TIMBER RESOURCES BASIC IN ESTABLISHING "TERRACE BAY" ON
LAKE SUPERIOR SHORES
Model One-Industry Community Called "Greeting Card Town"
TERRACE BAY-
WHAT MIGHT BE CALLED "The Case of the Curious Moose" tells much of the story of the new, planned townsite of Terrace Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior. It brings into contrast and perspective the wild forest of a few years past and the modern, urban community of today.
Not long ago this moose evidently tiring of his own lairs in the deep Nipigon woods wandered into the new municipality that had appeared as if by magic on the terraces leading up from the lake's rugged shore. What he found was apparently more confusing than his accustomed forest trails because Terrace Bay is laid out in a pattern of crescents, circles, parks and plazas.
Either it was confusion or else that moose had an interest in education as well as town planning for he was first spotted in the park of silver birches and poplars around the community's modern school—much to the delight of the children who were then in class.
Finally the curious moose learned something of the community's law enforcement arrangements. He was shooed off to his native bush by the corporal and constable of the Ontario Provincial Police who police the corporation of Terrace Bay.
This modern community that was quite literally cut out of the forest primeval was entirely planned from the beginning and completed with such speed that it is little wonder a moose became bemused at the quick transformation of his old habitat and got bushed in a modern, urban townsite.
The seven room school he was inspecting when interrupted is so modern that the blackboards are made of a dark green glass composition in order to eliminate glare harmful to the children's eyes. The outer walls are almost entirely of windows and glass brick admitting a maximum of light while at the same time filtering damaging rays. The children look out on a sylvan vista of trees that were spared by the axman in clearing the forest to enhance the beauty of the future townsite.
The school is only one of many aspects of modernity in this Improvement District. But since the population is mainly young married people the school naturally comes first among all the other community advantages of Terrace Bay.
There are about 200 boys and girls in attendance from kindergarten to the eighth grade. Their health as well as education is looked after. The medical officer and a school nurse conduct regular examinations in a specially equipped school room. Thirty-two older students attend high school (up to and including senior matriculation) at Schreiber about ten miles distant, being transported by bus daily. In January 1951 an active Home and School Association was organized.
In its relation to the plan of the rest of the community the location of the school is significant. The main residential parts of the townsite are laid out in shady winding streets and crescents which tend to slow down traffic. The children reach school from their homes without having to cross any through highways. The shopping plaza, churches, post office and other main buildings are also reached from the residential areas without crossing main arteries.
Terrace Bay has been called a "holiday greeting card town." Its attractive physical appearance justifies that description. But it is more. It is a one-industry community developed by the Long Lac Pulp and Paper Company, a concern that brings into Canada eighteen and a half million dollars in United States' funds annually. Within its environs a population of 1,350 people live and pursue all the community activities of any municipality of its size. With this difference: instead of growing like Topsy, Terrace Bay was planned from the beginning. As noted, even the trees which would normally take years to grow in a new community, were saved from the original forest and give a park-like atmosphere to the streets.
In spite of its newness Terrace Bay possesses all the amenities that evolve over generations in older places. Work, worship, education, recreation, shopping and all their ramifications and interrelationships have their being within its borders. Perhaps it is an explanation of the noticeable cordiality of the population that the community is too new to have stratified into groups or cliques. Another evidence of Terrace Bay's youth and vigour: only now has the question of a cemetery reached the discussion stage.
While it is new, Terrace Bay is in no sense temporary. It is there to stay. The Long Lac timber limits will be cropped in perpetuity. Cutting practices follow the policy of continuous yield thus assuring that Terrace Bay will never be doomed to the fate of a ghost town. In fact with the completion of the trans-Canada highway part of which (highway 17) runs through the southern section of the municipality, Terrace Bay looks forward to becoming a thriving tourist centre as well as a continuing industrial townsite.
Terrace Bay is one of fourteen Improvement Districts in Ontario which are constituted under an amendment to the Municipal Act passed by the legislature in 1947. The thought behind this amendment was to provide help through the Department of Municipal Affairs to communities that start up new and need the benefit of advice and experience.
The Act provides that upon the application of more than thirty inhabitants a locality may incorporate as an Improvement District, and be deemed a township, a village or a town municipality as designated by the Municipal Board. The powers of government are not exercised by an elected council, however, but by a board of three trustees consisting of a chairman, a vice-chairman and another member appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The chairman of such a board has the powers and duties of a mayor or reeve. The secretary-treasurer of the board has duties comparable to those of the clerk, treasurer, assessor and collector of a municipality. All money by laws, budgets and disbursements of improvement districts must be approved by the Department of Municipal Affairs.
