2004 was one busy year!

January
The year that Rainy River turned 100 began with a New Year’s levee at the local legion. The Great Beaver also received its name “Millie” chosen in a contest and created by Corrie and Janice Wiersema.
Brianna Ewald, Jocelyn Gosselin and Santana King announced their intentions to run for carnival queen.
Former Stratton ladies, Angie and Andrea Lee curled their way to the provincials; one step away from the Scott Tournament of Hearts.
Riverview School grade seven boys, Travis Mykytyn, Tyler Brown, Josh Wilson, Mark Clifford, Peter Atikinson, Coach Greg Wilson, Kalan Ewald, Jordan Jenson, Mark Singleton, Danny Usiski, Jr. and Jordan Gustafson won the regional volleyball championship.
Farmers continued to face a closed US border to live cattle, albeit a partial reopening of the border to some beef products took place. Area cattlemen began talking about building an abattoir in the area.
The Northwestern Health Unit asked for a 36% hike in their levees to the taxpayers.
February
Matt McQuaker and Kari Hyatt received the Rainy River District 4–H Leader’s Association award.
Jen Armstrong-skip, Myrna Armstrong-third, Sarah Berg-second and Heather Anderson-lead won the 46th Annual Rainy River Ladies Curling Bonspiel.
Rainy River’s Kelsey Jonassen, 9, dazzled the judges in Sault Ste. Marie with her figure skating abilities. She earned a berth into the Provincial Skating competition.
February 8, 2004, the local Just For Kix, Mini Kix and Middle Kix teams traveled to Brainerd, MN for the United We Dance Competition. Both teams earned first place in the A division!
Kevin Kennedy of Pinewood, travelled to Costa Rica to do humanitarian work.
Skip-Bryan Bonot, Third-Terry Lee, Second-Donnie Bolen and Lead-Glen Jackson of Stratton won the 47th Annual Rainy River Men’s Curling Bonspiel.
March
Christie Dufresne and Bonnie Gustafson of Rainy River were airlifted when they were exposed to Carbon-monoxide poisoning at the CN Hotel in Rainy River. Both later fully recovered.
John King caught a beautiful 7.18 pounder to win $325 at the annual Morson Ice Fishing Derby.
LoW Bears boys High School hockey team just misses a berth into the State Championships.
Rainy River High School jr. girls volleyball team wins bronze at NORWOSSAs.
RRHS sr. boys basketball team wins bronze at NORWOSSAs.
RRHS mixed curling team wins bronze at NORWOSSAs.
RRHS jr. boys basketball wins silver at NORWOSSAs.
Riverview grade 8 boys ranked first in the region in volleyball.
Jocelyn Gosselin was crowned Rainy River Lions Winter Carnival Queen.
Riverview School held its annual science fair with the following coming in first: grade 8 Mark Singleton, grade 7 Jaden Chorney, grade 6 Cody Jarvis, grade 5 Brendon Hanson and grade 4 Lindsay Bourre.
Over 670 had registered for RR Centennial.
Skip-Craig Armstrong, Third-Sandy Shrumm, Second-Terry Lee and Lead-Ann Michl narrowly defeated the Tim Nordin rink to win the annual Rainy River Mixed Bonspiel.
Walter and Debbie Wagner lost their Dawson Township home to fire.
Clinton Park celebrated his 100th birthday!
A special coin was minted and released for the Rainy River Centennial.
April
The owner of a demolished ice fishing shack was charged for failing to remove it before the ice went out.
The ice went out March 30th.
Several RRHS students travelled to Costa Rica to do humanitarian work.
RRHS students raised over $4,000 for famine relief with the 30 hour famine.
The local Just for Kix Mini Kix placed first in the Mini Kix Division AA category at a competition in Fargo, ND.
Kelsey Jonassen finished 8th at the provincial figure skating championships.
