Loon Straits, Manitoba

Loon Straits is a community in the Canadian province of Manitoba. A designated place in Canadian census data, the community had a population of 16 in the Canada 2006 Census.[1]

Loon Straits falls under the authority of The Northern Affairs Act and lies on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg about 50 km. north of Manigotagan, Manitoba. This places it in the South Basin of the lake; in fact it is only about 25 miles south of the narrowest point. This location results in an almost tide-like phenomena: with prevailing northerly winds, water would be pushed into the South Basin and rise by several feet, or prevailing southerly winds, when water would be pushed into the North Basin and water could follow by several feet. This always helped the local resident fishermen and boaters remember where the reefs where, as they would then be exposed.

Lake Winnipeg is a very shallow lake, some say 70 feet deep at its maximum, which means that storms can whip up waves of 15 to 20 feet in no time. This always created a barrier for coming to or leaving the community until the latter part of the 20th century. One always had to cross the lake, which was about 8 miles wide at that point, to the west side, where the highway from Riverton to Pine Dock and Matheson Island was. Some residents of Loon Straits even built permanent garages at the spot where they would embark, or disembark, as the case was. There was actually a small fishing establishment here with a dock large enough for the small lake Winnipeg fish freighters to stop at; it was called Calder's Dock.

Lake Winnipeg is an interesting divide between the limestone rock of the west side and the Pre-Cambrian granite rock of the Canadian Shield of the east side. With Loon Straits being then on the east side, the shoreline was granite rock, sometimes high cliffs, interspersed with sandy bays. The terrain ranged from swamp and marsh to elevated areas populated by poplar, jackpine and other trees. Most residents built houses upwards of the shoreline from what practically amounted to their own private sandy beach. Some would build small docks out into their bays. These small bays were ideal private and safe places for the children to swim, which they would do multiple times a day from June until September. The boys were also fond of making their own toy replicas of their fathers' fishing boats from wood or empty oil cans cut in half. They attached these to long sticks and enjoyed pulling them along the beaches or rocky shores.

The geography of Loon Straits consisted of 2 parallel peninsulas jutting out into Lake Winnipeg from the southeast to the northwest, with a large island at the tip of the eastern peninsula. Apart from one home belonging to Bert Monkman on the western peninsula called Moose Point, the residents mostly populated the eastern peninsula, with a few families living on the island.

The narrow strait between the Peninsula and the island, from which the community got its name, was the site of a fishing establishment. There was another one several miles up the lake at a place called The Quarry. This was a well-sheltered bay with high granite cliffs around It. Small ships which traversed Lake Winnipeg to collect fish from these establishments would come to dock at them for that purpose during the summer time. In the winter the fishermen would cut ice and cover it with sawdust to preserve it as long into the summer as possible. This was used to store the fish crates on as there was no other refrigeration in those days.

At the base of the large bay, named Loon Bay, to the east of the peninsula, which was about 2 miles wide, was a large marsh through which a creek ran through sandbars into Lake Winnipeg. Just up the Eastern shore from this marsh was the mouth of the Loon River. This was a small river which had several rapids, some with granite cliffs adjacent to them, in its upper reaches. These were popular spots for catching fish going upriver to spawn in spring. Turtles could often be seen sunning themselves along the banks. There were also heron rooks near one of the rapids. "The river," as the locals called it, was a favorite spot to boat up for picnics in the summer and sometimes to hike up for the same over fires in the snow in the winter.

The community had been settled by largely Metis settlers of mixed Cree/ Ojibway (Or Saulteaux as it was known in the past)/Irish/Scottish heritage.[2] They made their living by fishing, both in summer and winter, and also by trapping for furs. Some of the residents kept cattle and chickens for milk, meat and eggs. The meat portion of the diet was supplemented by what was gained by fishing and hunting for wild fowl and moose. Some even tried to keep Canada Geese around by clipping their wings and these would breed and raise young ones, altogether providing another source of meat. Some of the residents provided fresh produce for the summer which they could can for the winter from their gardens. This was augmented by canning what grew wild such as raspberries and saskatoon berries.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s the winter lumbering business reached a peak when at one time there were 4 seasonal lumber mills operating in the vicinity. Some of these were run by Mennonite-run establishments from the Steinbach area (Penners and Giesbrechts) in southeastern Manitoba, others by residents of the Riverton and Washow Bay area (Walter Springs family being one). This provided employment as well as additional income for the residents. It also helped with their winter transportation as the lumber mills would plow roads across the lake for their semi-trailers to transport out the lumber over the winter ice, which the locals could then use for their own transportation. This meant that in the winter they could bring their vehicles right up to their homes. Some residents built their own small oak and cedar boats and sold others, notably postman Allan Bruce, establishing a reputation for the quality of their work based on their knowledge of Lake Winnipeg conditions, which helped them produce very seaworthy craft.

There were at their most a couple of general store type outlets, one of which was associated with the local post office, run by Joe & Kay Monkman. Besides mail, the only other communication to the external world at that time was with two-way radio, of which there were only 2 or 3 in the community, but everyone had shortwave bands on their radio so they could listen to the conversations that took place. That was the equivalent of listening in on party lines in the early days of the rural telephone.

Access to the community from the eastern side of the lake was not achieved until a gravel road was pushed through in the 1980s. This road, which was frequently washed out because of beaver dam flooding, linked it some 40 km south to the Pine Falls/Manigotogan-Bissett highway, which of course went on in a southwesterly direction to Winnipeg.

During the heyday of the community in the 1950s and 1960s several men made their own versions of hydroplanes: flat boat-like hulls with an aircraft engine in the rear to propel it. This had the advantage of being light and able to go across short distances of water during the fall freeze-up and spring ice breakup, as they could travel across the lake when nothing else could. At this time several men also acquired and flew their own private aircraft. At one time there were 2 Piper J-3s, a Piper Cub and a Fleet Canuck. The owner of the last, Garf Monkman, was the only one to also put floats on in summer to fly inland to fish for sturgeon etc. Towards the end of the 20th century a runway was eventually cleared at the south end of the community to further facilitate air access.

The population of the community was well over 120 in mid-20th century and was serviced by a 2-classroom school building at the time. Around 1959 a high school class was added, first meeting in the local nondenominational chapel. Later, sons of the community, brothers Douglas and Carl Monkman (who had 2 of the planes mentioned above) built a one-room high school with attached residence some distance south of the elementary school.

When several residents drowned crossing Lake Winnipeg and a couple of others were killed in a plane crash at the south end of Moose Bay in the late 60s, the small tightly knit community lost some of its spirit. This, together with the decline of trapping, fishing and the lumber business led to the gradual near evacuation of the community in the ensuing years. Around the end of the 20th century, with year-round road access now possible, there was a resurgence of interest in the place with children of former householders returning for summer vacation and building cottages. This led to a large reunion in the summer of 2000 attended by current and former residents and their descendants, including former school teachers and others who had worked in the community in one capacity or another over the years, some from hundreds of miles away.