Archivist Graham Guest and Dave Floch stands in front of the Paul Floch Collection. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

the past

Archives Week at PNLS showcases new exhibit on Island Falls Dam construction

Feb 1, 2024 | 4:56 PM

Saskatchewan Archives Week is coming up and archivist Graham Guest has a special exhibit he’s excited to share with the public.

The Paul Floch Collection is a series of images taken by or collected by Floch (1902-1972) during the construction of the Island Falls Hydroelectric Station on the Churchill River near Sandy Bay. It was constructed between 1927 and 1929, and it was built to provide power to the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company at Flin Flon, Man., which was expanding at the time.

The collection was donated by Paul Floch’s grandson Dave Floch, who has been a resident of La Ronge for decades.

“He was just a guy with a camera,” Floch said about his grandfather.

“It’s pretty neat. I’m kind of a history buff anyway, so it is always nice to see how the North was developed considering the North is not that old as far as development goes. It is kind of nice to see from 100 years where it came from and where it is now.”

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The exhibit doesn’t just show construction of the dam, but also the method in which supplies and equipment were transported to the work camp. Supplies and equipment were based at La Pas, Man., and then transported to the camp via cat train during the winter. That involved loading the materials onto sleds and using a tractor to move them to the site.

Guest explained Paul Floch was a good photographer that took images of high quality. He noted the images, which were given to him already digitized, were easily able to be enlarged to letter-print size quality.

“I was really excited when Dave brought it in. It was just a complete story,” Guest said.

“We have another collection about Island Falls, but it is in the 1950s but this is absolute history. This was the biggest construction event in Saskatchewan at the time. It was just huge. It’s still there, so it is really exciting for me to get something like this. I am very grateful to Dave for the donation.”

According to SaskPower, the Island Falls Hydroelectric Station was opened in 1930 and currently has a power capacity of 111 megawatts. There are seven units at the station with the first three built between 1929 and 1930, and a fourth unit in 1936. Three more units were added in 1938, 1947 and 1959.

This Saskatchewan Archives Day marks the first time in three years it is being celebrated by the Pahkisimon Nuyeʔáh Library System in Air Ronge (PNLS). Those interested in seeing the Paul Floch Collection can do so next week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. Those wanting to bring in a class of students should contact Roseanne Dery at PNLS to make arrangements.

Other exhibits that will be on display include the Lac La Ronge Fisheries and Filleting Plant Collection, the William John Davis Collection, the Christina Bateman and Annie ‘Nan’ McKay Collection, the Larry Hewitt Collection, the Darrel Giesbrecht Collection and more.

“I’d like to encourage other families to do the same,” Guest said about Floch donating the collection to PNLS.

“We have a lot of collections now, but I like to take the pictures and put them up, so they are a living display [and] the public can see them. Otherwise, they might just stay in somebody’s drawer or on the shelf in their house and the public doesn’t see them.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com