Comments on BA’s OMBABIKA TRIP POSTS

Posts by Brett Anderson received some online comments that enlightened us about the history of Ombabika and Auden. They are collected here without my editing the text.

Anonymoussays: January 16, 2018 at 3:14 am
you were almost there just another ten minutes up the trail past the tracks you would of hit the Ombabika Cemetary. I found it on my own pilgramage following a 40 year old rumor of old cars in Auden. We should of went there 40 years ago when we first heard it. The history of Ombabika is interesting, goes back a long way

jeffsays: November 1, 2019 at 1:00 am
There was no town of Ombabika that i found either, we did find the old cemetery so im assuming the town was in that area too, we only found old cars and junk no home of building foundations. we wondered around in the woods found other paths but it didn’t lead us to anything
[Editor’s Note: The “old cemetery” referenced was actually in Auden.]

Karensays: February 25, 2020 at 10:33 pm
Amazing story! Now I need to revisit the song and lyrics.
I stumbled upon your adventure on a search of my own. My mother was raised for a time at Ombabika, was baptized there. I took to heart her memories of the beautiful spot from her childhood. My mother passed away in my arms just over two years ago. I have some of her ashes and want to return her to the place she enjoyed as a child, however reading of your difficult journey makes me doubt my ability to set her free to blow on the winds of Ombabika …

Nancy Gardnersays: August 14, 2020 at 10:25 pm
My father emigrated from Scotland in the 1920’s to run a Hudson Bay Post. He married my mother who was a Red Cross nurse in Nakina. They lived in Ombabica and looked after my 3 year old cousin for a couple of years. I have photos of my Dad and cousin swimming in the river.

Calvin Smithsays: September 5, 2020 at 10:41 pm
I was a ‘forest ranger’ based in Ombabika is 1947 (aged 17). There was a little grocery store and a small village. My job was to go to the watch tower a couple miles down the tracts, climb the 60ft ladder to the platform and look around for smoke through the telescope. If I saw smoke go back to the ranger station on the edge of the lake at Ombabika. I am afraid of heights and never once climbed that tower.

You should have walked down the tracks from Auden. EVERYBODY from Ombabika walked up to Auden every evening to see if the train stopped to pick-up or let off passengers or freight for the Hudson’s Bay store there.

There were a couple of canoes in the boathouse that I could use and some canvas firehose that I was supposed to check, and a short-wave radio to communicate with the Ranger Station in Armstrong. The only way into Auden or Ombabika was by rail. The Rangers brought me in from Armstrong and took me back by ‘rail scooter’.

I made friends with a half dozen Indians (I think they were Ojibwe) and held weekly poker games in the Ranger station.

It was a great adventure for a seventeen year old. But I was fired (the only time in my 90 years) for doing nothing related to fire watch.

Roy Storeysays: May 21, 2023 at 1:43 am
I used to run a grader from what was Abitibi camp 40 to Auden both summer and winter in the mid 70’s. Auden was a fairly active community in those days as most male members worked in the woodlands industry out of Camp40. I worked for the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry was responsible for maintenance on that 26 miles of road. I can still vividly remember the winter nights I left Camp 40 to plow the road up and back. Usually a 10-12 hour trip in temperature that went as cold as -40F. In the summer it was dust, black flies and mosquitoes. I did the winter trip at night so people in Auden could get to work at Camp 40 in the morning. From the pics on your post the road has not been maintained or minimally maintained for many years. Suffice to say I have to visit Auden. Love your post brings back memories, the people of Auden always appreciated seeing the grader arrive it meant they could get out. If my memory is correct Ombabika was on the north side of the track and at most 3 or 4 miles west of Auden.

“I’ve Been Everywhere, Man” Living the song on two wheels. | Page 136 | Adventure Rider (advrider.com)

RJ44, Dec. 20, 2019

Brett,

If you do come up this way again, I would love to ride with you from Thunder Bay to the Beardmore area. Keep in touch.

The Ombabika Cemetery is located about 2 kms west of the abandoned village of Auden near the CNR tracks. It was once a Roman Catholic mission there and has been long abandoned. There is one stone marker (1978), several wooden crosses with names painted and 40 plus wooden crosses without names. Someone has made an attempt to upkeep markers with paint, but mother nature has taken her toll.

Auden is at the end of Highway 801, about 90 kms north of Highway 11 (near Beardmore) in unorganized territory.

Rob

Comments on BA’s OMBABIKA TRIP POSTS
Dad left Lyttleton NB. during the “dirty” 30`s to find work at old camp one Auden. Left to serve with the outbreak of WW2. He returned after the war with a new bride from Durban South Africa, She gave birth to me in Port Arthur in 1948. Ten days later, we crossed lake Nipigon from Orient Bay on the Ombabika. an Abitibi supply boat.

Leslie Mutch