Enjoy these vintage Canadian postcards of Mattawa, Ontario. These old postcards from the Nipissing District and a portion of the Parry Sound District that’s in the “Blue Sky Region” are shown for educational purposes, in digital museum format. If you have images or historical information which you’d like to share with our virtual museum, feel free to do so. We welcome community contributions and will be happy to credit you on the Acknowledgments and Credits page.

Strategically located at the juncture of the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers and nestled in the upper Laurentian Mountains, Mattawa was the earliest settlement in the Nipissing District as exploration pushed westward and northward. Its importance to the voyageur’s fur trading route and to northern and westward settlement can hardly be overemphasized. As early as 1610, when Étienne Brûlé camped in Mattawa, it became the starting point of the voyageur’s fur trapping and trading route west via Talon Lake and Trout Lake to North Bay and Sturgeon Falls and south, via Lake Nipissing, to the Georgian Bay and the Great Lakes. Because the Mattawa was a gateway to northwest exploration, it was the most important tributary of the Ottawa River. Only five years later, in July 1615, famous French explorer Samuel de Champlain, sometimes referred to as “The Father of New France” for his role in founding both Québec and Montreal, stayed in Mattawa for a few days while repairing his canoe. To the left, we see a c. 1940s CKC real-photo postcard (sometimes referred to as an RPPC) illustrating the town’s important riverside location and its raison d’être. Learn more about collecting and dating vintage postcards on the reference and Canadiana pages.

Mattawa was first “officially” noted on a tip of land belonging to the British, in The Royal Proclamation of 1763. Issued on 7 October 1763 by King George III (1738-1820), the proclamation followed Britain’s acquisition of French territory at the conclusion of the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War. The proclamation’s purpose was two-fold: to legitimize in writing Britain’s North American empire (including about one-third of the United States), and to try, through regulation of settlement, land purchases and trade, to stabilize relationships with First Nations’ tribes, who had preferred the French to the British. As early as 1784, the North West Company, a Montreal-based fur trading company, built a small trading post, Fort Mattawan (sometimes referred to as Fort Mattaouan), at Mattawa. Beaver was the name of the game, and the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) competed bitterly for the pelts, until the two companies finally merged in 1821.

The scarce image to the left shows the Hudson’s Bay supply depot in about 1920, when photographed by an unknown engineer who was designing one of the Riordon Pulp & Paper mills. His writing says: “This was our engineering office. Old Hudson Bay supply depot. Still standing in 1950. The office, Riordon Co.” The supply depot was quite large, with a brick addition to the right added c. 1880 to 1908 which had what appears to be a façade similar to that which one would see on a general store. Altogether, there were seven buldings at the outpost: a large store, two homes, two warehouses and two stables. The Hudson’s Bay location was so economically central to the Mattawa lifestyle, which still revolved primarily around fur trapping, that the first post office was in the HBC building known as Mattawa House, from 1856 until 1858. George Hunter, who managed Mattawa House beginning in 1853, was the first postmaster. After the HBC closed its Mattawa location in 1908, the building was used as the St. Anne’s parish hall until it burned in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

Nearby HBC outposts were located at Lake Temiskaming, as seen to the left in a 1909 real-photo postcard by Alex McLean of Haileybury, and at Sturgeon Falls and Temagami. Fort Temiskaming, built between 1679 and 1685, was the largest trading post on the Ottawa River. It was abandoned in 1902. All that remains are some stone chimneys and an early cemetery, with Parks Canada maintaining the grounds. Dating as it does to 1909, this is the earliest McLean RPPC in our collection; however, his last name stamped on the reverse is erroneously spelled McLean and not MacLean, which is the usual manner in which his Temagami area images were signed. See the Northern Ontario Postcard Photographers checklist to learn more about postcard photographers of the Nipissing and Temagami districts.

In 1926, the Mattawa voyageur route was designated as a site of national historic significance for its role in opening up western exploration and in 1930, a bronze plaque commemorating the voyageur’s route was presented to Mattawa by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. The tablet reads: “Le Portage Mattawa, Main route to the Great Lakes, Plains, Rockies and beyond, used by the Indians, Explorers, Traders and Missionaries, French and English. Upon its traffic was founded the early commercial prosperity of Montreal.” The postcard is c. 1954. Who built the stone cairn? It’s in front of the Mattawa post office, at the intersection of Main (Highway 533) and Mattawan Sts.

The strategic importance of Mattawa’s location in early exploration and westward expansion is further attested to by the number of other explorers also known to have passed through the area, including but not limited to: Jean Nicolet (Nicollet) de Belleborne; Father Jean de Brébeuf; Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (founder of Detroit); René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle; Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye; Médard Chouart des Groseilliers; Pierre Chevalier de Troyes; Daniel Greysolon Duluth; Martin Frobisher; Louis Jolliet; Father Lallement; Sir Alexander MacKenzie; Father Jacques Marquette; William McGillivray; François-Marie Perrot; Peter Pond; Pierre-Esprit Radisson; and Simon François Daumont St. Lusson.

