The first time I heard Clifford McKell's name it was in an e-mail exchange that took place several years ago. A woman from Quebec had contacted the Underground Press asking if the paper had any information on the 1958 drowning of a young United Church student minister by that name from Cowansville, Que. I explained that the paper was a relatively new addition to the community (1996) and as such, searching back issues would be pointless. However, I explained that my father-in-law had moved to Snow Lake in the early 1950's and had a memory like a steel trap. If anyone could remember Clifford Laird McKell and the circumstances of his demise, it would be George Wood. I asked and as I stated, George remembered the drowning, but didn't know the young man. He said that the student minister wasn't long in Snow Lake - only a couple of weeks. He also remembered May 19,1958, the day McKell drowned.
"It wasn't storming, but it wasn't very nice day," said George. Apparently McKell and another young fellow - P. Banman - had gone out on Snow Lake to try out a canoe Banman had just purchased. That was the last anyone saw of Clifford McKell. A subsequent search of the lake and its shores turned up the body of Banman, but McKell's was never recovered. He was just 19.
I relayed this information back to the lady in Quebec and she noted that a trip was being planned by some of McKell's family in order to visit the place where Clifford left his earthy confines and also that they would be interested in talking to anyone who knew him, or of him.
As noted, several years went by and the next time I heard the name was through a phone call I received from Betty Rudd. Several weeks back, she advised that Mr. McKell's sister, Diane Croghan, had arrived in the community. She was here to see the place Clifford McKell lived out his final weeks, meet some of the people who were the last to see him, and place a marker in his memory near the lake where he perished. I never did get to meet her, but I discussed her situation with Betty Rudd, and Betty in turn passed on some information on McKell and Croghan.
In a newspaper article that was a part of that information, Croghan told writer Shelia Quinn of the Sherbrooke Record how she recalled the spring 1958 day that her brother Clifford left home for Snow Lake. "As was the practice at the time, his studies were taking him far from home, to a more remote area in need of ministry," wrote Quinn of her conversation with Croghan. "Clifford opted to do some work in the mine in the area he was staying as well."
In relating the circumstances of McKell's demise, Quinn wrote, "It was the long weekend in May of 1958, when Clifford and a friend decided to take a newly acquired canoe out on Snow Lake. It is my understanding that fierce storms come up quickly on Northern lakes and that is what happened when 19-year-old Clifford McKell, a Townships' boy far from home, and his friend when out on that Saturday. Sunday came and Clifford's parishioners arrived at church on time for worship ... but Clifford did not. They contacted the woman Clifford had been boarding with, yet she'd not seen him since the day before. He had one sermon. One, a week prior. Just like that Clifford McKell was gone."
Quinn went on to note how Croghan was leaving that weekend for Snow Lake, so that she could place a handmade marker near the lake that took him.
It was a three-day drive for Ms. Croghan to get from her home in Quebec to Snow Lake ... and they were three long days. Betty Rudd advised, "1,000 kilometres on each of two and 700 kilometres more on the other." However, once she arrived here, Betty took her about town and introduced her to some of the old timers - including George Wood.
Betty relayed that Croghan felt immense gratitude for all who helped her in her journey to say goodbye to her brother. On the day she was to look for a spot to place the marker she brought with her from Quebec, Betty says that Croghan sat on a bench by the lake, said her goodbyes, then walked a short distance through the nearby bush and placed it in the perfect spot.
Manitoba Chiefs of Police - Missing Persons lists McKell's disappearance online at: http://www.macp.mb.ca/results.php?id=79
