Originally published in Lake of the Woods Area News, Volume 55, Number 1, Early Spring 2025
I remember, as if it was yesterday, when Verna Jagoe, then in her nineties, took to the podium at what was then the Lakeside Inn. Her beautiful smile won over the jam-packed room of people and their attentive response settled her nerves as she began to tell her story. It was the story of the Kenora Fish Market. Verna’s father Carl Lindstrom ran the business for over 40 years and Verna managed the office there.
…Monday and Fridays were the big shipping days. Over the year, hundreds of fish boxes, packed in 50- and 100-pound quantities, were shipped to markets in Toronto, Montreal, Fort Erie, Boston, Chicago, and New York… My job was to type the addresses on the tags and staple them to the boxes. The shipments were then picked up in the evening by Herb Wallin and Rickard Norlen with their two-ton trucks. The freshly iced fish were then delivered to the CPR station where they were put in refrigerated cars.
Also imprinted in my memory was the moment that Bill Arch and his wife Colleen of Onigaming First Nation entered the ballroom at the Inn. Bill was in full regalia. His head was adorned with a moose-hair roach and feathers. His jacket and vest were beaded with animals, birds, and the sun and the moon. His fan and bustle were of eagle feathers, his breastplate of deer bone, his anklets of bells. As he stood before all, he told the story of his regalia, fashioned by his wife—how it came to be and the significance of the symbols on it.
There was power in those stories.
The opportunity to share them publicly started in 2004, when a small group of us sat down one day to talk about potential partnerships for different history-related projects. Out of that discussion came the idea of a storytelling event. There was a realization that we have lost many great stories about our community, the lake, and the people who have lived here simply because we have never taken the time to hear them or those who were the keepers of those stories never had an opportunity to tell them. We wanted to change that.
After a year and a half of planning, the first Common Ground: A Sharing of Our Stories was presented in 2006. This day-long storytelling event has continued since then (except for the COVID years) and has brought people together to share, exchange and listen to stories. Each story is as unique as the people telling them; however, there is one thing that links them all together. It is this place where we live—quite literally, the common ground that we share.
While we share this place, which serves as an anchor for the stories, our experiences vary greatly, and we have been able to hear and enjoy a wonderful mix of stories over the past 18 years.
We’ve listened to Indigenous knowledge keepers, summer residents, business owners, and descendants of early settlers. We’ve heard about salvaging old steamboats, homesteading, and the work of a wildlife rehabilitator. We’ve learned about family businesses, community events and organizations, and adventures on the lake. We’ve been introduced to powwow protocols, the teachings of the drum, and how to build a birchbark canoe. And we have become acquainted with the special people and places that have defined home for every storyteller.
I remember well Shirley Richardson’s low, rich voice as she told her personal story of growing up in England, living in Canada, and eventually becoming a longtime lake resident. Hers was a fascinating account of a life well-lived and some of the final words of her story, I think, will resonate:
We called the island “Kalamalka”, thought to be an Indigenous word meaning “lake of many colours” … As you all know, Lake of the Woods is a lake of many colours – orange and red at sunrise and sunset, shades of blue sometimes filled with a zillion sparkling diamonds, and I have seen shades of grey, pink, mauve and black. At night, the full moon sends a spectacular lane of reflected silver from the Canoe Channel, across the Yacht Club stretch to our front living room window. Magical! How lucky we are to share this beautiful lake.
This year’s Common Ground: A Sharing of Our Stories event will be held on Saturday, April 26. Please contact the Lake of the Woods Museum for more information.
