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lter and Sima Levine arrived in Montreal in 1903 along with their seven children. They met others here who, like them, had fled the pogroms in Russia. Their new country was full of hope and freedom. There was no dark authoritarian presence watching their moves, no pogroms, and the immigrants could freely share their stories, hopes and fears. Almost drunk with a sense of freedom, a number of these new Canadians decided to establish a commune off in the countryside where they could farm and reorganise their world. What could challenge their vision in this new land where only hard work stood between them and their dreams? No society had yet experimented with the ideas of Karl Marx and intellectuals everywhere believed that we could achieve utopia with a social system.

The family names of these social pioneers are still with us today: Ofner, Gillitz, Corn, Shuldiner, Smith, Levine. They believed that they could create a commune in the Pays d'en Haut, the great north, where functioning farms with open, grazed fields could be purchased reasonably. The purchase prices should have been warning enough that their project was ill starred. Unlike the French Canadians, who, a generation earlier, hacked down and burned the forest, believing that they could recreate the rich farms of the St. Lawrence Valley, the new pioneers arrived by train and beheld rolling, green fields, fenced pastures and roads.

However, life on Laurentian farms was never easy. The soil is generally nutrient-poor and thin, leaving crops vulnerable to drought, and the frost- free season is short: It is unlikely to freeze between the 12th of June and the 1st of September, a period of only 80 days, but of course we have seen snow in August and frost-free periods can run to mid September, so there is always hope. On the other hand, while the farmer could not rely on the weather in summer, he could count on being stranded for days at a time in the heavy snows of mid to late winter. The commune lasted less than five years.

Mortimer Davis, who had extended credit, ended up with one of the farms, and it ultimately became the site of Mount Sinai Hospital. Alter Levine, who was older than the others, ended up with his own farm fronting on a part of Trout Lake. His family of 8 children, their youngest daughter having been born here, must have practically formed a commune in itself, but Alter fell into a deep depression after the failure of the original project. Sima assigned her sixteen-year-old son Leo the task of checking up on his father to make sure that, in his depressed state, he did himself no harm. Once, Leo cut his father down from the rafters of the barn where the elder Levine had tried to hang himself. Another time he found his father bleeding to death in the woods and dragged him home, helping his mother nurse him back to health. Leo always remembered what his father told him when his body was fully healed: "Next time you won't find me."

Sophie Levine Gross, the youngest and only child born in Canada, remembers the hardships of those early days. She has no memory of her father. He had made good on his promise and his body was never found. Her mother Sima Levine was left with 8 children ranging in age from 25 to 2 who, with her, were learning the local languages, on the 278-acre farm, with fifteen acres of fields under cultivation, a barn, a horse, a small herd of cattle and 50 chickens. Sophie's earliest memories include receiving a new birth certificate because the farmhouse burned down and all their papers were lost.

Her mother began to take in boarders in their new building, people who were visiting family at Mount Sinai Hospital, or others who had come to Ste. Agathe for 'the cure' and could not find room at the hospital. Over time, their home evolved into the Trout Lake Inn and her brothers ran it together with their mother. The inn was on the north side of the lake and became a popular destination, finally bringing the family some prosperity.

Fire was a constant danger in those days. There was no safe heating source, and the structures were made from wood that dried thoroughly in walls that let the wind through during the long, cold winters. Everyone had experience with fires. Chimneys, stoves and fuels were not standardised and daily chores occupied all of people's time. At the Trout Lake Inn Leo had been responsible for the fire insurance and so it was Leo who was blamed when fire destroyed the inn and they discovered that the premium had never been paid.

Even so, the family managed to rebuild, but Leo did not join them. Never fully forgiven for the fire, he managed to buy a parcel of the Larivière farm to the south. In time, the Trout Lake Inn closed and the others moved on to other careers, but Leo, who had secretly married Sophie Eidlow, persisted and eventually built a new hotel that he called Sun Valley Lodge.

Leo and Sophie, both of small stature, made up in determination what they lacked in size. Sun Valley Lodge became a popular hotel and soon they found other opportunities to make money. When Sir Mortimer Davis died in 1927 his estate was liquidated and Leo purchased a number of the outbuildings and dragged them behind a team of horses around Lac des Sables and over the hill to set them on foundations on his farm. These houses were rented to his guests for longer periods and in time were purchased as summer cottages. Because the road ran along the lakeshore, they were placed up the hill, overlooking the lake, and the Levines kept a very deep setback of land between the road and the cottages. Rumours were rife that the government was going to widen the road and they wanted to receive the expropriation money. Thwarting their plans, a new road was built behind the mountain, eventually becoming the Route 117 that we know today.

Unfortunately for the Levines the fields could no longer produce, being filled with cottages, and with most of their customers preferring the idea of renting or buying a small cottage, the hotel became redundant. Undaunted, the Levines set up a summer camp for the many children. They themselves had one son whom Sophie home-schooled telling everyone that her 'Sonny' would one day become a doctor.

Over time, the Levine farms grew into the small Jewish country community that still exists around Trout Lake. While all of the other Levines moved away and established careers elsewhere, Leo and Sophie persisted. Eventually Leo sold the balance of the mountain to the Gentemens who created the Chanteclair development, providing some additional funds for retirement. Sophie predeceased Leo who passed away in 1989 at age 99 at the Mount Sinai Hospital. They are survived by their son, Dr. Mark (Sonny) Levine, neurologist, his wife, three children and nine grandchildren who all live in California.

Joseph Graham has written a book that features a select number of stories of Laurentian places and how they got their names. To learn more, click here.

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This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the author. © Joseph Graham