In 1615, when Champlain returned from a trip to France, he brought several missionaries back with him, with a goal of converting Indians to Christianity. One of the missionaries, Father Joseph LeCaron, in describing his trip up the Ottawa, Mattawa and La Vase rivers, wrote: “It would be hard to tell you how tired I was with paddling all day, with all my strength, among Indians, wading the waters a hundred times or more, through the mud and over the sharp rocks that cut my feet; carrying the canoe and luggage through the woods to avoid rapids and frightful cataracts; half starved all the while for we had nothing to eat but [a] little sagamite, [a] sort of porridge of water and pounded maize. We rested a few days, repairing our canoes, at the meetings of the waters [Mattawa], then pushed on west to the Lake of the Nipissings [North Bay].” Even Champlain once wrote: “This land is rather cold and uninhabitable.” Actually, no one knows what Champlain looked like, as his facial features are vague in the only surviving image of him, which is an engraving of a 1609 battle at Lake Champlain. Other paintings thought to have been of Champlain were later shown to be portraits of Michel Particelli d’Émery, a French banker and ambassador. Since there remains no accurate portrait of Champlain, here we’ll include a fanciful, more contemporary image of Champlain, as he led North Bay’s “Old Home Week” parade in 1925. If you know the identity of this costumed rider, let us know.

Tradition has it that the first white settlers arrived between 1863 and 1867. They were Noah Timmins, James Bangs and a Mr. Gorman. Timmins built the Western, the first hotel in town, and was also a storekeeper involved in the lumber trade. A Mr. Durell, previously unaccounted for, operated the Western. Bangs owned and operated the Bangs Hotel, which opened in 1869; he’s considered to be the fledgling town’s first merchant and also served as the second postmaster, from 1864 to 1877. However, Great Britain was in urgent need of white pine for shipbuilding to sail the seas of her Great Empire and between 1855 and 1860, up to eight years before the arrival of the settlers mentioned above, the lumber business extended northwest from Ottawa to Mattawa, spurred on by timber barons such as the legendary J. R. Booth. E. B. Eddy, Gillies, Alex Lumsden, Mackey, McLaren, McLaughlin and the Pembroke Lumber Co. were other early names in the local logging business.

And, finally, came the iron horse. In the early 1880s, the Lake Temiscaming Colonization Railway came to Mattawa, with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) tracks extended from Pembroke to Mattawa in February 1881. (In fact, the CPR laid track all the way to Sturgeon Falls that year.) A scarce 1905 Atkinson Bros. patriotic private postcard at top left shows the CPR bridge and other railroad buildings. It’s somewhat uncommon to see railroads featured as the subject matter of patriotic postcards. On the reverse, this old postcard bears an illegible railroad post office (R.P.O.) cancel. The c. 1930s to 1940s Photogelatine Engraving Co. (PECO) postcard, published in Ottawa, shows the CPR bridge crossing the Ottawa River. In both images, the view is east towards Québec.

On Christmas Eve in 1894, another milestone was reached when the Mattawa Electric Light and Power Co. came online and the first electric lights shown with power from the Hurdman Power Plant, which was two miles west of town on the Mattawa River. The dam at La Cave on the Ottawa River is shown to the left. Built in 1952 by the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario, it supplied 144,000 kilowatts of power to the province at the time this c. 1960s or 1970s Forder postcard was published.

Many Mattawans served as early members of Parliament for the Nipissing District, including Liberal Party member Charles Arthur McCool (27 February 1853-19 March 1926), seen in a scarce patriotic political postcard depicting Sir Wilfred Laurier and McCool. Born in Chichester, Québec, McCool served two years as a reeve in Mattawa and also as mayor before representing the Nipissing riding in the House of Commons from 1900 to 1908. This postcard is No. UNK15-002 in Mike Smith’s Canadian Patriotic Postcard Checklist, 1898-1928. McCool was defeated in the 1908 election by a North Bay lumber merchant, Conservative George Gordon. Other Mattawa politicians have included the Honourable Frank Cochrane, Dr. M. James, J. B. Klock of Klock’s Mill, Charles Lamarche, John Loughrin and Harry Morel.

The c. 1906 birds-eye view at top left shows many of the town’s buildings from a distance, while the scarce 1905 Atkinson Bros. patriotic postcard, entitled “A Pioneer of Mattawa, Ont.” and postmarked in Calvin in 1907, shows a white-bearded logger and some of the town’s Main St. buildings in greater detail. A second copy of this postcard contains valuable historical information on the reverse. The note reads: “The photo is of Mr. McCarthy and his team, consisting of one horse and one oxen [sic]. He homesteaded in the hills, on the north side of Champlain Lake [Lake Chant Plein], known as McCarthy’s Sugar Bush. He lived alone. Had an old hound dog for company…The hip roof building [far right] with the sign in front was Lamothe’s Bake Shop.” Notice the rough dirt road and the wooden boardwalk upon which a young man stands; this was the norm for roads and sidewalks of the time.

Here are two interesting c. 1920s photos of Main St. homes in the winter, photographed by the Riordon engineer mentioned above. In the image at top left, the first home is a log cabin from the 19th century. The photographer wrote: “I put in about a year up here in 1920-21 laying out a pulp mill for the Riordon Pulp & Paper Co. Cold? Yeh. 45 below zero. 240 miles northwest of Ottawa.” Two possible locations for this home have been suggested: next to Sid Turcotte’s trailer park, with a large fence now occupying the property, and a Main Street location as seen from the bridge looking towards Highway 17. If you know more about this log house, let us know and we’ll be happy to include the information. More homes on Main St., with a similar message, are shown in the second photo. Do you recognize the location?