The Lake of the Woods Squirt (A) hockey team recently had the opportunity of a lifetime. At a February 28, 2004 hockey tournament in Fargo, North Dakota they were invited to have their team picture taken with the Stanley Cup.
Shane Rencher, and Courtney Hansen, both grade four students at McCrosson-Tovell School in Bergland, returned home with an honourable mention and second place title from the regional science fair in Kenora.
LoW/RR minor hockey held their annual awards banquet. Brandon Brigham of Rainy River won the Dane Wood memorial award.
Rumours of a move of the local tourist information office from its Heritage Square location back to the border were denied by Ministry of Tourism officials.
Rainy River Hotel received a tax rebate for being vacant.
Redecking of the Pinewood River auto bridge began.
Oak Harbor Golf Club announces intentions to add nine more holes to its course.
RRHS badminton player Joel Ashworth represented the school at NWOSSAs and won silver.
Over 1,400 head of cattle were sold at the Stratton Sales Barn with prices fetching as high as $1.24/lb. despite the BSE crisis.
RRHS students put on a dazzling dramatic performance called It’s All Greek to Me!
RRHS students Kyle Kuzyk and Jay Neilson travelled to Ottawa for a science encounter.
May
Norwest Mobility announced that Rainy River cellular phone service will switch from analog to digital.
Rainy River’s Fire Dept. was called to assist Baudette fight a fire on Main St. there. The fire was contained and only the one building was damaged. It was eventually torn down.
Controversy swirled as Lake of the Woods (Bergland/Morson) Twp. councillors hired relatives to work for the town.
Registrations for the RR Centennial topped 1,000!
Several citizens spoke to LoW council about the hiring of their relatives, accusing them of nepotism. Town clerk Pat Giles confirmed that all councillors declared the proper conflicts of interest before any of their relatives were hired.
The Rainy River Early Years Centre officially opened. It is located at the Rainy River Toy Library/Playschool building on Main St.
120 attended the Centennial Ball.
The grade 2/3 class at Riverview School in Rainy River won the Lakeland Personnel Best Mass Choir Grades K-4 at the Rainy River District Music Festival.
James McInerney, 13, of Rainy River is becoming quite an accomplished public speaker.On May 1st he spoke to the Canadian Diabetes Association’s annual convention in Winnipeg about his experiences at Camp Briar Dale.
$2,500 was raised at 2nd annual RR Alzheimer walk for the memories.
Marty Leefe of Rainy River was named manager of the Oak Harbor Golf Club in Baudette.
June
Jaime Vandenbrand was named female athlete of the year and Matt Neilson was named male athlete of the year at RRHS’ annual athletic and academic awards banquet.
Matt Neilson, Shantelle Davidson, Jay Neilson and Athena Pirkl advanced to Sections in track and field.
A special dinner was held at the Legion commemorating the 60th anniversary of D-day.
A LoW councillor, Alf Gate, resigned.
The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines approached the Town of Rainy River about sharing office space.
The 4008, museum (baggage car) and caboose at heritage square were sandblasted and repainted.
MNR announced plans to allow deer hunters to get extra deer tags in an effort to bring the exploding population in check.
Pelican Landing in Morson hired a chef from Rome.
28 grade 12 students were honoured as graduates from RRHS.
Rainy River Record and Fort Frances Times correspondent for nearly 40 years, Milt Guba, passed away.
12 grade eight students graduate from Our Lady of the Way School in Stratton.
July
Canada Day fireworks were postponed in RR until the centennial celebrations.
Plenty of beautification projects are well underway in the community in preparation for the centennial.
Nearly 2,000 have registered for RR centennial.
Marty Johnston, 15, of Rainy River finished fourth at the Canadian Chess Championships.
A Red Hat Society has started up in Morson.
A special commemorative centennial stamp was released at the post office. The limited edition featured the town’s logo and the dates for the centennial celebrations.
August
Over 4,000 people celebrated Rainy River’s centennial.
