Hi my name is Gordon Patowski and i worked at the plant. I was one of the last 20 guys on the Hydro payroll after we decomissioned the plant on March 1st 1983, (We technically shut her down June 21st '83).
We removed the fuel rods on September 2nd. The last technicians (US!) were charged with the task of removing as much radiation as possible. We also directed the American company in charged of dismantling the reactor.ÿ The reactor was removed on October 7th and encassed in a lead/concrete tomb 5 miles south of Mackey(down Black Lake Rd.).
After we got our seperation slip I finished my 35 years with hydro in North Bay and retired here in 1995.
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| Comment left by : Gordon P. - 12/23/2008 6:43:22 AM |
My name is Randy Morriss. I grew up in Rolphton and lived in the Ontario Hydro colony with my parents, Ron and Anne. My father was head of security at the hydro plant and later for the nuclear power demonstration project. My folks also built and ran a small gas bar/lunch room/gift shop called Valley Gifts on highway 17 about three miles east of Rolphton on the long straight-away before the Meilleur's Bay hill. We left the area in 1967 when my father was promoted in Hydro and moved to Toronto. While the colony is now gone, there are still a small number of modest homes south of highway 17 that made up the original village and that are still occupied. My maternal grandparents, Victor and Lavina Larochelle, were some of the early area pioneers. Victor died in 1970 and Lavina lived on alone in their small house on the old Moore Lake Road until her September, 1993 death in her 98th year. My uncle still lives in that home.
The picture of the "sidewalk to nowhere" is taken facing north from the highway along the right side of what was once the main entrance to the Hydro housing area. Where the street seems to widen out a bit was the parking lot for the community church (located to the right of the sidewalk) and directly opposite to the west was the four room S.S. Number 1 Rolphton public school that I attended and that was closed and torn down circa 1968. There was a wide grass boulevard down the middle of the entrance street. The community church was subsequently moved to the museum site at the Meilleur's Bay school house and still exists as part of the museum displays there. I learned to play tennis on that tennis court in the photo and, in winter, hydro workers put up rink boards and made a hockey rink on that spot. I learned to skate and play hockey on that rink. Lots of great memories in these few photos!! | | Comment left by : randy - 4/3/2009 12:33:56 AM |
Hi, because I'm looking for my ancesters, I cant find my great grandparents and where they were buried. Does Rolphton have old abandoned graveyards, they lived there in the 1860's and died in 1903.please can anyone let me know there names were Hollmer | | Comment left by : avril - 8/10/2009 1:02:29 PM |
There was no cemetery in Rolphton itself but there are three old cemeteries nearby. The folks who pioneered the area are buried in Des Joachims (the Swisha in local vernacular); near the Ottawa River in old Mackey (west of Rolphton and relocated to the riverbank from the original town site that was flooded out when the dam at Rolphton was built in 1947) and in Stonecliffe (next village west of Mackey). Unfortunately, as far as I know, the local churches in those places are all torn down or closed up so you would need to contact the local Roman Catholic bishop for the area to get access to the burial records. Failing that you could, of course, pay the area a visit and go for a walk in the various graveyards. I'd start in the old Mackey one that has a number of very old grave markers in it. There is also the schoolhouse museum on highway 17 east of Rolphton (about 5 km) that might have some information that would be useful to you. Good luck with your search. | | Comment left by : randy - 8/20/2009 11:44:57 PM |
