The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
'We get a lot of 'LAY'-lor and La-'LORE', but yes it's pronounced 'LAW'-lor,' Carey Lalor says of his family's oft-mispronounced surname. 'I gave up correcting people.' The same can be said for the mine near Snow Lake with the matching name. It too is often garbled. Carey and his brother Kelley, along with father Kevin Lalor, are in Snow Lake for a fast visit to the lake named in honour of their great-uncle Fintan. They were here 17 years ago for the same reason; however, at that time they also had a job to do _ placing a plaque-adorned cairn on the rocky southeast shore of the lake that bears their name, but was made famous by the mineral wealth that lies close to a kilometre beneath it. Fallen relative Soft spoken and intelligent, Kevin Lalor explained how they came to find out that there was a lake and mine in northern Manitoba named after their fallen relative. He said it was about 10 years after the lake had been named that they became aware of it. Kevin's father George made the discovery and as a family they began making plans to visit and leave their family mark on the lake. See 'Lake' on pg. Continued from pg. 'As a family, we knew that we all wanted to see the lake,' he said. 'There was just an element of curiosity. Nothing about how it looked really mattered, it was an honour and a tribute and we just wanted to see the lake that was named for him.' The lake, which is situated due west of Snow Lake, was named in 1973 after a Second World War casualty, Pilot Officer Fintan H. Lalor of Pine Falls. Lalor, then just 19, enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF #5 Unit) on Nov. 21, 1941 in Winnipeg. He was posted to the No. 34 Operational Training Unit Detachment, RCAF Station - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, when he met his untimely death while training as a pilot to go overseas. The Lalors planned to make their original journey north in 1996. Kevin's father George had the idea that a plaque should be commissioned and left at the lake, as this would be their way of honouring his brother Fintan. 'We all met in Winnipeg,' Kevin explained. 'My Uncle Mick from Edmonton, my dad George, my two sons, Carey and Kelley, and we brought the dog along, too. We drove up and registered at the hotel and made arrangements with the local airline. We knew we were going to build the cairn, so we had all our supplies with us as well as the plaque.' They flew all of their materials in on the Saturday and found a site that looked to be satisfactory to put up the cairn. Curious The next day, George, Carey, and Kelley flew in and started work on it, while Mick and Kevin, curious to see what the country looked like, decided to walk in by compass. 'We were a little bit off course, so we hit the north end of the lake and by then we were pretty tired,' Kevin said. 'Anyway, we walked along the shore and found them. They had started the cairn. So we got it built, then stayed out as long as we could to make sure it was dry.' Kevin says they brought a recorder along for posterity and taped themselves as they worked on the cairn and discussed why they were doing it, how it looked and how it would look. At the end of the day, the pilot came back for those who came in with him and Nick and Kevin walked back out. Before the morning of Aug. 24, 2013, that was the one and only time they were ever into the lake. Their recent trip in was much less laborious than the Lalor family's 1996 excursion. Due to the development of the Lalor mine, there is a trail to the lake and also to the area near where the cairn is located. Adding much to the ease of access, Hudbay's Lalor general foreman Tony Butt walked the route the day before and marked it for those making the trip. Nevertheless, it got the sweat running and once there, those in the family were impressed with how well the cairn and attached plaque had weathered the years. They were also captivated with the extent of the development on the Lalor project itself. Asked when he first heard about the mine near Lalor Lake, Kevin said, 'Well, that was pretty recent. I think the first time I heard about the mine was from a friend of mine, Sheldon McLeod, who did work for Hudbay up in Flin Flon, probably not more than three or four years ago. 'So that really piqued our interest. We initially had some concerns. We felt that with a mine going in, we weren't sure what the impact would be, so we were determined to talk to people from the company. Sheldon put me on to some of the senior peopleÉ just to make them aware that the cairn was in there and that it was a lake honouring my uncle and that hopefully, they would respect that. 'At the time, I thought that it would be just too overwhelming a project for the lake and that we would have to approach the government and have them perhaps designate another. 'But after I talked to Hudbay, I was duly impressed with the way in which I was treated and the respect that I was shown by the mine management _ and that continues to this day. 'Whenever I've had to deal with them, they have shown a lot of respect and made it clear that they were going to do everything that they could to make sure that the cairn is maintained and basically left alone.' Left alone, so that in future years the Lalor family can visit the monument on this still pristine northern lake that honours their fallen uncle, Pilot Officer Fintan H. Lalor. This has been this week's installment of My Take on Snow Lake, which runs Fridays.
