Ontario

A Farm Community Thrives

A robust group of pioneers in the late 19th century first blazed a trail to the Slate River Valley to make their homesteads. These days, an enthusiastic generation of progressive farmers and entrepreneurs carry on in their footsteps, breaking boundaries by taking the traditional farm to new levels in the 21st century.

Less than a half-hour drive north of the Canadian-U.S. border at Pigeon River is the historic agricultural community of Slate River Valley, flanked on its eastern boundary by the flat-topped mountains of the Nor’Wester Range. Within the valley’s 5-mile radius is an eclectic mix of old and new family farms, livestock ranches, one-of-a-kind destinations and activities from Gouda cheese making to Ontario’s “Stonehenge” to pioneer museums, a chance to stargaze.

Slate River Valley lies within the Oliver Paipoonge Municipality, created in 1998 when the townships of Oliver and Paipoonge were amalgamated. Spread over 136 square miles with a population of about 5,750, Oliver Paipoonge is the second most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario (after Thunder Bay, population about 110,000) and encompasses the areas of Slate River Valley, Stanley and Intola and the villages of Kakabeka Falls, Murillo and Rosslyn. Agriculture continues to be the main occupation in the valley. The 2001 Census showed 2,101 dwellings, nearly 93 percent owned rather than rented, an average household income of $69,599. The average age is just under 40.

Back in 1860, when Provincial Land Surveyor Thomas Wallis Herrick finished surveying the Slate River Valley, there were no farms or residences. It would be another seven years before there was even the Dominion of Canada, as the land north of the U.S. border was still part of the British North America empire. Once it came into existence, the government of Canada aggressively recruited farmers to settle in its hinterlands.

By the end of the 19th century, numerous homesteads had sprung up in the Slate River Valley, with farmers from eastern Canada, the United States and England. Many settled on 160-acre land grants (“free” with $10 registration) from the Canadian government. If a barn was built on the property within five years, title was granted. The first settlers were John McKay Hunt and wife, Christina, in 1887.

Roland Wampole wrote in Algoma West that “settlers were flocking to the almost prairie rich soil,” noting that the Slate River Valley was a “mineral, timber and agricultural land” also good for sheep and cattle ranches.

“My great-grandfather J.D. Lamke came to Slate River in 1899 from Rock Falls, Illinois, with 12 other families,” says Lois Garrity of the Duke Hunt Historical Museum in the former Rosslyn Village School.

“The men arrived here first to clear the land, then the families and livestock came the following year across Lake Superior on a barge, landing at the current site of Fort William Historical Park, then trekking through the bush to Slate River Valley.”

Only a few descendants of the original farmsteads still remain, with many big farms in the valley sold to hard-working progressive Dutch farmers who immigrated here in the 1950s.

The valley is named for the river that runs 50.5 kilometres (about 31 miles) from the headwaters area south of Oliver Lake to the mouth of Kaministiquia “Kam” River. The Slate starts on the mesa plateau of a Nor’wester, drops quickly more than 100 metres into the valley, then flows through the valley’s gorge to the Kam.

The homesteaders, of course, were not the first people in the region. That honour goes to the nomadic Paleo-Indians, who arrived in the valley about 9,500 years ago, once the shores of Lake Minong (ancient Lake Superior) had receded. That ancient lake gives the valley its agricultural richness, having left rich silt soils. The Nor’Westers’ protection of the valley from blasting Lake Superior gales makes it a perfect blend for farms.

Today’s farms and livestock ranches of Slate River Valley continue to thrive in this fertile agricultural belt, but several have added a trailblazing diverse mix, blending farming and must-visit attractions.

At Belluz Farms, now in its third generation of family operators with Kevin and Jodi Belluz, the transition came in the 1970s with the growing popularity of pick-your-own options. Starting with a couple of acres of strawberries, the family found that it attracted more business and freed them from the fluctuations of wholesale prices. “We still count the pick-your-own strawberries as being the primary part of our income,” Jodi says.

Belluz Farms also produces gooseberries and raspberries, herbs, salad greens, sweet corn and heirloom vegetables (pick-your-own or freshly picked for you). On site, there is a children’s play area, a farm market of locally made food products, a Harvest Cafe and farm wagon tours to Mystical StrawHenge (Ontario’s “Stonehenge”) perched on the highest point in Slate River Valley. In early August each year, Belluz opens its famous four-acre Amazing Maze of tall corn stalks and in the fall launches the find-and-keep Great Pumpkin Hunt where little “sleeping pie pumpkins” are hidden in their Sunflower Field. “It kind of evolved into that … a destination to get food, but also to have an afternoon in the country,” says Jodi.