Town prides itself as Pooh’s corner of Ontario
Bear that was later immortalized as Winnie came from White River
WHITE RIVER— Black bears roaming the woods near this isolated town north of Lake Superior apparently didn’t get the memo.
The town’s annual bear-focused event — Winnie’s Hometown Festival, also known as Poohfest — was cancelled in August, but still the bears are drifting into town.
“I’ve never seen so many bears in town (as I have) this summer and fall,” said White River Mayor Angelo Bazzoni. “It’s because the coronavirus eliminated the spring bear hunt in Ontario.”
The town’s biggest claim to fame is linked to one bear in particular — the beloved Winnie the Pooh.
Winnie was a cute little black bear cub sitting on the platform of this town’s Canadian Pacific train station when a troop train rolled in from the west on Aug. 24, 1914, carrying Winnipeg’s 34th Fort Garry Horse Regiment during the First World War.
Lt. Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian, saw the cub on the platform, tethered by a rope to a burly trapper.
The trapper told Colebourn the cub’s mother had been killed earlier that day just outside of town and he didn’t think the little girl bear would survive on its own.
Colebourn gave the trapper $20 for the cub when the trapper said he couldn’t care for it while working his trap lines.
The little bear shipped out with the troops and already had a name by the time the train cleared the station. Colebourn and his fellow troops named it Winnipeg after their hometown.
Winnipeg got friendly with the horses and their riders while they were on their way to Valcartier, Que., to train for combat in Europe. By the time the regiment sailed from Cape Breton Island, Winnipeg, best known as Winnie, was the regiment’s mascot.
In Quebec, at sea and during training in Britain, Winnie slept under Colebourn’s cot. But when the regiment was sent to France to fight, Colebourn knew Winnie couldn’t accompany him.
He persuaded the London
“We decided Winnie The Pooh would probably attract more visitors than being the coldest town in Canada.” CHRISTINE BAZZONI
Zoo to adopt his little friend.
The friendly little Canadian bear became a feature attraction at the zoo and that’s where Christopher Robin Milne, the young son of writer A.A. Milne, fell in love with it.
Milne started writing about his son and his friend Winnie and sent the two off on fictional adventures with Christopher’s stuffed friends — Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Rabbit.
Before long, Winnie was the world’s best-known bear and loved by kids everywhere. In 1966, Walt Disney Corp. licensed the rights to Winnie’s story and created a media franchise.
In 1988, White River saw an opportunity to make Winnie a tourist draw. “Before that, White River was known as the coldest place in Canada,” said Christine Bazzoni, the mayor’s wife and the town’s tourism promoter. “It got down to -72.5 F in the 1930s and we still have the big thermometer with that temperature standing in our park, but we decided Winnie the Pooh would probably attract more visitors than being the coldest town in Canada.”
About 4,000 tourists visit Winnie the Pooh Museum in White River each year — especially during Poohfest each August — to hear Winnie’s story and see 4,500 Winnie the Pooh artifacts. Disney approves all items for sale in the museum and gets five per cent of revenue — unless they are railway artifacts.
The museum has plenty of railway gadgets, too, as this town was built in 1886 by CP Rail to provide water and fuel to the dozens of steam locomotives arriving each day.
The Bazzonis own the Continental Motel, where Christine recently videotaped a peeping Tom. A large black bear was standing on its hind legs looking in a bedroom window.
“But I missed taping a mother black bear and her two cubs exploring my neighbour’s backyard. She was sniffing around and the cubs were playing with each other. One cub was a cinnamon colour. We see a lot of bears in town, but it’s rare to see a cinnamon-coloured bear.”
A unique train still comes to town once a week. It used to arrive three times a week from Sudbury, but COVID-19 has also reduced its schedule and that is causing social and economic hardship all along the 430-kilometre route between the two communities.
Single, self-propelled passenger cars called “dayliners” by CP and “railliners” by CN used to operate on low-volume, rural lines throughout the western world, but the Sudbury-White River run is the last of its kind.
Via Rail operates this northern dayliner on CP’s main eastwest rail line through northern Ontario. Often the commuter has to pull onto sidings to let three-kilometre-long freight trains pass by.
Plus, it makes a lot of stops out in the woods. Anyone can flag down this train to get a ride. Its baggage car — also self-propelled — was full of canoes, kayaks and backpacks heading west on a recent trip, as hardy adventurers moved into the wilderness to tackle the whitewater rapids of the Spanish River, one of Ontario’s finest paddling rivers.
Eastbound dayliners are often carrying moose carcasses at this time of year, as moose season for bow hunters is open until Oct. 31.
Many people live in camps — north of the French River, cottages are often referred to as camps — without road access and rely on the daily dayliner to keep them connected to civilization and all it has to offer, such as medical care.
There are hunting, fishing and hiking wilderness resorts in the bush that rely on the commuter train to bring in their supplies and guests.
Craig Stead, an engineer on Via’s luxury Canadian that runs from Toronto to Vancouver, also drives the White River commuter.
He says a book should be written about the characters who live deep in the woods and ride his dayliner. Many of them are trappers. And then there’s the wildlife that like to use the tracks, but don’t understand trains.
“We see a lot of wildlife along the track. The wolves are the smartest. They’re fast and clever and usually avoid getting hit, but there are more bears and moose and other critters in the woods these days because with our reduced schedule they’re not getting hit as often.”