As the Town of Rainy River celebrates its 120th anniversary, the municipality’s top politicians reflect on its past, its future, and what it is that makes it so special.
Deb Ewald is the long-serving mayor of Rainy River, now in her 18 year as mayor, following three years as a town councillor. Marty Kreger is one of the town’s councillors, as well as deputy mayor and the man behind Kreger Sales & Service. With different backgrounds, they share Rainy River as the place they call home, and point to its sense of community and safety as one of its brightest points of favour.
“43 years I’ve been in Rainy River, and I love this district,” Ewald said.
“The people are super friendly. It’s relatively safe for families and children. We still have social problems, but not like you have in a lot of other places. I have three young grandchildren here, and we have no compunction about letting them go to the park by themselves, and we’ll go down and check on them, but everybody kind of looks out for everybody. It’s like a real old hometown.”
Kreger echoed the mayors comments, noting that when he was living in Fort Frances and expecting his son, he knew the place he wanted his children to grow up.
“The first thing that comes to mind for me [about Rainy River] is the safety and family,” he said.
“When I was having my son, I wanted to move back. I wanted him to grow up where he didn’t have to worry to walk down the street. Keys are in your vehicles, doors unlocked, grow up on a farm. I just wanted him to have the childhood I had, and Rainy River was an amazing childhood.”
That strong sense of community continues today. With the construction of the mine in the district, as well as Rainy River’s relatively lower cost of living compared to larger centres like Fort Frances and Emo, the community has begun to experience a certain amount of growth, with new families coming to town as parents work in jobs associated with mining, which Kreger notes is not a bad thing.
“The mine came along and really amped things up,” he said.
“There’s a lot of new families in the area that we don’t recognie, but there has to be change to be able to survive. But we have a good group of people around here. Like I said, what’s the neat part is you can be in a grocery store and be short $5, the person behind you taps you on the shoulder, hands you five bucks. Thats the nice part about small towns.”
With a strong sense of community and safety, it’s no surprise the community has reached its 120th anniversary. It’s also no question how it got this far. Despite early expansion and work in the mills, significant fires knocked the town down a few times in the early 1900’s. Nevertheless, the town continued in its way, helped along by the significance of the railroad to the community.
“Rainy was also a terminal for the CNR for years,” Ewald said, who is originally from Atikokan and remembers taking the trip to Rainy River by train, before the Causeway and highway connecting Atikokan to the rest of the district opened in 1967.
“CN ran through here at the terminal, and that was really and truly the main employer.”
Ewald noted that in more recent years, long after the heyday of the railroad in the community, Rainy River is finding its place as a hub of services for those working in and around the region, particularly as the agricultural sector continues to grow.
“Rainy’s thing is basically, we’re the town that supplies the Rec Centre, the library, the hospital is here; we’re like the service centre,” she said.
When it comes to what comes next for Rainy River and what they hope to see within the next decade, both Ewald and Kreger say the first things they want to see change for the people of the town are two of the most critical parts of life there.
“I would like to see the hospital here stabilized,” Ewald said.
“That’s one of our big issues right now. There are rumours they’re looking to close Emerge, and we’re only an hour away from Fort Frances, but we cover a large area and people are going to die. I’m also the chair for the [District of Rainy River Services Board] so I’m also familiar with the paramedics and other things too. When you only have one ambulance for Rainy River, one for Emo, one for Fort Frances and one for Atikokan, that’s a very large area to cover. Plus the doctor situation everywhere is difficult. So that to me right now is a very pressing concern, and so when I go to AMO next month, I’m hoping to speak to minister Sylvia Jones and bring her up to speed. We just need answers.”
Kreger echoes the mayor’s concerns with healthcare in town, and also that he hopes to see more homes in Rainy River for an increasing population.
“All in all, the whole district has been prospering, agriculture is taking off, which I’d never seen before, never seen that stuff around here,” he said.
“It’s definitely interesting to see the times change. It’s hard. But it needs to be done.”
Both the mayor and deputy mayor encourage the public to turn out to the Railroad Days and 120th celebrations to enjoy the festivities the committee have been working hard to organize. The anniversary will coincide with the annual Railroad Days festival, which is bringing in two major headline acts, as well as an all-years high school reunion to commemorate the new school being built to replace the existing schools.
“I know that the committee here in Rainy River have worked very hard on this event that’s going to be happening,” Ewald said.
“It’s also a reunion for anybody that graduated from Rainy River High School. But this will be an opportunity for people who have who have left and then haven’t had an opportunity to come back and just kind of have a nice walk down memory lane. I know that they’re doing tours of the school itself. I think it’ll be pretty nice.”
“We’re so excited to have everybody come back,” Kreger said.
“IT’s amazing how many people have registered, we have so many people coming. It’s going to blow people’s minds. It’s also a callout. We’re having issues with the Rec Centre. We’re working on grants, we’re working with the government, a small town just can’t come up with $1.2-million. We’re hoping everything we can make from the festivities would go towards our rec facilities, they’re both in dire need. As far as I’m concerned, our Community Centre is the heart of our community. We all have to pitch in just like they did to build it.”