After three years, with the assent of a majority of the ratepayers, an improvement district may change its form of government to an elected council and become a township, village or town. Two former improvement districts have chosen to make this change; Mountjoy became a township and Wasaga Beach a village.
Terrace Bay offers many interesting fields illustrating the operation of an improvement district. Its administration and internal activities bring it into close relationship with several departments of the Ontario Government including the departments of Municipal Affairs, Education, Planning and Development, Health, Lands and Forests, Travel and Publicity and Public Welfare. Its dealings with the last named have been almost negligible according to Mr. W. F. Strutt, secretary-treasurer of the board of the improvement district—again demonstrating the general health and youth of the community.
For sixty years the location of Terrace Bay, 140 miles east of the Lakehead cities of Port Arthur and Fort William, was only a flagstop on the C.P.R. called Black. The development of the present townsite followed the decision of the Long Lac company to build a pulp mill at the southern end of a water system formed by Long Lake and Aguasabon River down which logs are floated from the timber limits some 80 miles to the north. Before the construction of this mill the logs were rafted from the mouth of the Aguasabon River to Slate Islands, ten miles out in Lake Superior, where they were loaded in barges and transported to mills in the United States.
It will be seen that the decision to build the mill, which converts logs into bleached sulphate pulp and has a daily capacity of 300 tons, was an important acquisition to Ontario's economy. Paralleling the building of the mill and the townsite, the Ontario Hydro constructed a 55,000 horse-power generating station on the Aguasabon River, three miles west of the townsite. The dam formed Hays Lake which is an attractive part of the community's recreational assets.
The story of the building of Terrace Bay has been told before. It need only be sketched here as a background to the picture of the community as it exists today. First, in 1946 what was called the lower camp was built to house some 2,000 workers who were engaged in the construction of the townsite and mill. The "big push" took place in 1947-48, work being pressed forward on the mill and townsite simultaneously.
It is hard to say when a community is born. During this development period the first house was occupied, the first church service held, the first wedding ceremony performed, the first branch bank and the post office
opened, and Terrace Bay News published its first mimeographed issue with the proud, tongue-in-cheek boast "Largest Circulation in Terrace Bay"— a position it has held ever since.
Perhaps, legally, its birthday should be fixed at September 1st 1947, the date on which it was granted municipal status as an improvement district by the Department of Municipal Affairs. Before then, however, the community in its developmental stage had come, to an extent, under the guidance of the Department of Planning and Development.
The Planning Act, which was passed in 1946, for the first time gave municipalities the necessary legal power to carry into full effect comprehensive plans for long term development. In accordance with this act after the plan for Terrace Bay had been drawn up it was submitted to the Minister of the Department. On receiving his approval it was designated the "official plan" thereby providing the necessary legal basis for the plan to become a permanent pattern for the progressive development of the community. Thereafter there can be no deviation from the official plan except with the consent of the Minister upon the recommendation of the local authorities; thus maintaining the traditional Ontario principle of local autonomy and responsibility even in long range planning.
As the mill is the reason for the existence of Terrace Bay the production of the first pulp on November 12th, 1948 marks an important date— if not the actual birthday—in its history. But its history is still in the making and probably will be for a long time to come. A new subdivision, hospital, a C.P.R. station, post office, and churches are among the projects recently completed or in the process of building. New recreational activities are being inaugurated; new associations and societies are forming. Planning and expansion move hand in hand.
The entire improvement district extends from Schreiber on the west to Jackfish on the east and Slate Islands out in Lake Superior, a total area of 46 square miles. The townsite is only a relatively small part of this area. It contains about 300 houses. Both in their location and architectural design these avoid the objectionable features of many new developments— uniformity and monotony. They are not in straight rows and their exterior architecture and colour schemes offer a wide, pleasing variety. All except a few are detached; the exceptions being semi-detached homes called "honeymoon cottages" for young couples without children.
There are garage compounds for cars located at intervals to serve groups of homes. The high percentage of car owners reflects the prosperity of the community composed of workers in one of the best paid industries of Canada.
Most of the homes are owned by the company and rented to employees at less-than-economic rentals. For instance one house is rented to an employee at $40 a month; a similar house is rented to an executive of a private enterprise in the townsite at $80—considered to be its economic rental value.
A new development containing 35 houses is under construction south of Highway 17 and overlooking Lake Superior. Other projects under construction or recently completed and their approximate costs are: a new 22-bed hospital, being built by the company but designed to serve the whole community, $140,000; new post office $105,000; C.P.R. station - $55,000; Catholic Church $35,000 and Community Church for all Protestant denominations, $60,000.
