Sesekinika

Sesekinika is a small line of about a dozen houses and cottages on road 570, five minutes east of Highway 11.  I would call it a hamlet, but it’s probably more of a cottage or camp area.

Sesekinika borders the lake of the same name, giving it some quite pretty views – for which my photos definitely do not do justice.Basketball by the lake in Sesekinika, Ontario

Sesekinika Resort offers some lake-front accommodation and activities just south of town on Highway 11.  Sesekinika was also home to Circle Square Ranch of 1980’s mid-morning Canadian children’s television fame (I see now that there are multiple Circle Square ranches in Canada, which makes its location in Sesekinika a lot less cool than I originally thought) but according to a comment below, the ranch has since closed.

Similar to Sapawe in the far northwest, Sesekinika is the official divide between the Atlantic and Arctic watersheds (Sesekinika falls into the former.)

Small camp in SesekinikaI drove as far as the road was paved and then promptly turned around.  Just as I finished my u-turn I found a massive Dodge Durango staring me down through my rear view mirror. My heart started beating. I briefly wondered if I was about to be run out of town for snooping around with a digital camera…and then…the couple in the car…waved and smiled.

I guess I gotta get out of the city. 😉

For an archive of the 40 comments that were posted to Highway11.ca’s profile of Sesekinika between 2008 and 2012, please click here.

16 thoughts on “Sesekinika

  1. Hi
    I am just onto this site after a google search. It doesn’t seem very active but it was fun to read. My Great Grandfather, Isaac Shea, was deeded land in Sesekinika after he fought in the Boar War. He built a log cabin, which sat at the bend in the road when you first came into the hamlet. My parents were Jim and Jean Shea and we went up to Sesekinika at the end of every August until my mom became sick in 19 69. Boy do I remember some of the names being dropped here. My Grandfather was Chess Shea, and he let Denby Scales spend a winter in the old log cabin. Denby somehow forgot about a pan ontop of the stove and burnt the old log cabin down. My Grandfather put in another home and eventually moved up to live in it. My Grandmother’s family who were Derby’s also worked in the mines up there. My aunt Minnie Derby had a cottage there as well. My Aunt Hilda owns a cabin on the lake and goes up every year she can still with my sister.

  2. On the east side of the hamlet and across the bay on the south shore, there is an old cottage. I don’t know if this building even stands to day. Alittle walk to one south corner of the meadow there is a small fenced off area. I’m not sure this fenced off area is there any more. At one time it was an indian burial ground. It still should be. I know this is an indian burial ground, because my family grew up in the delapicated house that used to stand there. It’s since been sold and renovated for cottafe living. When he came back north on holidays from work in his home around Toronto, Glen Short would tell us younger children how we came to have relatives buried in that site.
    The person(s) buried there are my grandmother Shortt. She was half Objibwae, and buried in that cemetery. Idon’t think my grandfather was buried in that gravesite, he was white. So this burial site would belong to the Shortt family, of which I am one. Anyone remember Gracie Shortt? I am interested in knowing whether this indian cemetary is still there? Is the house where I mostly grew up in still there?

  3. reading all the stories from the 50th anniversary has suddenly made me very nostalgic for the north. My sister still lives in Kirkland Lake, my brother still lives in Sesekinika in the village. i think my dad bought the macGregor place in 1960. We lived there only one year year round but otherwise moved out the long weekend in may and stayed until Labour Day. I have so many memories. Thinking about finding a couple of acres and moving back. love to hear from others.

  4. I’m trying to learn the current contact info for my friends from MVS in the 80s, Linda and Bill Kirwin, who have just moved to Sesekinika from St. Catharine’s. Their old phone and email are defunct. Does anyone know how I might reach them? I’d appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

  5. Growing up in sesekinika were the best years of my life.summer time we lived in the water.jumping off the raft,going for midnight swims,going around the lake to my favorite island.the worst thing us kids did ,on a Friday night we would raid gardens and go have a corn roast! We laughed like we were so brave and smart.walking out to catch the bus for school looking at the red maple leaves and putting some in scrapbooks.it was such a peaceful time for me,l also spent a lot of time in the bush exploring,picking berries.if l knew then,what the world on the outside was going to be like, l think l would have come back and never leave.of course the world at sesekinika has probably changed also..my mind just wants to remember small town living!!!skating with your neighbors, having hot chocolate. Around the fire.my favorite memory is at school with Mrs oglestone.she was wonderful and loved teaching. We would go on hikes,cook maple syrup and pour it on the snow to eat yum!!!today l do not know my niebours and gone are the days of talking over the fence with your morning coffee.the world is still a great place to be, my little corner of it at sesekinika was simply the best….miss my town and miss my friends.maybe if we keep in touch once in a while, we can have a little piece of both worlds,our past memories will help us live in this fast paced world of ours and just maybe have a Starbuck. With a niebours ha-ha.take care my friends. Pat Morin, mcgugan…

  6. Lived in sesekinika until 1967.loved it then and miss it so very much. Would move in a heartbeat.my friends l went to school Judy pullen Karen nord. Does any one remember me and yes l knew grace short and her family. Would love to hear from any one who loves sesekinika as much as l do. 403_620_0120. Pat Morin…Mcgugan. Take good care everyone

    • Hello Pat, Yes I remember you and the rest of the Mcgugans. I was one year ahead of your sister, Norma, in school.
      Most of my memories of Sesekinika are sweet, although we all must admit, I was bullied by a lot of kids in the school.

    • Yes Pattie I remember you and your family.
      I live in Ses where my grandparents used to live.
      Your brother, Doug lives in Kenogami and My nephew bought a truck from him a few years ago.

  7. I was born in Kirkland Lake and remember fondly spending time as a Brownie and later a Girl Guide and the Camp on Lake Sesekinika. It’s name was a long (Cree or Algonquin?) word for apparently “red sun at night, good day tomorrow” or something like that.
    I’d really like to get the name for the old camp. Mesquo – something. Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

  8. There are so many memories for me of Sesekinika. I lived there until I was eighteen, went to school in the little white with green trim, one -room-school house. I hear the school is still standing and holding evidence of school days in the early history of Sesekinika.
    I first lived in the house at the end of the bay across the tracks at the crossing on the east part of town. When the white house on top of the hill was vacated, we moved into that house.
    Seseekinika will always be the place of my heart, although I have lived in many places since leaving Sesekinika. I was back once and visited with a few of my school chums from the 1950s.

    • I grew up, living in that schoolhouse. I was born in 1981, left there in 1988. With the gravel driveway circling around it. A short walk to the tracks and the lake. I can still remember the smell of the tracks shortly after a train passed. And the large rock to the right of the driveway, which we called “blueberry hill” as in the summer full
      Of berries, and the best tobogganing hill in the winter!

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