Pioneer Stories:

Taking a look back as we move forward

Each summer, during the Blueberry Festival, the Sioux Lookout Genealogy and History Club helps us to remember the pioneers who helped establish the communities of Sioux Lookout, Hudson and Alcona.

Much of the information was gathered from the three Volumes of Tracks Beside the Water, Sioux Lookout’s history books. Copies of these books are still available for purchase, through club members or the Sioux Lookout Public Library. People can find the club on Facebook – The Sioux Lookout Genealogy and History Club. 

The club shared: “In the early 1900’s the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad was being constructed in this area intersecting with existing First Nation trading routes. This last link between east and west on the Grand Trunk Pacific was completed just west of Sioux Lookout. Sioux Lookout Station became a divisional point.

“The construction camps and then the establishment of the Railroad’s divisional point were the beginnings of the development of the community 

we have today.

“Sioux Lookout officially became a town on January 1, 1912.

“The new, small community grew rapidly with the logging, lumbering, construction, railroading, mining exploration related industries and the many support services needed to accommodate its inhabitants. Folks from many parts of Europe came to establish themselves here in those early years.

“Walking through the cemeteries, you will notice the gravestones of many of these early pioneers—the resting place of those who were brave enough to make this their home.  These are the pioneers of Sioux Lookout—the prosperous, the not-so-prosperous, the colourful and the characters that make up a community.

“We pay tribute to these early pioneers—the people who shaped this frontier.   Many of them have descendants who still live here today.”