While the land and houses of the homes of its employees are owned by the company there are other property owners in the townsite. Private enterprises such as, for instance, the Imperial Bank and the Hudson's Bay Company, own the land on which their buildings stand. The Hydro owns houses and land which it rents to its employees.
One of the show places of north western Ontario is the modern—even luxurious—54-room Hotel Terrace on the south side of Highway 17 and overlooking Lake Superior from a vantage point on the beautiful natural terraces of the shoreline. This hotel is owned and operated by the Long Lac company. It and other main buildings are steam heated by a central heating plant the pipes running through tunnels drilled in the rock foundation of the townsite.
As would be the case in any other municipality the improvement district owns streets, parks, sewers, water mains, electrical services, disposal plant etc. It buys electrical power from hydro and sells it to consumers. The improvement district board passes by-laws and has jurisdiction over all municipal activities governing the running of dogs, garbage collection, licensing, fire and police protection, etc. The board at present consists of chairman H. C. Laundy, personnel manager of the Long Lac company, vice-chairman John Jessup of the Hudson's Bay Company, and C. E. Paget, townsite superintendent. The secretary-treasurer of the board is W. F. Strutt.
Of the total population of Terrace Bay 640 are employed at the Long Lac mill. The average age of employees is 32 years—a young age level and a significant fact that is reflected in the character of the whole life of the community. Probably few other places of its size could boast greater participation in such a variety of recreational activities. Each recreational activity is governed by an autonomous organization. These in turn are co-ordinated in a Community Recreation Committee which includes representation from the local union, private enterprises, ladies of the community, the Long Lac company and others representing various recreational organizations.
The latest recreational activity is a Rod and Gun Club formed last July. Before that there had already been developed a recreation hall with badminton facilities, 2-sheet curling rink, hockey and skating rinks, ball fields (with bleachers for 500), tennis courts, a three-part swimming pool, bowling alleys and a golf driving range.
As an indication of the extent of participation in these activities, there were 41 bowling teams organized in the season 1950-51. A lively competitive spirit exists in baseball among the teams of Terrace Bay and its neighboring communities, Schreiber and Marathon—all with their following of loyal fans. A large part of the recreation hall is set aside as "Teen Town" for games, dances and parties. Also at the recreation hall moving pictures are shown regularly and there is a stage for dramas, concerts and other presentations. There is a local five-piece orchestra. A well-stocked library is open evenings and two afternoons a week.
The Rod and Gun Club will have importance beyond the borders of the townsite especially in the matter of conservation of natural resources. Its inaugural meeting was addressed by Mr. Keith Dennis, president of the Northwestern Ontario Conservation Federation and Mr. Chris Armstrong, biologist of the Fish and Wildlife Division, Department of Lands and Forests. Emphasis was placed on the sponsoring of competitive fishing and hunting; conservation of fish and game; stream control work; teaching of reforestation, conservation, etc. to junior members; preservation of game lands and reserves; environment control and re-stocking of lakes and streams.
On the shore of Hays Lake, which as noted was formed by the hydro dam, there are three swimming pools in one, with an area of shallow water for beginners; another area ranging in depth from zero to 20 feet; and a still larger area with diving boards for more advanced swimmers. All this is enclosed by heavy walking type rafts four feet wide. There is also ample beach and playing space. Swimming instruction is provided by the life guard and there is an active campaign to persuade everyone to learn to swim.
It is a campaign that fits in well with the safety psychology of the whole community. The Dominion Day safety celebration was staged last July 2nd by the local accident prevention committee. It marked the establishment of a new mill safety record and all community interests participated in a programme that ran from the opening in the ball park in the morning to the closing street dance at night.
Apart from recreational activities consider the other community organizations of this municipality that only a few years ago was a forest. The churches and school have been mentioned. There is a branch of the Women's Institute. Branches of the Canadian Legion and the Masonic Hall each has its own building. A battery of artillery of the reserve army has its own armoury. There is an active Kiwanis Club which recently built a children's wading pool beside the school. Last winter an Eastern Star chapter and a Home and School club was formed. There are Boy Scout and Cub organizations that hold annual summer camps.
Local No. 665 of the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers is the collective bargaining agency with which Long Lac Pulp and Paper Co. has a labour agreement covering hourly paid workers. Recently 80 percent of employees joined the Physicians Services medical plan which gives adequate protection to employees and their families.
Overall dimensions: 45.8 cm (h) x 40 cm (w)
Image dimensions: 39.3 cm (h) x 23.8 cm (w)