McConnell St. homes are seen in this c. 1920s postcard. The road is still dirt, although it appears that a concrete sidewalk is in place on the right side of the street. Do you recognize any of the homes? The view is south, with the Laurentian Mountains in the background. The post card’s message on the reverse bears an August 1936 date.

Travelers could stay at the Mattawa House, seen in a c. 1920s-1930s postcard published by the International Fine Art Co. of Montreal. Built in 1881 and showing a Second Empire architectural style influence with the mansard roof, it was operated by F. Chaput when the 1910 postal cover (below) was sent. Other owners have included Cleo Lamarche (previously an agent of timber baron J. R. Booth), K. MacKechnie (spelling?) and Dawn and Roger Ogletree. Mattawa House still stands.

Here’s a 1937 postcard showing a side view of Mattawa House. On the reverse, the sender writes:“There is a marvelous view of the Ontario River from the porch of this hotel.” The card is actually a folding double view, which we’ve separated into two images for ease of viewing. Also on the reverse is a Mattawa House advertisement, in which the owners say that they own and operate Mac’s Lodge, Lake Talon, Rutherglen…“a handy fishing and hunting lodge only 14 miles west of Mattawa…The Lodge is opened from early May until late Autumn, and the rates are reasonable…Only 29 miles to the world famous Dionne Quintuplets.” The second image from the front shows a map to Mattawa and an inset of Mac’s Lodge, which was a modest log cabin structure with an inviting porch and steps leading down to the shore.

This 1888 postal cover is from Ottawa House, when P. O’Farrell was the proprietor. The envelope, addressed to Ethel Charlton at the Ontario Institute for the Blind in Brantford, has a Mattawa split-ring cancel dated SP 14 88 (14 September 1888). The back has CDS cancels from Ottawa and Brantford. Many thanks to Peter Laycock of North York, Ontario for kindly providing this image.

A scarce c. 1903 postcard, published by Dr. C. W. Haentschel of Mattawa, shows the Ottawa House at front left. Located at the corner of Main St. and McConnell, it’s of board-and-batten construction and has a deeply recessed front entry highlighted with transom lights. The building had a second-story porch, where someone is seen sitting. The large street sign says: “Ottawa House/A. Valois,” for Armand Valois. We’ve been told that Valois owned the Ottawa House from 1890 to 1895, when it was sold to the Desjardins. It burned in 1899 and was rebuilt as the Royal Hotel and later renamed as the Trans-Canada Hotel. Just to the right of the Ottawa House is a small shed which may have been a fruit stand. Four doors down, J. H. Bell’s hardware store is seen, the first of two three-story brick buildings on the Ottawa House side of Main St. The other three-story brick building, a few doors down from Bell’s, now houses McCool’s sports bar. McCool’s drugstore was in this building in the 1970s. “Obbie” McCluskey’s Rexall drug store was there prior to McCool’s drug store. The other side of the McCool building housed the Bank of Nova Scotia in earlier times. Apartments and a hairdressing salon owned by Marguerite Ribout were upstairs.

The Trans-Canada is shown here when Alexander Emond was the proprietor. We’ve seen another copy of the Trans Canada postcard with Mrs. Blanche Morel’s name stamped on the front. The Morels owned the Trans Canada in the 1920s. Unfortunately, this local landmark burned down in August 1997. In the c. 1940s PECO postcard at bottom left, the Trans-Canada is on the left side of Main St., looking north. Also on that side of the street are business signs for a drug store offering Sweet Caporal cigarettes; the shop of tailor F. A. Ribout, which remained family-owned for over 90 years until its 1990s closure; a large three-story brick building with advertising near the roofline for Bell’s hardware store, which was housed within, and an Imperial gas station. McCool’s can also be seen, further down the block. On the right side of the road is a smaller Sweet Caporal advertising sign and Mattawa Lunch (see below). If you can identify more of the businesses, let us know their names and we’ll include them.

A later 1950s real-photo postcard of Main St. shows Imperial gas in the left forefront, with a Bargain Store next to it. We can’t quite make out the name of the Bargain Store’s owner. Ritter & Sons is at right front, with the wonderful Art Deco sign for the Champlain movie theatre shown prominently and the Hotel Mattawa a little further down the road. An early home is sandwiched between Ritter & Sons and the Champlain. At the time this photo was taken, the house served as Dan Mooney’s insurance agency. Does anyone know whose home this was in earlier times?

The post office finally found a permanent home with construction of this Main St. building in 1955. It had previously been located in the aforementioned Hudson’s Bay outpost, in James Bangs’ store, in a building where the Champlain Theatre now stands, in Noah Timmins’ Back I. Tongue store, in the Bell store and in the Lamothe bakery. Local historian Leo Morel was postmaster when this building opened, serving until 1969; Robert J. Gennings is the present postmaster. Below is an 1894 postage stamp with a violet split-ring Mattawa cancel, from the time period when the post office was run by George Smith at the site of the present-day Champlain Theatre. Smith was postmaster from December 1892 to 1902.

