Getting to Know The “Ghost Town”/Former Residential School Of Stirland Lake, NW Ontario
Getting to Know The “Ghost Town”/Former Residential School Of Stirland Lake, NW Ontario
Link to the “Communities” Section
Some friends of mine took the winter road from Pickle Lake NW Ontario to Round Lake. It is a long road. Get ready to drive ten hours from Sioux Lookout. There is paved road to Pickle Lake. Pickle Lake is the last place to get services, like fuel. After Pickle Lake there is stretch of gravel road and then, for two months a year, there is an ice road. But there is on place on that gravel road, that a person can go and find a friendly toilet to use and an interesting place to explore. It is at Stirland Lake. It was a residential high school for Native boys. It was closed down in 1991. It has caretakers living there. There is a Mennonite missionary family living there. It is like a ghost town. It is also like a 1980’s time capsule with things left the way they were in the 1980’s. It is now owned by a man from Round Lake, NW Ontario.
The following are some articles and pictures of the Stirland Lake. There was a blog of a man who traveled there on his motorcycle. There are also other articles about when it operated as a residential school.
Geographical coordinates are 52°20’12” North and 91°02’26” West and its feature type is Lake
I started back and this time kept an eye out for the Ghost Town at Stirland Lake. Finally I found it and headed in…a freshly graded gravel road? :huh As buildings appeared, so did a large skidder parked in front of one of the building. Confused, I continued in and a dog came racing out. Now I was really confused and kept riding in and ran smack dab into a family of 6 packing up their belongings in a van and trailer. I stopped and chatted with them. Turns out they were from Oregon and were there acting as caretakers for the site. Still confused, I asked what was going on here. They had no idea but said that they had been here for 11 months and now were no longer needed, so they were heading out tonight. I asked if I could look around and take photo, they said yes. They and I have no idea what will become of the town but it looks like things were being cleaned up and new power poles and lines were in place and all the streets had been widened and graded.
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/northern-riders-sign-in.183099/page-156
Home » Stirland Lake Residential High School (Stirland Lake, Ont.)
Stirland Lake Residential High School (Stirland Lake, Ont.)
- Stirland Lake High School (also known as Wahbon Bay Academy) was established in 1971 by the Mennonite organization Northern Youth Programs Inc., funded by Indian Affairs. The residential school was established to educate and house twenty (20) Aboriginal boys; students attended and lived at the school for ten (10) months of the year. It was located at the remote location of Stirland Lake in Northwestern Ontario, approximately 170 miles north of Sioux Lookout Ontario.
- Cristal Lake High School was later established in 1976, to house Aboriginal girls sent there for their education. It was located in an equally remote area as Stirland Lake High School, and like Stirland High Lake School, was only accessible by float plane.
- As the years passed, the number of students enrolled increased in the two schools.
- Both Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake were funded by Indian Affairs to provide high school education to aboriginal children in a residential school located far away from their homes and communities.
- In 1986, Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake High Schools merged operations, and Stirland Lake continued as a co-educational residential school for aboriginal children.
- Stirland Lake operated like any other Indian residential school in Ontario, with a strong Christian religious presence.
- All of the students who attended were removed from their homes and communities, and flown to a remote setting for the purpose of obtaining an education in a residential school.
- Around 1991, Stirland Lake High School closed its doors.
- In October 2007, Windigo First Nations Council, supported by Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), formally requested that the Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake Residential High Schools be recognized under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), following a resolution unanimously endorsed by NAN Chiefs-in-Assembly in August 2007.
- In the spring of 2008, the request for recognition by Windigo and NAN was rejected by Canada.
- In December 2008, Windigo and NAN filed a motion to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, asking the Court to exercise its power under the IRSSA by adding the two (2) schools to the list of recognized Indian Residential Schools within the meaning of the IRSSA.
- Written arguments were filed with the Court setting out the respective positions of Windigo and NAN, and also Canada, in great detail. Formal affidavits containing sworn evidence and documents were also filed, and cross examinations on the affidavits were conducted over the course of the last two years.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/395728#ixzz1VQbEsHnp
Stirland Lake High School/Wahbon Bay Academy (September 1, 1971 to June 30, 1991)
http://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca/schools.html#Northwest Territories
Ron Firth wasn’t sure just what he’d found. It looked like a town had suddenly vanished – abandoned buildings dotted the picturesque shore at Stirland Lake. The fridge had old, expired food inside it. In the woodshop, someone had been constructing a dollhouse but abandoned it decades ago.
It was 2008 and the Thunder Bay-based adventure motorcycle rider was following a tip from a local in Pickle Lake about a “ghost town.”
“It was like a time capsule from the mid-’80s and everyone walked away and left everything. I mean everything!” wrote Firth in a forum post about his ride. “At the same moment. On the same day. The houses are just sitting there, some have the doors wide open, everything left like it was.”
Unbeknownst to Firth at the time, he was exploring the grounds of one of the 18 residential schools in Ontario. Stirland Lake was a fly-in boys’ high school operated by the Mennonite group Northern Youth Programs from 1971 to 1991.
“It’s like a time capsule, untouched, I couldn’t believe it,” Firth told TVO.org in a phone interview.
The 18 residential schools in Ontario were overseen by the federal government and run by religious groups that operated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Today many of those schools have crumbled – long since burned down or bulldozed.
Until now, the memorial effort has been piecemeal – each church was able to decide what to do with the property after closure. Many handed it over to the local First Nation. Some of those put memorials on the site, others have not yet.
A summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s full report on the residential school system was released earlier this month, and memorialization and commemoration figure prominently within its 94 recommendations. Though the facts and history are laid bare in the report, some of the sites – like Stirland Lake – are still unmarked.
Two Additions to Residential Schools List Define Criteria for More
ICTMN Staff
8/20/11
A legal victory by the Windigo First Nations Council before the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario has gotten two Ontario schools added to the official list of residential schools, making 600 more former students eligible for compensation and counseling.
In the first such ruling in the country, Chief Justice Warren Winkler added Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake residential high schools to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).
The motion sets parameters for adding schools to the IRSSA and sets a precedent, the Windigo and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) said in a statement.
“This is a good solid victory for not only those who have been directly impacted by these particular schools but also First Nations across the country,” said NAN Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin in a statement on August 18. “This landmark decision paves the way for other First Nations people who have been institutionalized to be included in this national settlement and we hope they too will continue to fight for justice.”
This allows the former students to apply for payments available to those who attended one of Canada’s recognized Indian Residential Schools, and to receive an apology from the institution involved. Further compensation is available to those who suffered sexual or physical abuse, NAN and Windigo said in their statement.
Stirland Lake, also known as Wahbon Bay Academy, was a boys’ school that opened in 1971. It was run by Northern Youth Programs Inc., a Mennonite organization, and funded by what is today known as Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Cristal Lake High School, for girls, opened in 1976. Both kept students for 10 months of the year and were so remote that they could only be accessed by float plane, the nations said.
Canada rejected the Windigo and NAN request for residential school designation for the two institutions in 2008, and the two parties filed a motion with the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario.
Decisions on several other schools’ status are still pending, the website Tbnewswatch.com reported.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/20/two-additions-residential-schools-list-define-criteria-more-48330
https://sjiedmonton.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/mennonites-and-res-schools.pdf
Cristil Lake year book page, the female version of the boy’s school, Stirland Lake
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