Pagwa River

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Coordinates: 50°00′49″N 85°13′07″W / 50.0136°N 85.2186°W / 50.0136; -85.2186
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Pagwa
Etymology: Pagwachuan River
Pagwa is located in Ontario
Pagwa
Pagwa
Location of Pagwa in Ontario
Coordinates: 50°00′49″N 85°13′07″W / 50.0136°N 85.2186°W / 50.0136; -85.2186
CountryCanada
ProvinceOntario
DistrictCochrane
Census divisionUnorg. North Cochrane
Founded1913
Elevation
188 m (617 ft)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern Time Zone)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (Eastern Time Zone)
Postal code FSA
P0L
Area codes705, 249

Pagwa River is an unincorporated community in geographic Bicknell Township[1][2] in Cochrane District, northeastern Ontario, Canada.[3] It is named for the Pagwachuan River.

Pagwa is on a now abandoned portion of the Canadian National Railway main line originally constructed as the National Transcontinental Railway transcontinental main line,[4] between the railway points of Wilgar to the west and Pagwa River to the east, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the point where the line crossed the Pagwachuan River at the community of Pagwa River.

A now abandoned airfield, created by the Department of National Defence[5] in the mid-1930s in part using 47,047 person-days of unemployment relief labour,[6] lies on the north of rail line. A Frontier College instructor was located at the construction camp.[5] The airfield became in the late 1930s part of a string of emergency landing sites for Trans-Canada Air Lines (today Air Canada) to support their transcontinental flight operations.[7] From 1952 to 1966, the airfield was USAF Pagwa Air Station and then RCAF Station Pagwa, and operated as part of the Pinetree Line and other subsequent continental defence systems.

Pagwa is also on Airfield Creek, part of the James Bay drainage basin, which flows via the Pagwachuan River, Kenogami River and Albany River to James Bay.

History[edit]

Scow-men preparing to leave Pagwa, Revillon Frères, ON, 1920-30

It was named a railway divisional point because of its major junction of the railway and the Pagwachuan River. Here, it supported a fur trading post. Packet steamers ran between Pagwa and James Bay to serve the Revillon Freres trading post and community early in the 1900s. Pagwa then became the site of an airfield and airforce base of the Pinetree Line Distant Early Warning system, which was decommissioned in 1968.[8] From 1952 to after 1962, this station was operated by the United States Air Force's 913th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron.[9]

In its heyday, Pagwa was busy with commercial activity. Goods transported by rail to Pagwa for the Trade Post were unloaded from boxcars onto a long wooden chute that slid the goods downhill to the doorstep of the Post. Each year large wooden barges were constructed at Pagwa to float goods by steamer to villages along the Kenogami and Albany Rivers as far as Ogoki and Fort Albany. The barges were built from douglas-fir timbers brought from British Columbia by rail (R. Ferris, 2010).

The tracks and the top surface sheathing of the railway bridge are presently removed. The bridge was last used by Thunderhouse Forest Services Inc as access for a treeplanting operation on the west side of the Pagwachuan River in 2006. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Geraldton Area Office, blocked use of the bridge later that year.

Commercial activity and population began declining after the Trans-Canada Highway opened up the region post World War II. Some of the original townsite has been purchased. Today, there are a few private cottages and seasonal homes, mostly owned by residents of Constance Lake First Nation and Hearst, Ontario. Some residents of Constance Lake today were born at Pagwa and spent many years of their lives there.

First Nations[edit]

Constance Lake First Nation, an Oji-Cree First Nation,[10] is home to close to 1,500 members of Ojibway and Cree ancestry.[11] who lived in Pagwa prior to being relocated to their current location. The Constance Lake First Nation is historically linked to the English River band, classified as a branch of the Albany band, by the Treaty 9 Canadian federal officials in 1905. Prior to Treaty 9, according to a 1901 Canadian census, there were 85 people inhabiting the English River area.:[12]

Between 1925-1940, many families from English River, Fort Albany and Moose Factory re-located to Pagwa (nearby the present-day Constance Lake First Nation) to follow employment opportunities.[13] Pagwa, named for the Pagwachuan River, one of the largest rivers in Northern Ontario, was valued by First Nations and the North-West fur traders, as an access, along with the Albany River, to James Bay and Hudson Bay. Pagwachuan is a Cree word meaning shallow river. Pagwa, a railway divisional point, had a fur trading post, as it was at a major junction of the railway and the Pagwachuan River. Packet steamers ran between Pagwa and James Bay to serve the Revillon Freres trading post and community early in the 1900s. By May 1940 the majority of the English River First Nation resided at Pagwa as the English River reserve was "uninhabitable", according to Reverend Clarke who had requested funding for a new school at Pagwa. In 1943 the Department of Indian Affairs began to consider the creation of a new Band for those living at Pagwa which included members of Albany and Moose Factory (Attawapiskat) Bands who also resided at Pagwa. In the 1940s, Constance Lake First Nation "absorbed essentially the whole of the English River Band and also members of the Albany and Moose Factory Bands who lived nearby."[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Bicknell" (PDF). Geology Ontario - Historic Claim Maps. Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  2. ^ Restructured municipalities - Ontario map #2 (Map). Restructuring Maps of Ontario. Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. 2006. Archived from the original on 2014-04-10. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  3. ^ "Pagwa". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  4. ^ "Ontario and Quebec Railway Territories" from the 2nd Edition, 1915, Atlas of Canada (Map). 1 : 2,217,600. Natural Resources Canada. 1913. Archived from the original on 2010-07-28. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  5. ^ a b "MG28, I 124 - Finding Aid No. 736 / Instrument de recherche no 736" (PDF). Frontier College Fonds. National Archives of Canada. 2003. p. 418. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  6. ^ "Unemployment Relief Work Camps 1932–1936" (XLS). The Impact of the Great depression, 1928-1940. Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project. p. 9. Retrieved 2011-08-24. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  7. ^ Beitler, Stu (2009-05-08). "Armstrong, ON Airliner Crash On Landing, Feb 1941". GenDisasters. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2011-08-24. Transcribed from "Twelve die in TCA crash - Six of victims from Winnipeg". Winnipeg Free Press. 1941-02-06.
  8. ^ Richard Cameron (August 19, 2002). "The History of Pagwa". Archived from the original on July 5, 2008.
  9. ^ Cornett, Lloyd H.; Johnson, Mildred W. A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980 (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-02-13. Retrieved 2011-11-29. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  10. ^ "Constance Lake (Achikamii/Achikamaw)". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2011-08-21.
  11. ^ Louise Gaudrault (10 June 2013). "Constance Lake First Nation Community Members to Have Access to Online and Distance Programs and Courses without Leaving their Community".
  12. ^ "James Bay Treaty-Treaty No. 9". Ottawa, Ontario: Superintendent General of Indian Affairs. 6 November 1905. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  13. ^ a b "History". Constance Lake First Nation.

External links[edit]

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