Postcards can be used to document changes in the built environment, and to identify important remaining buildings for historic preservation purposes. It’s interesting to see the changes on the same section of Main St. looking north in the 1960s to 1970s. What was the name of the taxicab stand at front left? It doesn’t appear to be the same cab stand seen in the next paragraph. Or is it? Three handsome late 19th c. brick Victorian buildings still anchor the left side of the street, including the building which housed Bell’s hardware store. On the right side of the street, just beyond the sign pointing to Champlain Provincial Park, is Riverview Restaurant, located where Mattawa Lunch once was (see below). The Champlain movie theatre is seen. This chrome postcard image was photographed by Len Leiffer, a commercial photographer who worked throughout many Canadian provinces. At bottom left, we see a c. 1970s Forder postcard again showing the same stretch of Main St. (Highway 533), in which the Riverview, a barber shop, the Champlain, the Mattawa Hotel and the now-closed IGA are visible.

Here, the view is south on Main St., as photographed by Wayne Reid. Much of the historic fabric of the town’s architecture has been retained in this section of Main St. The building at bottom right (only partially seen) was Ike Tongue’s clothing store. Since then, it has been the site of an antiques store and a meat market. Presently, a magazine of some sort is located there. Joffre Ribout of Mattawa wrote: “Continuing up the street is Mattawa IDA Drugs. In the 50s, this was the liquor store on one side and McElroy’s, a variety store, on the other. I believe it was owned by a Mr. Gamache. There are apartments above…The next building is a small one-story building which housed Morin insurance and [which] later became a vegetable market. This is where the taxi stand with the clock probably was (see below). Next is a two-story building, Kannegiser’s Furniture. It is becoming a restaurant…Next to that is the Madadjiwan building, formerly Crest Hardware, owned by my uncle Armand Ribout and before that by his father-in-law, Mr. Guilbeault.” Many thanks to Mr. Ribout, for this and other information supplied.

From a social history perspective, the images on postcards were often chosen to depict the grander sites in a town, and thus this charming Azo real-photo postcard, dating to 1947-1948 and showing Mattawa Lunch and A. J. Belanger’s taxi stand, is a scarce depiction of the more mundane aspects of life. The taxicabs shown are a 1947 Chevrolet model. Mattawa Lunch, which burned down in the late 1940s to early 1950s, also advertises Sweet Caporal and has a Coca-Cola entryway kick plate. Three cabs await Belanger’s passengers. His sign says “All Passengers Insured.” One can only assume that not all public transportation of the time insured its passengers, which seems strange in our more litigious times. A small round clock is located at the top of Belanger’s advertising sign.

Other eateries have included Welk’s (B/P) Restaurant on Highway 17 East, seen in a great c. 1960s roadside Canadiana postcard of the restaurant’s interior. A lady who is probably the owner and a waitress hold up menus. If you know their names, let us know and we’ll include them. There’s lots of Coca-Cola advertising on the walls, a Coca-Cola cooler to the left of the owner, and an interesting appple-shaped advertisement on the wall saying: “Big Thick Red Apple Shakes.” Myrt’s Grill was a smallish roadside diner on Highway 17, owned by Myrt and Norm Dixon and open 24 hours a day. Leiffer took the Myrt’s Grill image, which is hand-dated on the reverse as Tuesday, 16 April 1974.

The hardier traveler could camp at Sid Turcotte Park, still going strong just off the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 17) in Mattawa. The Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, just west of Mattawa, includes 2,550 hectares (1,032 acres) along an eastern section of the Mattawa, which itself is a Canadian Heritage river protected along most of its 64-kilometre length. Interestingly, the Mattawa travels along a 600 million-year-old faultline. Champlain Park notably contains a bottle brush grass-wild rye hybrid found nowhere else, and is home to more than 200 species of birds. Antoine Provincial Park, on the Ottawa River in Mattawan township, is also nearby, with Antoine Creek flowing into the Ottawa River just above Mattawa.

Here’s a c. 1910 postcard, published by Dr. Haentschel, of Antoine Creek. Many people are out and about, and we wonder if logging activity is occurring. The c. 1910 Lion Chute postcard, also published by Haentschel, appears to be hand colored and is miscaptioned as “Loin Chute,” thus adding to the postcard’s rarity. Looking closely at the rock in the top left corner, one sees that it does resemble the head of a roaring lion. According to Joffre Ribout of Mattawa, the lion’s head rock has fallen off. Ribout wrote: “I used to fish here as a young man. It [Lion Chute] is located up off Highway 533 on the Antoine, just about where the access road to Redbridge meets 533. It is in a bit and not easy to get to.” In the Lion Chute image, several men are standing on what appears to be a log slide. The sender wrote: “This town is okay…I am just sitting in the station and hear the Montreal Express coming in (9:55 p.m.).” Dr. Haentschel was Mattawa’s first doctor. He later moved to Haileybury.

Another “beauty spot,” as they were sometimes called, is Colton’s Falls. Where, exactly, are the falls? This nicely detailed c. 1903-1907 vintage postcard was published by the Valentine & Sons’ Publishing Co. of Montreal and Toronto.

Moosehead Lodge is seen in a c. 1940s postcard. It’s on the north side of Lake Chant Plein, about a mile from the Hurdman Dam, and is mistakenly labeled as Lake Champlain on this post card. Roy Rogers, an American cowboy actor, and his comedic sidekick, Pat Brady, hunted at Moosehead in the 1940s, when the Hiseys owned the lodge. Rogers was a repeat customer, and autographed pictures of him were on some of the walls.

In a second c. 1940s PECO postcard of the lodge (left), we see a lady in a sweater with some type of spaniel or Basset Hound near the building. The lodge is quite large; it was built by Henry Timmins, Jr., a brother of Noah Timmins, in 1939. It’s now a private residence. To the right, the lodge is seen on a snowy day in a c. 1940s CKC real-photo postcard. The lodge’s business name and logo are to the right of the front door, while a “tame deer” wanders in the snow.

