City acknowledges Snowdon Park tragedies (3 photos)

Ken Crossman is making good on a promise made to his mother before her death in 2015 to memorialize a family tragedy that occurred in the east end of Sault Ste. Marie more than 60 years ago. 

City Council will be asked to confirm a letter of apology to Crossman for the drowning death of his brother at Snowdon Park in 1960 and work with Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association Memorial Committee to develop plans for a memorial at the east-end park to acknowledge three drowning deaths that occurred there over the years. 

The lifeless body of Crossman’s 10-year-old brother Gerald was pulled from Shannon Road pond in February 1960. Gerald died while rescuing his eight-year-old brother, Robert, who fell into the pond. 

Shannon Road pond has since been filled in and replaced by present-day Snowdon Park.  

Crossman received a letter from the City acknowledging Gerald’s death in late May. 

“That tragedy - I think about my brother Gerald a lot, at 10 years old losing his life. I always said to myself and to my mother that I would do something about it,” said Crossman. “I was the one that wanted to get some kind of closure to it, or recognition for my brother and the loss of his life.”

“I guess it’s that, and the fact that my mom’s looking down and she’s a little happier now.”

Crossman says he's thankful for the help of retired Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre researcher Ed Sadowski and Irene Barbeau, vice-chair for the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, who provided him with research and moral support in his search for some sort of closure.

The majority of this article has been informed by Sadowski’s extensive research efforts.  

Shannon Road pond claims two Shingwauk Residential School students 

Crossman’s brother wasn’t the first to drown in Shannon Road pond. During the first Shingwauk reunion in 1981, former Shingwauk Residential School staff member Margaret McLean talked about two young male students there who had drowned in the pond in either 1914 or 1915.

At that time, McLean said that her father, Shingwauk staff member Seymour Hayes, along with others, tried to retrieve the two students from the pond - a body of water so large that it appeared in aerial photographs and was even included on a map created by the federal government in 1939.

The bodies of the two unidentified Shingwauk students were never recovered. Barbeau says their bodies are buried in the east-end park. 

“When we heard about Snowdon Park, where two native boys had drowned in the swamp back there, we were at a stage in our work with survivors to do memorials for students that had passed away while they were at the residential school, and that’s how the project started,” said Barbeau. “In digging up more information about our memorial, we discovered that one of the Crossman boys had also drowned there, and one was retrieved from the swamp by some girls from Shingwauk Indian Residential School who were nearby playing.”

The death of Gerald Crossman

On February 27, 1960, eight-year-old Robert Crossman and his brother, 10-year-old Gerald Crossman, were playing near the pond, which was situated not too far from the Crossman family home at 212 Shannon Road.

Robert slid into the pond and went through the ice. Gerald entered the pond in an attempt to save his brother. 

Four students from the Shingwauk Indian Residential School - Nellie Ojeebah, Ellen Pine, Margie Owl and Barb Sagon - heard cries for help and scaled down the 15-20 foot embankment to help the two brothers. Owl urged Crossman to grab a wooden board that was floating nearby, while Ojeebah ran to a nearby house to get help.

Gerald had disappeared under the ice by the time residents in the area arrived on scene. Robert was still afloat, clinging to the board. Residents helped pull Robert out of the pond to safety. 

According to The Sault Daily Star, the local fire department arrived and revived Robert, but were unable to retrieve Gerald. Constable Bruce Coutu, a scuba diver with the local police department at the time, would retrieve Gerald’s lifeless body. 

A week later, a photo and caption appeared in the local newspaper indicating that the steep embankment leading to the pond was being reduced with a city-deployed excavator “to make it easier for anyone in the pond to get out, or for rescuers to reach them.” 

In the March 1, 1960 edition of the local newspaper, a story bearing the headline, ‘City to Cover Over Shannon Road Pond’, appeared on the front page. 

The Shannon Road Pond was eventually filled in, and would become present-day Snowdon Park during the 1960s. 

The Sault Daily Star also reported that the four female students from Shingwauk Residential School were recognized for their life-saving efforts at an awards ceremony later that year. 

'It kind of sent him right over the edge'

Although Crossman was just four years old at the time of Gerald’s death, he’s sure that was the day that completely shattered his family. His father started to drink heavily and became abusive toward Crossman’s mother and his siblings. Three of Crossman's brothers died tragically in their early 20s. 

“It was devastating on that day, because it was my dad’s birthday too. It kind of sent him right over the edge,” Crossman said. 

City apologizes for lack of precautions at pond

In its letter to Crossman, The City of Sault Ste. Marie acknowledges that a lack of safety precautions were in place at the pond, which Crossman says was used as a municipal dumping site. 

“The City should have, at the time, taken safety precautions to ensure that an accident like this could not occur with at minimum a fence around the pond to prevent access to the pond, and for that we apologize,” reads a portion of the letter issued to Crossman by the City. “The City did not take such safety precautions and it was wrong not to do so, and we hope that you will accept our apology for that.”

'We have to be inclusive when we do things'

Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association has had a memorial in the works to acknowledge the drowning deaths of the two residential school students, but told SooToday last month that it wouldn’t proceed until the City of Sault Ste. Marie reconciled with Crossman. 

“We can’t do it for just the two boys and not the Crossman boy,” said Barbeau. “We have to be inclusive when we do things.”

“I talked to the alumni, and they’re going to be part of it because of the two small children. We’re going to try and do it as a celebration between the Indigenous people and us,” said Crossman. “Hopefully, it’ll turn out to be a beautiful thing there, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”

It’s expected that Crossman will make a presentation before council Monday.