One of my projects for the upcoming Cut Knife Centennial Celebration in 2012 is a map and GPS locations of the one room school sites and other landmarks in the area.
The day before yesterday, Bonnie Ramsay, Noreen Bullerwell and I went on a 200 mile journey armed with history books, maps, camera, a Garmin, and a little patience.
We headed to Rockhaven first, such a pretty little village. From there we headed east, north, west, south, and then back north and east again. 36 sites later, interspersed with lunch paid by a nephew (who called us ‘the old girls’- not funny), a coffee stop in the Baldwinton area (because our union insists upon coffee breaks), a ‘gopher’ job for our harvesters (who mistakenly thought that we were were bringing liquid refreshments – sorry!), and a couple of encounters with dogs, we arrived back in Cut Knife, tired but satisfied with the day’s efforts. There are several more sites to finish the project off but they won’t take too long to do, if someone can tell us exactly where Madawaska school was located.
Now I will add old photos and the new ones that I took and we will have identified these sites for those who can read a map or a GPS device.
There were a few times when we were almost stumped but Bonnie said to look for the caragana trees and sure enough, there was the site. Most school sites had caraganas planted around the yard.
We also had to backtrack from a northerly trail as it changed from a trail to a track through tall grass out in the Baldwinton hills.
Great adventure!
Will post the file on the website when I am finished.
~ Lucille B.
October 2, 2011 update to this blog: Don Paziuk helped me find the Triple Lakes School site to add to our list. That was a long trek past Atton’s Lake, through the community pasture, and even further. There is only a foundation left to mark the spot. The signage was vandalized a few years ago.
Clayton McLain Memorial Museum 