The Rainbow Cabins, a complex of frame roadside cottages seen here in a CKC real-photo postcard dating to the 1940s, offered more modest accommodations. According to Ribout, the Rainbow Cabins were “at the top of Main St. on the Ottawa River side of the tracks, across from the Anglican Church.”

Speaking of moose, a c. 1915 International Fine Art postcard shows one at Antoine Creek, mislabeled on the card as “St. Antoine Creek.” The moose at Antoine Creek reminds us of the notation made on the first map of the area. Prepared in Paris in 1653 by King Louis XIV’s cartographer, Nicolas Sanson, and based on Champlain’s discoveries, the phrase “Grande Chasse de Cerfs et Caribous, ” meaning “big hunt of deer and caribou” is marked on the Mattawa area to denote the plentiful game.

To the left is a more contemporary postcard from Antoine Provincial Park. The Len Leiffer postcard to the right shows a c. 1960s family with their catch. The Otto Holden dam on the Ottawa River is in the background. Named for Dr. Otto Holden, an engineer who was a Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario assistant general manager, the dam was built from Spring 1949 to 1953.

Someone got busy with their camera in the winter of 1931, taking pictures of winter sports. Was the men’s hockey team known as the Rockets then, as they are now as members of the Nipissing District Hockey League (NDHL)? Does anyone know the names of these players? Below are images of the women’s broomball team, taken on 28 February 1932. Left to right (front row), the broomball team members were: Leyda Fink; Claire Freve; Gertie Burke; Simone Hurtubise; Clara Sauve; Gertie Sloan; Antoinette Fink; Eunice Backer; and Edythe Reid. In the back row (left ro right) were Winnie Laclaire; G. McCracken; Marguerite McElroy; and Bill Carson. The second photo of the broomball team doesn’t give the players’ names.

In town, children could play at the Timmins Recreation Park, seen in a 1940s CKC real-photo postcard. The park was named after early settler and mining speculator Noah Timmins, for whom the town of Timmins was also named. And the fishing was good for the young boy seen in a c. 1920s-1930s postcard erroneously labeled: “A morning’s catch on Lake Champlain [Lake Chant Plein] at Mattawa, Ont.” It was published by the International Fine Art Co. of Montreal, which published a Mattawa House postcard seen earlier on this page. The misprint of Lake Chant Plein makes this old postcard more desirable. Does anyone recognize the landscape, which has a small white picket fence in the background? The location is perhaps Moosehead Lodge, which is one of only a few local spots with flat ground close to the water.

Speaking of Noah Timmins, four of his great-grandchildren are well-known entertainers: Margo, Michael and Peter formed the Cowboy Junkies rock and roll band and Cali Timmins is an actress. Anahareo (Gertrude Bernard, 1906-1986), was another notable person from Mattawa. An Iroquois conservationist, she played a critical role in converting her trapper husband, Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney), into a conservationist. In his 1934 Pilgrims of the Wild book, Grey Owl details how, after Anahareo saved the lives of two beaver kits, he rethought his way of life and began wildlife protection work. Anahareo authored Devil in Deerskins in 1972 and received the Order of Canada in 1983. She’s seen here in a c. 1938 photograph.

A notable site in Mattawa is the Soldier’s Monument, seen in a postcard entitled “Soldier’s Memorial Day” which was published by the Irwin Specialty Co. of Toronto. The lone sentinel looks out over the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers, still standing guard. What was the purpose of the Mattawa Women’s Institute, which had this statue erected, and in what years were they active? Can anyone provide a more specific date regarding the placement of this statue, or information on the sculptor? We think the postcard dates to 1919, the first year that Remembrance Day, or Poppy Day, was observed in Canada to honor those who gave their lives during war. The 11 November observance date corresponds to the date on which World War I ended in 1918. Although the statue’s inscription within the wreath reads “1914-1918,” the memorial now honors those who served in both World Wars as well as in the Korean War. Does anyone recognize the 19th c. building behind the soldier?

Engraved in the base of the statue are the names of three places in which Mattawans fought: Ypres, Arras and Valenciennes. Ypres, Belgium was the scene of some of the bloodiest battles in World War I because it was directly on the path that Germany chose to sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north. In the Second Battle of Ypres, from 22 April to 25 May 1915, chemical warfare was used for one of the first times when the Germans attacked Canadian forces with chlorine gas. (Later, in 1917, mustard gas also made its debut when used by Germany.) Airplanes, machine guns, poison gas and tanks were all used for the first time in World War I. All made killing easier, leading to the greatest war casualties ever seen up to that point. The deadliest and largest of the Ypres battles was the third, from 21 July to 6 November 1917, in which there were half a million Allied casualties and an equal number of German casualties.

In France, the Battle of Arras took place from 9 April to 16 May 1917. The Canadian Corps captured Hill 145 (Vimy Ridge); the Battle of Vimy Ridge was a significant event in Canadian history because the Canadian Corps, with all four divisions working in unison for the first time, planned the battle and provided over 15,000 soldiers to capture the ridge, thus providing a great military advantage to Allied forces. Vimy also reinforced a sense of Canadian pride and national identity. The Corps shelled German trenches for a week with over a million shells, in what was then the largest artillery barrage in history, destroying about 83 percent of German guns. German troops called this the “Week of Suffering,” and it’s said that the bombardment was so loud that it was heard in London, England. Canadian troops also used a new indirect fire technique with machine guns, providing cover for Allied troops while pinning Germans down in their trenches. Legend has it that a French soldier, when told of the ridge’s capture, said “C’est impossible!” until told that it was Canadians who took the ridge, at which point he exclaimed: “Ah! les Canadiens! C’est possible!”

