, Ramsay. Alex McIntosh died at age 92.

McIntosh Street, in Lac du Bonnet, is named in his memory.

In the spring of 1898 a small mining boom took place in the area surrounding Lac du Bonnet and the Winnipeg River system that would impact on the region for years to come. In the same year a group of men from Winnipeg and the Lac du Bonnet area had a vision for the future development of the natural resources. They formed the Lac du Bonnet Mining, Developing and Manufacturing Company, and as part of their enterprise, to extract clay from the banks of the Winnipeg River to manufacture bricks. A few acres of bush had been cleared away, clay samples taken and sent to the USA to be tested for suitability.

On receiving a favourable report, the company immediately ordered the necessary machinery from a USA manufacturer. A winter sled road was built along the old Manitoba-Ontario boundary from Lac du Bonnet to Shelly on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) line on which to bring in the new equipment. Saw logs were also cut and hauled on this road for the construction of new buildings. When the machinery arrived, a crew from eastern Canada was hired to assemble the plant. With the building of the branch line from Molson, on the CPR line, to Lac du Bonnet (1898-1901), the necessary direct access to the outside market was available.

In 1901 J.D.McArthur bought the entire holdings of the Lac du Bonnet Mining, Developing and Manufacturing Company which consisted of 810 hectares (2,000 acres) of prime timber land and the brick manufacturing plant. From the time the plant went into operation, it played a major roll in the economy of the area and by 1919 employed upwards of 50 men.

The company produced bricks until 1920 when it was decided the venture was no longer viable. For years following, left-over bricks were given away, free for the taking, to residents of the area for the construction of local chimneys, etc.

When visiting this Cairn  below you will see that some of the bricks facing outwards on this monument display the company initials "LBC".

Erected by the Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee 2007

INTER-WEST FUEL and PEAT Co.
Lac du Bonnet 1907 - 1908

In 1907 a group of "local capitalists" built a peat processing plant 4.83 kilometers (3 miles) south west of Lac du Bonnet on the previously operated Canadian Pacific Railway Branch Line that connected Lac du BOnnet to the main line at Molson, Manitoba. At this location the Inter-West Peat and Fuel Company had been operating for only a few days, having loaded five railway cars of peat ready for shipment, when the factory part of the plant was destroyed by fire. It was scheduled to be reconstructed in the spring of 1908 and expected to be in operation by July of that year. The estimated cost of the plant was $25,000 and would be capable of producing 100 tons of peat daily. The factory, 40'x50', was constructed of concrete and corrugated iron. The machine for compressing the peat was reported to have an average pressure of 40 tons per square inch. (There is no evidence that the new plant ever came in to production.) Peat, dug from the bog, artificially dried and compressed into 3 and 1/2 inch cubes, had the same weight and density as Anthracite coal and gave intense heat when burned. It was used for household fuel and in the manufacture and refinement of iron and steel. The company had reserves on 1,036.03 hectares (2,560 acres) of peat land south of Lac du Bonnet. At that time the factory was the only one operating in Western Canada.

Click to view plaque detail

LAC DU BONNET SAWMILL
1901 - 1918

The railway arrived in Lac du Bonnet in June 1901, bringing with it the entrepreneurial talents of John Duncan McArthur who developed a sawmill located on land that became part of the Lac du Bonnet townsite. The Canadian Pacific Railway connection with Winnipeg made the development of these industries possible and McArthur was able to connect the eastern Manitoba resources directly to his lumberyard in Winnipeg, located on Higgins Avenue near the CPR tracks. In 1902 McArthur opened a logging camp near old Pinawa and set up his mill on the Winnipeg River just north of the present townsite of Lac du Bonnet. He shipped the lumber, as well as cordwood to Winnipeg. The mill was closed in 1918, but he continued to search for a more suitable market for the small-sized woods available from eastern Manitoba’s forests. By 1924 his pursuits resulted in the development of the Manitoba Pulp and Paper Co. mill in Pine Falls, Manitoba.

painted by  A. Hamber 1912

 Click to enlarge