IN THE
BEGINNING!
Approximately 500 years before 1910, Cree and Ojibwa natives
inhabited the area. They mainly lived in "Kuckkatoosh," which
is now Groundhog Lake
The first notation in the area was by Mr. Hector Landry,
Mr. Felix Landry, and Angeline Binette in the year 1905! The were searching
the north for mining possibilities. Mr. Hector Landry returned with Mr.
Jean Varin in 1912, they decided to settle here in 1913.
Prior to the year 1908, Foleyet had been an island. However,
some clear-cutters and some loggers, situated somewhere along the Ivanhoe
River, had had an argument regarding property matters. During this time,
someone had gotten into the whiskey, and had resulted in blowing up an esker
with dynamite. The lake emptied to dangerously low. To this day, the lake
has never returned to its normal level.
In 1910, a lumber company sent some men to survey the land
for timber purposes. They traveled to the area by canoeing down the Ivanhoe
River.
In 1918, and influenza epidemic overwhelmed the region.
The disease killed a vast number
of the area's natives. The few natives that remained living moved to a different
territory.