A poignant result of the Second Battle of Ypres was the writing by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918) of “In Flanders Fields.” Written on the battlefield on 3 May 1915, it was published in the British magazine, Punch, the same year. McCrae, born in Guelph, was a field surgeon in charge of a hospital at Ypres; he wrote the poem after a former student and friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed in battle. Since then, the poppy has come to symbolize the bloodshed and sacrifices made in war. Sadly, McCrae never got to return to Canada. Still working in a field hospital, he died at age 40 of pneumonia and meningitis and was buried with military honours in Wimereaux Cemetery in France. Read more about John McCrae and the poppy at the Royal Canadian Legion.

Travel in town and across the Mattawa River was accomplished first via a wooden bridge built in 1877, which was replaced with the steel bridge seen being blessed on 22 September 1907 in the charming image at top left, which was published by the Novelty Manufacturing & Art Printing Co. of Montreal. Many of the town’s citizens are gathered on the bridge, beyond which one sees the hospital and St. Anne’s to the south. At bottom left, we see another view of the bridge, with a Union Jack flying atop it. Many other town buildings can also be seen. Although this postcard was not postmarked until 1921, it is actually an earlier c. 1907 card. We think this view is looking north. If you know the names of any of the buildings, let us know and we’ll be happy to include them.

This finely detailed private postcard probably also depicts the opening day of the bridge, based on the crowds. One can see that a sign naming the bridge has been added to it. The hospital, Catholic church and Boulevard des Oblats are seen. The sender, Dodo, writing to Berniece Cousins of Crown St. in Port Arthur, wrote: “Well, hope you are having just as good a time as we are. Made about 25 mashes already.” If that’s the case, it sounds like an excellent time was had by all.

Entering Mattawa from the east (Québec) in the 1930s, one would have travelled the unpaved Trans-Canada Highway, seen at top left in a 1930s PECO postcard. A welcoming wooden bridge, done in a rustic style, was a feature of the road. By the 1950s, the Trans-Canada was paved (bottom left), as seen in one of a number of images offered for sale by Mattawa’s Trans-Canada Hotel. At top right, we see a c. 1940s gateway to Mattawa as approached from the west. This bridge is of sturdier metal, and bears a sign saying that a 30 m.ph. speed limit is strictly enforced. A water tower can be seen in the distance. Murphy’s Road, narrow and unpaved in the 1940s, is seen at bottom right, entering Mattawa from Mattawan Township.

Speaking of bridges, does anyone recognize this one? It appears to be a single lane and looks much too narrow to be the bridge in downtown Mattawa. It’s been suggested that this could be a bridge in Papineau, Cameron or Mattawan Townships, just outside Mattawa, with another possibility being the bridge at Eau Clair on Highway 630 that crosses the Amable du Fond River. Perhaps someone will recognize the location from the house in the background. The picture was taken c. 1950.

Before good roads were built and before railroads came, travelers had limited transportation choices: walking, ice skating and snowshoeing (as seen in this c. 1907 Millard & Lang, Ltd. patriotic postcard, Series 3, “National Series 456,” MIL3-006 in Michael J. Smith’s The Canadian Patriotic Postcard Checklist, 1898-1928). Snowshoeing had its problems, as we learn on the moose hunting page. The other options were travel by horseback or travel by canoe or steamship. The first steamer to appear on Lake Temiskaming was the Mattawan, brought there in 1882 by Oliver Latour, an early lumberman. The Lake Temiskaming Colonization Railway (LTCR) brought the boat to Mattawa, as part of its operations to transport people and supplies from Mattawa to Long Sault Rapids at the foot of Lake Temiskaming. The Mattawan sailed to and from Mattawa to La Cave Rapids, while the Lottie’s route went from La Cave to Les Erables Rapids and the Charlotte traveled a Les Erables-Lake Temiskaming route. The Lottie was also used as a ferry around Mattawa, but both the Lottie and the Mattawan were destroyed by the same c. 1907 fire above Explorer’s Point. Captain John Belanger was one of the Mattawan’s captains. (The Charlotte was moved to Kipawa Lake in 1898, after she was purchased by Captain Patrick Kelly.)

One of the area’s largest steamers, which also had many ties to Mattawa, was the Meteor, the large white ship seen in the c. 1910 Azo Tri 1 real-photo postcard to the left. The steamer began life as the La Minerve and was owned by the LTCR. It’s been said that it may have been a paddlewheeler, which would have been rare for Ontario. While undergoing repair at lumberman Alex Lumsden’s shipyard at Opemicon Depot, La Minerve was sold to Lumsden in March 1888. The heyday of steamboat transportation was beginning in Northern Ontario, as immigrants (and the supplies needed to sustain them) poured into the region; La Minerve was renamed as the Meteor the following year and joined the Lumsden Steamboat Line.

