The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1968, Side 40

38
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1968
Saga of Hecla Island
by Tom Saunders
Over the years — and especially over
the past decade—much has been writ-
ten about Hecla Island and its Ice-
landic community, some 45 miles above
the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg.
Ten years ago my colleague, Fred
Manor, described a car trip he made
there over some of the worst roads in
Manitoba — a trip he has 'been in no
hurry to repeat. The island itself he
described as a “fairyland”, but the
hazards encountered in getting there
were nothing short of a nightmare.
With hard-surfaced roads for most
of 'the way, it is less difficult today to
get to Hecla, the only bottleneck be-
ing the limited capacity of the ferry
(seven cars) which, on week-ends
especially, can be rather trying on the
traveller’s patience.
But the saga of Hecla Island is more
than the story of its roads or its ferry.
It is the story of its people. One of the
oldest Icelandic communities in Man-
itoba, the first settlers had no need
of roads. They were fishermen and
sailors, and they came there by boat.
That was in the I870’s. Where othei
pioneers in the settlement of the west
lived off the land, they lived off the
lake. And for many years, in a pioneer
and post-pioneer environment, the
living — if not easy — was good
enough to sustain life. In a modest way
the community flourished. As late as
the early 1950’s it supported a popula-
tion of around 500. Today Hecla’s
population has dwindled to 78.
There have been several reasons for
this decline in population. One is that
the fish harvest from the lake is not
what it once was. A second is that the
fishermen who are now at the mercy
of the fish companies, get a smaller
share of the dollars that the fish harv-
est brings. A third is that it costs more
to live today than in pioneer or post-
pioneer years, and this, combined with
the factors already mentioned, has
forced many people to leave the is-
land to seek more gainful employ-
ment elsewhere.
Today the island is almost denuded
of its young people, who see no future
in the fishing industry. Hecla’s high
school was closed in 1964. Last year
its elementary school had only ten
pupils; by this fall the number will
be reduced to five. Every indication
is that, in the near future, the elemen-
tary school will go the same way as
the high school and, unless something
is done to upgrade the economy of the
island, the tragedy of Hecla will be
complete.
It is a tragedy that is all the more
tragic because of the calibre of the
people who have lived there — and
of those who remain. They have been
an industrious, independent people,
proud of both their industry and in-
dependence. Even in the 1930s, when
so many Canadians were on the relief
lines, the people of Hecla maintained
their independence. It is rumored that
one family did go on welfare, but this
was considered such a community dis-
grace that, even to this day, it is
seldom mentioned.
But the saga of Hecla is not all
tragedy. Realizing that their old way
of life was dying, the people of the
island began to look for a new way.
The answer to their problems, they
felt, was tourism. Mr. Manor is not
the only traveller who has remarked