The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1982, Síða 48

46
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER, 1982
HECLA ISLAND PROVINCIAL PARK
The 125 miles of highway between Win-
nipeg and Hecla Island start out through
flat wheat fields, which gradually give way
to a mixed forest of poplar and spruce and
eventually to a strange and fascinating
countryside of bog and marsh. Shining
patches of water flank the road as it ap-
proaches the causeway leading from the
mainland to the island. This is interlake
country (between Lakes Winnipeg and
Manitoba) and it surprises the prairie tra-
veller by glimpses of the huge, ocean-like
stretches of Lake Winnipeg. In fact,
brochures describe Hecla as a “marine
park’’. On the way, the traveller can leave
the main road and detour into towns such as
Gimli and Riverton where harbours full of
fishing boats give a seaside feeling on this
huge freshwater lake.
And as you drive across the causeway
that links the mainland with Hecla Island,
the jewel of Lake Winnipeg, it is easy to
see why the Icelandic settlers of 100 years
ago ended their search for a new home
here.
Hecla, with wildlife to rival almost any
other part of the province, and a history as
interesting as its scenery, is one of Man-
itoba’s newest provincial parks. It is also
one of the smallest. Only 18 miles (29 km)
long and six miles (10 km) wide, it is now
one of the finest tourist centres in the
province with a golf course that is among
the best in the country, a harbour with po-
tential to handle a small fleet, and an excel-
lent lodge (Gull Harbour resort), which has
an indoor pool, a sauna, an exercise room,
a children’s game room and pool tables.
But in its early days Hecla was a grim
place, and the stories of how the Icelanders
exchanged poverty on their own island for
hardship on a far and distant one ranks with
the most outstanding pioneering exploits
ever told. Volcanic devastation sent them
sailing west, driven by Utthra, as they
called the spirit of adventure that motivated
them. The same spirit had driven their
Viking cousins in a similar direction hun-
dreds of years before.
Ethnic communities
The Icelanders dreamed of setting up a
colony governed by their own laws, culture
and language, where they could find the
moderate prosperity denied them at home.
The first group settled along the western
shores of Lake Winnipeg where the land
was fertile and the waters full of fish. With
the cold weather approaching they hur-
riedly built log cabins and set up tents in
which they endured a winter of indescrib-
able savagery. Most of them survived the
weather and a deadly outbreak of scurvy,
but it required great courage.
The following year another large group
of nearly 800 people left Iceland, but many
fell victim to crowded steamer conditions
and it was only a fraction of that number
who eventually reached Hecla.
Legend has it that their intended destina-
tion was even farther north, but that a cow
fell overboard and swam ashore on the
island, and the settlers took that as an omen
and stayed there.
But just as the community began to take
shape and life started to improve, disaster
struck in the shape of a smallpox outbreak
that plagued the entire Icelandic settlement.
Hundreds died, more than a third of the
population of Hecla Island was struck
down, an eight-month quarantine was im-
posed, and when it ended only 115 people
remained.
The next year many of their crops failed
and it was only their traditional skills as
fishermen that saved the islanders from ex-
tinction. Further hardships took their toll
and the dream of establishing a New