I was helping my brother Robert load some 50 pound plastic tubs of Whitefish for shipment to John Thorkeson Fresh Water receiving station in Selkirk. I remarked that with the ice, the tub still weighed 100 pounds. About the same as the old wooden boxes, which were always called 50 pounders. Yeah, he said, we have come along way. Fish from the north basin of Lake Winnipeg now comes in a slurry of ice in a 1500 - 2000 pound tote, which is loaded by forklift on to a barge for trans-shipment. No more packing, icing or preparing boxes.

In order to generate revenue in the early 1870s, the Gimli settlers wanted to ship fish to the big Winnipeg market. The CPR did not come to Gimli until 1905, so during navigation season, a small catch that had to be iced, went by sailboat. Later, by steam tug. In the winter, by horse and sleigh. It was roughly a 40-mile boat trip for the wooden boxes filled with fish.

While boxes had been used to move fish off the lake and to market for some years, it was not until Reid & Clark started commercial fishing Lake Winnipeg in 1880, that the box industry really began to take off in Manitoba.

Brown & Rutherford, along with William Robinson, had been logging the shores of the Lake for years. Huge housing growth in Winnipeg made for a ready lumber market. Now, these same saw mills started producing wood for fish boxes to meet the new demand. Mills sprang up on Hecla, Black Island, Birch Point and many other places using smaller spruce and poplar trees. The lumber was cut and bundled flat for cheap shipping, to be assembled later closer to the point of use. (Sort of Ikea for fish). They were called knock downs and many a kid got their first job nailing together boxes for 5 cents a piece. Walter Einarson of Gimli Ford and his cousin George Einarson said it was hard work. But a movie only cost 18 cents and a big Kik Cola was 7 cents - this was big money to a kid prepared to put in the effort.

The Lake was producing 2 million pounds of Whitefish a season. Twice that in Pickerel and other fish. The demand for boxes was almost insatiable. The boxes were seldom re-used so they were basically rough lumber. The catch primarily went to the USA and the boxes never came back.

In 1930, Hugh Armstrong bought the bankrupt Gimli Fish company. He promptly had the company Thorkelsson of Winnipeg (who billed themselves as the “Master Box Makers”), design and manufacture a very smart-looking
50-pound box. It was two inches longer and two inches lower than the conventional box in use. Plus, the wood was planed smooth and a beautiful advertising logo was imprinted on the sides. No other fish company did this, after-all, it was The Depression and everyone was looking to cut costs.

I asked my Father repeatedly about this approach. He explained that companies in the 30s did everything they could to advertise their product. Much like paper boxes today. The hidden persuader idea. Throw enough mud against a wall and some will eventually stick. It was a smart move on Armstrong’s part. The company was sold in 1940 to George Weston Limited's subsidiary, BC Packers, but the “designer” fish boxes remained in use up until the Lake was closed in 1969 and they became a collectable item. So much so that somehow in 1969, the box pictured here found its way into my possession and it remains in my collection to this very day.

 

Ken Kristjanson

June 2018