The Agricultural School in Monteith
First known as Driftwood City, located 300km due north of North Bay, it was renamed Montieth after the Ontario Minister of Agriculture Samuel Monteith, who in 1908 chose the site for a provincial experimental and demonstration farm to educate the local population on scientific farming methods.
Harry Ricker was hired as the Science master at the North Bay Normal School in 1915, but with an an eye to eventually teaching agriculture (which all normal schools added to their programs around 1918). For a short time, the Montieth school offered a Summer School for teacher candidates who wished to receive additional credentials to teach Agriculture.
The following series of photographs were taken by Harry Ricker when, in the summer of 1920, he acted as the principal of the Summer School in Agriculture at Monteith. As one can see, he and his fellow instructors took a very “hands on” approach to the program - An immersive experience, both teacher and taught lived together in a central residence while working together at the demonstration farm.
The Fate of Monteith
Ricker returned as the Vice-Principal for a second summer of 1921, but by now the school was making the transition to Monteith Academy, a boarding school specializing in agriculture that supplied secondary education to Northern Ontario at a time when there were few high schools.
By the 1930’s the school had been abandoned (after many farmers had left for the Prairies) and converted into an industrial farm for young offenders. From 1940-1945 it served as an internment camp (Camp Q) for 5000 prisoners-of-war, and in 1947 the institution reverted back to a reform institutions. Presently, it is the Monteith Correctional Complex, a medium/maximum security prison.
