Crow’s Nest Pass, Alberta
This story is dedicated to Chris Guest (nee Kozey) and every descendant of Ukrainian/Canadian immigrants.
I needed a piece of reclaimed timber for a fireplace mantle this morning, so I drove to Pincher Creek, Alberta to pick one up.
If you have ever driven The Cowboy Trail south of Longview, you know that a morning spent on that stretch of road is an unrivalled scenic adventure.
Bar-U Ranch on Highway 22 south of Longview, Alberta
The mantle is for a fireplace in a three-season room we are adding to our house (a story for another time). We wanted something rustic, a piece with character, possibly with some local history. Did we ever get it!
A fellow named Michael operates a wood reclamation business in Pincher Creek called Salvage Solutions. He has a warehouse full of timber and other items salvaged from barns, grain elevators, bowling alleys, you name it.
Michael had a wide selection of mantels to choose from, all very weathered and worn, some with bits of metal embedded, a testament to their former purposes. Any of the timbers I saw would have worked well, but the piece I chose was special, something Michael salvaged from a barn in the Crow’s Nest Pass area.
I didn’t buy the mantle because it was the best-looking piece, but it had the most compelling story.
A Ukrainian family immigrated to southwest Alberta at the beginning of the 20th century and began farming in the Crow’s Nest Pass region. They constructed a modest house, approximately 10 feet by 12 feet in size, to accommodate the man, his wife, and their three young sons.
The family’s names are unknown. For the purpose of this narrative, I will call them Nestor and Sonya Hryciuk, with children Dmytro, Borys, and Aleksander.
Stock photo of a Ukrainian/Canadian family of the same era.
The Hryciuk family was having difficulty farming inhospitable, high-elevation land, so Nestor went to work in the nearby coal mines. Nestor spent the winter of 1903 in mining company housing at Frank, Alberta, leaving his wife and three small children to fend for themselves. The way Michael described it, the man earned only enough to feed himself that winter, with very little sent home to the family.
Charges for room and board, as well as purchases from the company store, were deducted from coal miners’ wages, often leaving them with minimal disposable income.
Sonya and the three boys found themselves in severe financial hardship, with no preserved food and only a small number of chickens for eggs. Lacking both income and livestock, the family was at risk of starvation.
The Hryciuk’s survived the winter solely due to the generosity of their neighbors.
But starvation was not the only peril the family faced.
At 4:10am, April 29, 1903, 110 million tonnes of limestone on the side of Turtle Mountain, crashed down on the town of Frank, killing 90 people. Seventeen miners were trapped underground but managed to dig their way out. Nestor Hryciuk was not among the dead or trapped miners, but the disaster would have badly shaken the family.
Nestor returned home that spring with just enough money to populate his farm with a few animals. He set about building a barn so the family could accommodate a larger herd of hogs and other livestock to meet their needs the following winter.
The barn was completed in 1905. It was built in such a way that the three boys could live in the loft. Heat rising from the animals would keep the living space above freezing temperature.
Stock photo of a Ukrainian/Canadian family farm, ca 1905.
Michael ended the Hryciuk’s story there. He said that he was asked to dismantle and salvage the barn last year, 120 years after it had been built.
The timber post Michael sold me is hand-pealed, Douglas Fir or Lodgepole Pine. There is a wooden dowel that Nestor Hryciuk augured through one end.
This post was holding up the loft of the Hryciuk barn, and by extension, their family.
Every time I walk past our new fireplace or hang stockings from the mantle at Christmas, I will remember the immigrant family and the struggle they endured. I am grateful to them for the opportunity to own this sliver of Alberta’s heritage; a piece of our collective …
… Family Tree
Ukrainian Immigrants – Stock Photo
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Chris Guest
That’s a beautiful story Russ. Thank you for sharing.
Russ Paton
Thanks Chris. Enormous personal strength grew from such humble beginnings.