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Photos: Community gathers for Skead’s 100th birthday

The small community in the northeast part of the city comes together to celebrate their history and toast the Skead Fire Station, which was reopened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony today after being closed since 2022

The community of Skead had two reasons to celebrate when it came together on Oct. 5: To celebrate the village’s 100th anniversary and to celebrate the reopening of Fire Station No. 22, the community fire station that has been closed since 2022.

It was also an occasion to celebrate the reinvigoration of volunteer firefighting in the community on the shores of Lake Wanapitei. 

Not only did the station reopen after being closed since 2022 after a vehicle damaged the structure, but Skead celebrated the fact the community now has 11 volunteer firefighters (which is still short of the 15 volunteers considered to be an ideal minimum for a community its size)  and is on its way to being an effective firefighting force for the village.

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Nicole Everest, by all accounts the driving force behind the effort to save Fire Station No. 22 in Skead and recruit volunteers to staff it, speaks at the official reopening of the station, which closed in 2022 due to damage, on Oct. 5. Mark Gentili / Sudbury.com

The 100th anniversary celebrations began at the fire station. Skead resident Nicole Everest, who, by all accounts, led the effort save the fire station and recruit volunteers, took to the microphone to provide a rehash of the community’s efforts to improve its firefighting capabilities, to highlight where things stand today and to thank the many people who helped successfully save Fire Station No. 22.

“It takes a village and we certainly came together as a team — way to go Skead!” Everest told the crowd, eliciting cheers and applause from the dozens of people who gathered for the event.

Everest said with 11 volunteers recruited, the effort now is to get all those new recruits trained and certified. She said once the recruits are trained on driving the trucks, “then the pumper will come back to Skead,” referring to a pumper firefighting truck, a comment which again elicited cheers and applause.

“We can’t take our foot off the gas,” Everest said, referring to recruitment. “Please, take the time today to learn about the (volunteer firefighter) application process — we need you.”

While she thanked numerous people for their efforts and saying the previous Ward 7 councillor (Mike Jakubo) wasn’t in the fight for the fire station, Everest highlighted in particular the work of Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée. Skead is in Ward 7 and Everest credited the councillor for being a strong advocate for the community and the fire station.

For her part, Labbée heaped praise on the tenacity, determination, energy and organization of Everest. 

“I can’t say how many hours this woman has put in on this issue,” the councillor said.

Labbée spoke about her bravery in taking on the fight for the residents of Skead and reiterated the need to recruit more volunteers.**

In particular, Labbée singled out Skead volunteer firefighter Chris Boeswald, who for five years was the community’s only firefighter. The crowd gave a rousing cheer and a round of applause for Boeswald.

Boeswald told Sudbury.com it was challenging being the only firefighter in the community and still responding to emergency calls. A volunteer with Greater Sudbury Fire Services for seven years, he said he’s happy to see new life breathed into the station.

“It feels awesome that 10 people stepped up,” Boeswald said, adding through the five years he was alone, he was “hoping this would happen.”

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Politicians, community members and volunteer firefighters past and present gather with volunteers who worked to save Fire Station No. 22 in Skead, which officially opened Oct. 5 on the occasion of the community’s 100th anniversary. . Mark Gentili / Sudbury.com

What kept him going when he was alone, he said, was just a desire to help his community. And for anyone on the fence about joining up, he acknowledged the training time and expense of being a volunteer firefighter but said that it’s all “worth it to help your community.”

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas was also on hand for the event. She took the opportunity to share some stories from the history of Skead.

“This is a moment we will all remember,” she said. “Some families here have been here since the beginning.”

She spoke of the remoteness of the community and the formerly common phrase of “following the snake to Skead”, referring to the winding and sometimes not well-maintained road to the community. 

Gélinas reminded the crowd of summer picnics at Mountain Creek Lodge in the 1950s, when young daredevils would try scaling a greased pole for a $20 bill. She spoke of the cave where ice was stored in the summer in the days before electricity.

Gélinas shared an anecdote of a trapper whose name is long forgotten and who used to live in the area and travel on local rivers on Lake Wanapitei in a bark canoe he built himself. She spoke of how Skead was a tourist destination a century ago, and how American tourists would visit Big Tooth Lodge to pull pickerel by the bucketful.

And she spoke about the remoteness of Skead in those early days and how the sense of community then is as strong today.

“This is a community where people needed to support each other,” she said. 