Licensed to carry 130 passengers, the Meteor ferried most passengers and freight around Lake Temiskaming for nearly a decade. The fare was not inexpensive, with Haileybury founding father C. C. (Charles Cobbold) Farr noting in 1894 that the Meteor basic fare was $4.50 one-way from Mattawa, with an additional 85 cents extra per hundredweight of freight. To accomodate increasing numbers of immigrants, the Meteor was heavily remodeled and enlarged, beginning in 1895. By the time Lumsden’s workers were done, the steamer had been cut in half, lengthened by 25 feet, and rebuilt, becoming the largest vessel on Lake Temiskaming. It could travel up to 18 m.p.h. and carry 305 passengers. It set sail on 14 August 1897, with Captain Redmond of Mattawa at the helm. Redmond held that position until 1904. What was Captain Redmond’s first name?

The boat traveled a Temiskaming, Ville-Marie and Haileybury-Liskeard route. Interestingly, Lumsden had never opposed the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario (T. & N. O.). Railway. As mentioned earlier, the CPR had extended its tracks from Pembroke to Mattawa in 1881, so perhaps Lumsden saw the handwriting on the wall. To the left is a 1907-1915 split-view post card showing the T. & N. O. roundhouse and yards in North Bay. Founded in 1902 in North Bay as the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway Commission, the T. & N. O. was a provincial government railroad intended to facilitate Northern Ontario colonization from Lake Nipissing to New Liskeard on the northern end of Lake Temiskaming. Following Lumsden’s 1904 death from heart failure in New Edinburgh (now an Ottawa neighborhood), his widow, Margaret, sold the Lumsden Line boats on 15 February 1906 to Joseph Arthur Larochelle of Mattawa, a Lumsden Line employee who was forming the Temiskaming Navigation Company (TNC). The Meteor was valued at $12,800. But bellweather transportation changes had already occurred by 1905, with trains from North Bay sometimes carrying as many as 125 new settlers per day to more northerly areas such as New Liskeard, via the T. & N. O. There was really no need to order supplies via Mattawa anymore, or to have the steamers deliver them, when they could be had much more quickly via the railroad. Years of service to the Temiskaming area were coming to an end, although Larochelle seems not to have realized it.

Larochelle, whose family was from St. Anseline in southern Québec, likely came to Mattawa with the CPR, as he is known to have built a large scow in 1889 for the CPR. He was a works manager for the LTCR; it’s believed he went to work for Lumsden after the CPR absorbed the LTCR, as a maintenance worker and builder. He was active in promoting the area and was elected to Mattawa’s first council in 1892. Larochelle’s TNC incorporated on 20 February 1906, and was authorized to raise $99,000 in capital shares. An inaugural meeting of the directors was held in Mattawa in March 1906. Besides Larochelle, other Mattawa directors included Dr. Haentschel; in fact, most of the company stock was held by residents of Mattawa and the company’s headquarters was there. By mid-March, the TNC had gained title to the Meteor, as well as to three other Lumsden boats: the Jubilee, the Temiskaming and the Ville-Marie, as well as title to Lumsden wharves at New Liskeard, North and South Temiskaming and Ville-Marie. For the next seven years, Larochelle would serve as general manager.

The situation further deteriorated in 1911, after the Nipissing Central Railway Co., which had been incorporated in April 1907, came under ownership of the T. & N. O. in June 1911. Now, trolleys travelled to and from New Liskeard every 30 minutes and also ultimately served Haileybury, Cobalt and Kerr Lake as well. The scarce 1913 postcard to the left, printed by Curtis, Defoe Co. of Haileybury, shows a trolley heading up Ferguson Ave., with throngs of excited people looking on. Roads were macadamized in 1912 and there were eight cars in New Liskeard in 1913. In fact, in 1912, just about when mortgages to the Lumsden estate were paid off, the TNC had to take out mortgages totalling $13,000 on the Meteor and the Temiskaming. In Spring 1913, general manager Larochelle resigned for unknown reasons. It’s thought that he took a job with the Canadian International Paper Co. at Temiscaming, perhaps towing pulpwood logs in Québec. After that, nothing more was heard from him. The main office of the TNC was moved back to Temiskaming.

The TNC hired William Kervin of Callander as manager for the 1914 season. Kervin, known for his financial acumen, did his best but, in addition to all of the other woes, he was also up against the outbreak of WWI. Mounting casualties curbed enthusiasm for pleasure excursions, and Kervin only stayed for one seasion. Perhaps he wanted to concentrate on his own boating operations in Callander; Without giving any reasons, the TNC surrendered its charter in Spring 1917. Competition from more efficient transportation modes and diminishing profits were the bottom-line reasons for the TNC’s problems. One last try was made to keep a commercial passenger and freight service running on Lake Temiscaming. Télésphore Simard, a Liberal M.P. from Pontiac County, PQ, bought the Meteor and two other ships, receiving his charter for the Ville-Marie Navigation Co. (VMNC) in March 1917. For a little while longer, the Meteor and the Temiskaming continued to sail three times a week up and down the lake.

