An 1894 train station that can still choo-choo chaboogie!

Barry's Bay -- With a few rambunctious toots of a wooden train whistle, a Stationkeepers MV conductor brought the crowd to attention inside the old Barry's Bay train station here Sunday afternoon. That conductor soon got everyone all aboard a wildly-entertaining 90-minute 'heritage' show, full of curious revelations.

The weekend event, organized by the Stationkeepers MV, a local non-profit group dedicated to preserving and promoting the old train station, thus kicked off a 130th anniversary celebration, if not a 'great remembrance' that its 150 members hope will last long into the coming summer.

The entire show was aimed at reminding locals and tourists alike that the old Barry's Bay Train Station, built in 1894 as part of J.R. Booth's Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railroad -- then the longest private railway in the world -- is still alive and kicking. And, that, despite not having a regular passenger train arrive in Barry's Bay since 1961, nor freight-train service since 1972.

Yet, more than a few in the crowd said the old station 'never looked better'. Astoundingly, the little wood-frame station, along with its adjacent wooden water tower, are the last of its kind still standing anywhere in Canada.

It was thus no surprise to see the station's main lobby lovingly converted to a local museum, chuck-full of interesting artifacts, and dedicated to the local railroad and lumbering heritage. That is, before the audience found itself easily distracted when they first saw some performers break open their fiddle cases while others still coming through the waiting room started to regale them with local old stories.

Certainly, the show was full of knee-slapping railroad songs sung by the Stationkeeper Singers, and ably backed by the latest fiddling sensation to come out of the west end of the county, The Yo-Yo Mamas. Master of ceremonies, if not ring-master, was Sean Conway, a former provincial cabinet minister, student of history, and a man known for his 'great remembrance' when it comes to anything local.

But, as if the fiddles themselves might not be enough, many of the tunes performed on Sunday were drawn from such prominent historical sources as Mac Beattie's Ottawa Valley Melodiers, a group whose post-war repertoire of original, local songs were often performed on local radio and TV in the 1950s and '60s.

To get the crowd even more fired up, Mr. Conway added his own anecdotal comments about what happened when the Melodiers played the 'Lake Dore Waltz' at Plebon's Lakeside Pavilion in Barry's Bay.

Upon hearing that, a member of the crowd then jumped up and told of how the Pavillion, still known locally in some circles as 'The Hog Wrassle', got that rather seemingly impossible name.

"Apparently in the 1940s and '50s," he said, "the Barry's Bay Train Station had a series of sheds and pens to hold livestock about to be shipped out by train; well, a favourite pastime of local teenage boys back then was to sneak into especially the pig pens, and try to ride the hogs bareback, as if they were all young cowboys breaking broncos," he said.

That rough-rider practice of misspent youth thus became known as 'hogwrassling,' he said, and long before Plebon's Pavilion was even built. A former Barry's Bay Reeve, John Hildebrandt, later confirmed of hearing of such things back in his teenage days.

During the heritage show, musical performances were interspersed with equalling informative and entertaining presentations. Vicky Cybulski-Blank, who runs the Stationkeeper's Museum, pointed out new artifacts recently acquired, explaining their history, including a certain enchanting 19th Century gin bottle, acquired from beneath the station, its provenance left only to old ghosts to explain.

The show included two short video presentations. Theresa Prince narrated and produced one, a revealing story about the first industrialist, Joseph Prince, a distant relative. Early in the 1890s, he built Barry's Bay first steam-powered sawmill and supplied lumber to help build both the original Barry's Bay Train station and its adjacent water tower. Her video vignette, along with three others, are all available for viewing whenever the Station is open.

Perhaps the best part of the afternoon was thoroughly unplanned when, near the end, Mr. Conway asked the crowd if it had any comments or questions about what had been presented. A lengthy discussion ensued and continued long after refreshments were served and consumed. It was a fascinating communal conversation, very much beyond mere nostalgia.

For instance, Don Derraugh, a retired teacher, well-known in the Golden Lake-Eganville area, entertained his audience with stories of how students used to take the train to get to their music lessons, while others talked of when the railroad station at Ruby had as many passengers getting off, as cattle, sheep, and bales of hay loaded on.

In all, the afternoon went well beyond its expected duration, not only because of all the story-telling, but because of things that can only happen in a place like Barry's Bay.

At the end of the formal agenda, Joanne Olsen, President of the Stationkeeper MV, said she had one last surprise. The Yo-Yo-Mamas then fired up, then the Stationkeeper Singers, and then the entire crowed chimed in, for a heart-felt rendition of 'Happy Birthday,' directed at a very surprised Mayor of Madawaska Vally Township, Mark Willmer, who thought he was sitting inconspicuously, just there simply to enjoy the show.

Barry Conway, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eganville Leader