Monteith
Monteith is about 20 kilometres northwest of Matheson (on Highway 11), and 11 kilometres south of Iroquois Falls. Most people see places like Monteith as dots-on-the-map, but if you look behind the map you'll find that places like these often have some pretty neat histories.
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Monteith was founded in 1916 as Driftwood City (the ‘city’ part obviously debatable to some ) but was destroyed by fire soon after. The town (‘town’ less debateable) was then rebuilt as the home of a demonstration farm. I've been told that the town was named Monteith after a former Provincial Minister of Agriculture.
The
demonstration farm was eventually converted into a military training centre,
which was then used as a boarding school, which was then turned into an abandoned
boarding school, which then turned into a jail, which then turned into a World
War II Prisoner-of-War camp, which then turned back into a jail.
Today Monteith is known for being the home of Monteith Correctional Centre, a medium security prison that bears an eerie resemblance to my old high school. The facility is pictured here (Monteith, not my old highschool.)
Paul emailed in to tell me that, prior to 1966 most of the staff lived on jail property in housing built by the government. There were apartment buildings and a couple of single family dwellings, row housing and a residence for single staff. Monteith Correctional Centre garnered some attention from the rest of Ontario when it was reported that prisoners had tunelled beneath the surface, striking a rich vein of ore. During the summer of '64 or '65 there was an iron ore discovery north of Timmins. This was quite a rich find, and was followed by a huge smelter being built just outside of Timmins. The find of iron ore sparked speculators and claim staking in an area of approx. 40 - 50 miles all around Timmins. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of claims staked. Apparently, a Toronto Star reporter with a vivid imagination described the exploration boom with the following headline:
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“Merry
Christmas (from Monteith) Merry
Christmas (from Monteith) Lyrics from “Merry Christmas (from Monteith)” on the Grievous Angels’ album 22 Trailer Park (released 1999). To listen, choose hi res (fast computer) or lo res (slow computer like most of us.) |
"Startled
guards at the Monteith Correctional Centre discovered miners tunnelling underneath
the jail in search of iron ore".
Of course it wasn't true. Apparently somebody must have fed that reporter
quite a line, but it was good for a few laughs. ( I guess they didn't check
sources in those days).
Back in the day, tThere was also a small variety store that was closed more than it was open. Supposedly, the telephone switch board was contracted out in increments of one year, and village people could bid to have it in their house. The downside of this was painfully obvious -- the operator was on call 24/7 for each phonecall that came into town!
The Railway
Monteith
was also a railway centre, being on the old Ontario Northland Railway (ONR)
line. Paul was also telling me that, usually, the overnight daily passenger
train from Toronto was due in Monteith sometime in the morning. The schedule,
for the most part, was fairly good, except in the winter. (Those were the
days of devastating winters, which seem to now be long gone). Anyways, back
in those days if the train arrived on the same day in the winter it
was considered to be on time.
In addition to
being late, those old trains were...well...not the fatest engines in the shed.
Paul emailed, telling me that he: "was actually in the station one day
talking to the stationmaster when he looked at his watch and said - gotta
go - it's due about now. When I enquired what this was about he said he was
expecting a CNR freight train. The CNR mainline railway bridge burned at Folyet
or Wawa (can't remember which) and they rerouted all trains to the west via
the ONR.
"I followed him to the station platform and as we looked south towards
Val Gagné, sure enough a CNR freight train was rounding the bend and
sped by the station at a high rate of speed. The stationmaster was like a
little kid, almost jumping up and down onthe station platform, such was his
excitement. Because none of the ONR freight trains ever went that fast.
However, the real story is as follows: It wasn't that the ONR was slow, but
that they knew that the track jsut couldn't handle those speeds. "During
the two weeks or so that it took to replace a burned out mainline bridge,
one of the CRN freight trains derailed about 20 miles south of Cochrane. In
that section of the country, there is a lot of marsh and permafrost. With
their excessive speeds and huge trains, the continued pounding of the railway
bed led to a derailment one day. I think it was only a few boxcars, but they
stayed upright and cut or destroyed the ends of approx. 2500 railway ties.
Needless to say, those guys from CNR weren't too popular with the ONR track
maintenance people."
In the summer of 1965 a decision was made to close the Monteith ONR station.
According to Paul, supposedly a "fly by night" construction company
was given the job of demolition and this was what they did. One of the guys
in this company heard that if you put a couple of sticks of dynamite in the
attic and set it off, the ensuing explosion would pop the roof a little bit
and make it easier to get the boards and shingles off. Apparently believing
that more would be better several sticks of dynamite were used and the result
was absolutely spectacular.
Paul adds: "I was just leaving the administration office of the Correctional Centre when I heard the big bang. My first thoughts were that the central heating plant (or powerhouse) had blown up. However, as I gazed towards the railway tracks I observed the roof of the old train station in probably a hundred thousand pieces and about a half mile in the air. The concussion from this exuberant blast blew in the front picture window of a house across the road from the station and even injured a woman who was sleeping on her chesterfield." Apparently the ONR settled out of court with this lady in the lawsuit that followed.
I've only been to Monteith once, so I haven't done a tonne of exploring. I counted maybe 20 houses (there are probably more, I always seem to under-count and get emails later) there is the Mary Magdalene Church (pictured), an old playground, a pop machine, and oddly enough a totally random garden centre. Ther'es probably more I just didn't get to see it that day.
Thanks a lot to Paul for the stories about Monteith, without whom this page would be much much shorter! Check out Museum North - Monteith for more historical info.
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