Lumber town

Located on the south shore of Wanapitei, Skead found its birth in the lumber industry of the early 20th century. A sawmill was established there near the mouth of the Spanish River in 1921 by the Sable and Spanish River Lumber Company.

In 1924, William J. Bell (yes, the same Bell who lent his name to the Bell Mansion and Bell Park) purchased a controlling stake in the lumber company and renamed it the Spanish River Lumber Company.

To encourage workers to live there, construction began on bunk houses, cook house, a general store, a post office and a dance hall. 

Bell also named the community Skead (it had been called the Massey Bay settlement to that point). Sources vary on exactly why. Some say it was to honour his wife, Katherine Skead Bell, while others say it was to honour her father, Canadian Senator James Skead.

Either way, the name has remained for 100 years.

The Spanish River Lumber Company went belly up in 1930 at the start of the Great Depression and remained closed until the early 1940s.

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M.J. and Emma Poupore are still fondly remembered in Skead. Mr. Poupore was the owner of Poupore Lumber, the town’s main employer from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Mrs. Poupore was considered the town matriarch and the driving force behind the creation of St. Bernardine of Siena Church. Mark Gentili / Sudbury.com

In 1941, a major forest fire in Gogama destroyed the operations of the Poupore Lumber Company, so the firm moved its operations (as well as a few houses) to Skead. Michael Poupore began construction of his new sawmill in 1942 and the Poupore Lumber Company of Skead opened for business in August 1943.

Emma Poupore, the wife of the lumber baron, is still fondly remembered in Skead and many still consider her the town’s matriarch.

“She was a kind and loving person who treated everyone with respect and was always willing to lend a hand when needed,” an article about the couple on SudburyMuseums.ca states. “She would often be found providing comfort to a homesick immigrant or working to ensure that the atmosphere of the town was one of warmth and welcome.”

Besides heading several community groups, Mrs. Poupore was instrumental in the construction of Skead’s church, St. Bernardine of Siena, which was designed by architect Louis Fabbro of Sudbury.

The Poupore sawmill closed in the mid-1950s. By that time, various lodges had opened near the community and Skead became a popular tourist destination.

The town is home to about 600 residents.

Day of fun and history

As part of the 100th anniversary celebrations, participants were invited to play a little game of visiting four destinations in the community to get a card stamped and hopefully win a prize. It was also a chance to learn a little something about Skead.

The fire station was the first stop for most people. Then, most headed over to the Skead Seniors Club just up the road for tea and cookies (and a stamp for their cards!), where they could check out the village’s woodworking club and flip through the historical photo albums kept by club members.

Gayle Charsley told Sudbury.com the club is built on the property where she grew up. Her father and grandfather worked at the town’s lumber mill. 

She said she remembers the town when there was a post office, general store, a pool hall and a rink. She said there was even bus service twice a day at one time. 

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Gayle Charsley, a member of the Skead Seniors Club, shows off one of the many historical photo albums on display during the community’s 100th anniversary celebration on Oct. 5. Mark Gentili / Sudbury.com

Charsley said when the mill was running she remembers, sleighs hauling lumber from the cutting areas across Wanapitei in the winter, and tugboats pulling barges of timber in the summer.

“We had no electricity, no plumbing, life was so different then, but it was a community where we all worked together,” Charsley said.

She also remembers the Boland’s Bay forest fire of 1957 when the lumberyard went up in flames and people had to pile into boats and head out onto Wanapitei to escape the fire.

From the Seniors Club, people headed to St. Bernardine of Siena Church to learn more local history and get another stamp.

Carol-Lynn Jacobs was on hand at the church to share historical tidbits (and stamp cards). She said Mrs. Poupore was the driving force behind the construction of the church, paying for much of the work herself and helping fellow community members fundraise the rest.

In fact, the Poupore family home is still located across the street from the church, where it was deposited in the early 1940s after being moved by flatbed from the couple’s home in Gogama to Skead after moving the company there during the Second World War. 

From the church, people headed over to the Skead Community Centre for food, sweets, live music, and inflatables and games for the kids (and also to get that last stamp), where the fun continued for the rest of the afternoon.

Mark Gentili is the editor of Sudbury.com.

**Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed criticism of the previous ward councillor to current Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbee. Those comments were, in fact, made by Nicole Everest. Sudbury.com apologizes for the error.


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Mark Gentili

About the Author: Mark Gentili

Mark Gentili is the editor of Sudbury.com
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