Richard Tatley, in Northern Steamboats: Temiskaming, Nipissing & Abitibi, writes that it was “still possible to dine in style aboard the Meteor. According to the recollections of Mme. Lucienne Paré, who as a young girl in 1917 followed her mother, Joséphine Racicot, as part of the steamer’s gallery staff, the breakfast menu consisted of crêpes, bacon and eggs and potatoes. Lunch featured ham, bacon, chops, or roast beef, with cake or pie for dessert. Dinner consisted of pork stew or chicken and vegetables, wth cake for dessert. Fruits were also served, but only in the first-class dining room. The tab was fifty cents. All of the food was supplied from a store in Ville-Marie. The atmosphere in the first-class dining room was very sedate, but second class, which was usually full of boatmen and newly arriving colons and their families, was invariably noisy. One of the girls on staff looked after each of the dining rooms, including dishwashing, while the third attended to the staterooms on the upper deck - for $25 a month plus room and board. Joséphine, who became chief cook, received a comfortable $75. Her daughter Lucienne quite enjoyed her days ‘at sea.’ ” Perhaps this was the sort of good time the sender of our Meteor postcard had, as a note on the reverse reads: “…had a big dance last night ’til four o’clock this a.m. Am laid up with grippe today.” The private postcard to the left was mailed in 1914, although it’s an earlier postcard. It was published by the Stadelman Bros. of New Liskeard and Cobalt.

The church, and particularly St. Anne’s, has always played a large role in Mattawa. The c. 1907 postcard at top left, published by the Canadian Souvenir Post Card Co., shows the Boulevard des Oblats and the prominent location of the Catholic Church on Rosemount Hill. In the finely detailed postcard at bottom left, which was published by Rumsey & Co. of Toronto, you’ll see the hospital and church described as being on “hospital hill.” The postcard bears a 1911 RPO (railroad post office cancel) from Train No. 20 of the Ottawa & S. S. Marie Railroad. You’ll notice that many other Mattawa images also prominently feature the church, as it was central to Mattawa life. Another old post card at bottom right, published by Dr. Haentschel, shows a different view of Hospital Hill.

Mass was first said in Mattawa in 1843 by the Reverend Father Bellefeuille, a French-Canadian. Those in attendance were primarily Indians. Father Laverlochere arrived next, in 1845, as the first of the Oblate missionaries. The Oblates traveled by canoe to Mattawa two or three times a year from their home base at Baie des Pères, near Ville Marie, Québec. Next to arrive were the Reverend Jean Marie Pian, an Oblate Superior, and Father Deleage, in 1859. Father Pian remained in 1860, recording the first Mattawa baptism, of two-year-old Antoine Thivierge. The first Catholic church was built in 1863 under Father Lebret’s tenure. By the time Father Nedelec arrived in 1868, the population explosion which accompanied logging operations was beginning.

Just 20 short years later, in 1888, the congregation had outgrown church facilities to the point that construction of the grand granite St. Anne’s Church on Rosemount Hill began in 1889 under the guidance of Father Perron and Father Poitras, with the first mass, baptism and marriage occurring there the following year. An impressive Casavant organ from St. Hyacinthe, Québec was installed at a cost of $2,000.00 in 1894. Disaster struck on 8 September 1959, when lightning struck a cross high in the air at the rear of the church, which was destroyed by fire. Loss of the pipe organ alone was estimated at $40,000, with the total loss of St. Anne’s estimated at a million dollars. Here are two c. 1950s real-photo postcards of the church and Mattawa General Hospital. Notice that in the top view, the Hudson’s Bay Co. supply depot, which was later used as the parish hall, is seen.

Here’s an interesting October 1943 image of Father J. N. Duquette, who served at St. Anne’s from 1917 to 1949. The picture was taken by Clifford Norton of Cleveland, Ohio. Does anyone recall this photographer? Father Duquette is posing in front of a log cottage. Along the bottom of the photograph is written what appears to be “Wabe Maquaw Club.” Wabe Maquaw means “White Bear” in a First Nation dialect, probably Ojibwa. Further information is sought on the specific dialect. Photographer Norton’s name is stamped on the reverse, along with a cryptic list which includes the words black molding, Pocahontas and oil and the name Jim Sparles. We’d like to know more about this photograph.

The Riordon engineer who took several other Mattawa photographs seen on this page perhaps wasn’t Roman Catholic, and inadvertently spoke to the central role that the church played in Mattawa life, when he wrote a caption for the image of St. Anne’s which says: “The only building in Mattawa.” The hospital is to the left of the church. The large, elaborate shrine to the Virgin Mary, seen to the right in a 1948 PECO real-photo postcard, is located on the hospital grounds. While there are no buildings seen behind the shrine in 1948, an addition to the Mattawa General Hospital is now located behind the shrine. Many thanks to Samantha Hinschberger for this information.

St. Alban’s the Martyr Anglican Church in Mattawa dates to 1882, as shown in a c. 1940s PECO postcard. J. L. Caverhill of Montreal sold the land to the congregation, and the Reverend Forster Bliss was the first minister in the new building. At the time of his arrival, only 20 percent of the town’s 1,000 residents were Anglican. The Anglican bishop of Ottawa intended it to be a mission to cover the area between Pembroke and North Bay and, in fact, St. Alban’s was the mother church of St. John the Divine at 301 Main St. E. in North Bay. Built in 1895 and opened in 1896, St. John’s is now the oldest church building in North Bay. The first Anglican services in North Bay were held in 1883, with a congregation of 15 meeting in the CPR engine house.

These pictures were made by the Riordon engineer who was in Mattawa in the 1920s. Can you tell us more about them? The picture to the left shows an elderly woman in what appears to be a rocky field, with town buildings behind her. What part of town is this, and is there any significance to this rocky area? To the right is a puzzling image of a wooden object at water’s edge. What was its purpose?