27) Elma Rapids

Elma Rapids

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The area surrounding present day Elma was sparsely settled by 1880, mostly by immigrants of Polish and Ukrainian descent. Around 1895, an influx of Finnish settlers homesteaded in the area, six miles south of Whitemouth. Whitemouth, established on the CP Railway tracks was the area's supply center, with settlers following trails along the west shore of the Whitemouth River. The people took up homesteads of 160 acres, paying $10.00 to the Dominion Government. The land that wasn't bog (swamp) was covered with stands of huge spruce, tamarack, elm and poplar trees that had to be removed with grub hoes and axes. Human and animal labour was used in order to clear areas for their houses, barns, gardens and crops. The peat bogs provided vast swarms of mosquitoes to accompany the hordes of flies. One of the first employers of the people was David Ross' sawmill in Whitemouth. By 1900, word of a second national railroad began to spread, bringing in more men as construction labourers. The National Transcontinental Railroad (later known as the Grand Trunk Pacific, and, after 1919 called the Canadian National Railway) began construction of the rail grade or "dump", using human labour with horses pulling hand operated scrapers, shovels and wheelbarrows. The grade was complete through Elma by 1906, and railroad service to Winnipeg soon followed, ending the area's isolation. By 1907 the tracks extended to Fort William, Ontario which we now call Thunder Bay.

The settlement was called Janow for many years, especially the post office. When Janow (John) Galewicz had the original post office and store before 1906, the post office needed a name. It was called Janow after the postmaster. When the railroad was built and a station erected, the town was named after the station, which was named Elma in honour of a daughter of one of the railroad building contractors.

The settlement's first store was located a mile to the south, owned by Janow Galewicz. He moved the building beside the tracks in 1906, forming the nucleus of the new settlement. The Polish Roman Catholic church was dedicated in 1912. The Holy Cross Ukrainian church was built and dedicated in 1910. More and more businesses came to the town; enough to fill a two-block long area. Disaster struck in 1922, when a chimney fire in one of the town’s businesses set the whole two block area on fire. One of the factors contributing to the spread of the fire was the wooden sidewalks. Only a couple of brick chimneys were left standing. There were five stores in town at that time! The town quickly rebuilt. In 1927 a second disaster struck when two trains collided on the Whitemouth River bridge. Two locomotives and several cars ended up in the river. Eight people and numerous cattle were killed. It was the worst C.N.R. wreck to that date.

Because of the large concentration of Finnish people, a cultural center was built two miles south-east of Elma. It was called the Riento Hall and operated from the mid 1930s to the mid 1950s. It fell into disuse as the original settlers died and their children left the area. 

An all-weather road (now Provincial Road 406) was created to link Elma to Whitemouth. Another road was built southward to Medika and Hadashville. Electricity came to the town in 1938, and telephone in 1930. Hydro came to the rural areas in 1952, and telephone in 1953. The Canadian Consolidated Grain Company elevator was built along the tracks in 1950. It was moved to Whitemouth in 1962 by United Grain Growers. The area was served by a midwife/unofficial doctor from 1910 until 1950. Her name was Lydia Pajunen (married name – means of or from the willows) (Pohjonen was her maiden name, means “North” in Finnish). Lydia was born in Tempere, Finland in 1884. She assisted in the births of a great number of babies, and  rendered medical assistance to the sick and injured. The area's ethnic makeup changed in the late 1940s when the first Mennonite families settled in the region. They built their church on P.R. 406 in the early 1950s, replacing and enlarging it over the years. They have a school, called Riverbend School near the church. Farms in the Elma area are now owned predominantly by Mennonite families. 

Juno School

The Juno school was very important to the developing of the community. It served the Juno area and the developing Birch River settlement, which went as far south as Medika and eventually to Prawda. Families were large in those days; one family in the area had 19 children! The Juno carriage was built over the Whitemouth River to afford access to the school to children on the west side of the river. The Juno School District was established formally in April 1913, and a one-room schoolhouse operated at SW14-10-12E in the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth. It had the largest catchment area of all schools in the municipality, with some students coming from as many as 10 miles away. The district was dissolved in 1968 and its area becoming part of the Agassiz School Division.

Additional Details

Civic Number: N/A; Driving Tour Signage located on Cooks Falls Road   l    Amenities on Site: Riverside; Picnic Table; Porta Potty during summer months   l    Building on Site: No