May 15 Cochrane ON to Moosonee, ON

Moosonee is located on the Moose River that empties into James Bay at its southern tip about 10 miles further north east, more or less. Moose River forms quite a large delta with several islands. There are 2 communities here mainly First Nations Cree, Moosonee on the mainland and Moose Factory on one of the islands. Tidewater Provincial Park occupies one of the islands as well.  Transportation between the 2 communities is by water taxi. The only way to get here is either by train or fly. Other communities along James Bay are connected by winter road or by boat making these communities relatively isolated.

Moosonee is Ontario’s only salt water port. The community was the site of a fur trading post set up in 1903 by Revillon Frères, competitors to the Hudson’s Bay Company which later bought out Révillon. Annie Hardisty and her two daughters were the first settlers on the site. Significant development began on June 6, 1903, four canoes and a crew of 21 persons of the Révillon Frères company arrived on the banks of the Moose River near the much older Moose Factory to establish the Moose River Post.

Moose River Post (and Moose Factory) were prosperous but isolated. It was supplied only once per year by ship coming from Montreal around the Labrador Peninsula. Mail arrived only four times per year, twice by canoe and twice by toboggan.  In 1936, Révillon Frères sold its Canadian operations to the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Moosonee post was closed. It was renamed to Moosonee when the railroad was completed. The Hudson Bay Post now owned by North West Company operates the Northern  stores here.

The train, run by the Ontario Northland Railway is aptly called the Polar Bear express. Currently it runs 4 days a week: Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday and Friday. It leaves Cochrane at 9 am, arrives in Moosonee at 2 pm. It returns to Cochrane at 5 pm and arrives back in Cochrane at 10 pm. Most tourists do it all in one day. We decided to spend one night, staying in the only hotel in town, the Super 8 which is about 4 blocks from the train station.

The snow has only recently melted and there is mud everywhere. So glad I wore my hiking boots. We had no illusions about what we would find here.. ditto with the weather which is cold and grey.

It’s too early in the season for many tourists and no restaurants are open. We bought microwavable dinners at the Northern Store and a bottle of wine at the LCBO. Good enough. That being said, the train was fairly full and so is our hotel.

Update on the hotel/train being busy: I was under the impression on the train that there was a large group that were either related or connected somehow but I didn’t want to make an assumption. Also, why is everyone here at the hotel? It turns out that this group are Moosonee natives now living in Timmins. They have come back for a funeral.

We spent a couple of hours walking around town and went down to the town docks to arrange for transportation to Moose Factory tomorrow.

Sons of Martha

We always learn something intriguing when we travel. Near the station we found a tribute to the Sons of Martha, something I had never heard of, so I looked it up. It’s very appropriate for this plaque to be placed here.

The Sons of Martha” is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling. It is inspired by the biblical story of Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary. It celebrates the care and dedication of workers – engineers, mechanics, and builders – to provide for the safety and comfort of others.”The Sons of Martha” was written in 1907 and was adopted by the author in 1922 to be part of the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer performed by Canadian engineers at their graduation.

This concept started a string of research for me about the ‘ways of Marys and Marthas’ and now I understand why all the housekeepers in Margaret Atwood’s book “The Handmaids Tale” are named Martha.