Danny Armstrong and Sherrin Forster won the annual RR Open golf tourney.
RR town council announced plans to auction off the defunct Koeneman Lumber plant’s chattels.
Another LoW councillor, E. McCormack resigned while Joanne Moen was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Alf Gate.
Bergland residents raised $4,000 for cancer with the Cuts for Cancer.
Art Tooth was inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame.
Winds topping 50 m.p.h. knocked down trees and snapped hydro poles like twigs leaving the area without power for several hours on the 18th.
John Gibbins of Morson and Rod Halliday of Fort Frances won the Morson Bass Classic with 29.46lbs. of fish.
September
A dozen Lakehead University students visited Rainy River while retracing the original route of the voyageurs via canoe.
Dryden won the annual Rainy River Legion Fastball Labour Day tourney.
A Red Hat Society was formed in Rainy River.
The first sections of the 1901 rail bridge were moved out and newly constructed spans were put in place.
Council granted Globeco 30 more days to clear up their back taxes.
Hockey legend Cal Marvin, of Warroad passed away.
A yearling sale at the Stratton Sales Barn saw farmers getting less than their costs for cattle.
Local Internet Service Provider Jam21.net was sold to ViaNet of Sudbury.
Don Cronk of Thunder Bay was the first person to repeat as champion when he won the RR Valley Giant Pumpkin Festival with a 579 pounder.
Iris and Bob Osadchuk were honoured by the community for their 35+ years of service to the town.
Erin’s Candy of Bergland signed a big deal to sell product on The Shopping Channel.
Jason and Oliver Gibbins won the RRWT with 25.04lbs. of walleye. Doug Moen and Colin Wood also set a tournament record weighing in a 10.7 pound monster.
October
Tony Sepers and Jodi Gouliquer announced their intentions to run in a bi-election to fill the vacant LoW council seat.
Prices were up at the annual calf sale at the Stratton Sales Barn.
Hal Wilhite has become the new Rainy River Community Counsellor.
Rainy River and Stratton schools raised $2,000 with Cuts for Cancer. RRHS principal and vice-principal Bob McGreevy and Kendall Olson along with Riverview principal Bob Derkson had their heads either shaved or hair dyed red.
RR council’s plans to auction of the chattels of the defunct Koeneman Lumber plant in RR were put on hold when a number of parties got an injunction to stop the auction; laying claim to some of the chattels there.
RR town council decided to move Halloween from Oct. 31st to Oct. 29th as the holiday fell on a Sunday. Eventually under public pressure they reversed that decision and left trick or treating on the 31st.
A freak car accident sheared off the gas main at the Rainy River Clinic. That forced the evacuation of the clinic, hospital, long term care ward and much of the bottom block of Rainy River.
Two former RR men, Graham Ducker and Philip Pochalio each launch books they wrote.
Lobbying efforts by the Morson Women’s Institute may pay off next summer. Officials say it is possible that a cell phone tower may be erected in that community by then.
Local area kids Marty Johnston, Courtney Hansen, Dylan Anderson and Dallas Jewitt qualified for the 2005 Canadian Chess Championships.
November
Each year Wal-Mart adopts a school and helps it fundraise or donates money raised by the staff at the department store for equipment the school might need. This year McCrosson-Tovell in Bergland was adopted.
Numbers of people getting the flu shot this season are up from last year by 20%.
Riverview’s grade 8 boys volleyball team came home with gold medals after a tourney in Atikokan.
Andrew Friesen of Sturgeon Creek Alt. Program and Tyler Ketchum of LoW school both qualified for the Minnesota State Cross Country run. They finished 57th and 65th respectively.
CN officially opened the new rail bridge at Rainy River and Baudette.
Erin Rencher of Bergland, appeared on The Shopping Channel to sell products made at her business, Erin’s Candy in Bergland.
Hundreds gathered to remember those who fought for our freedom at Remembrance Day ceremonies in Rainy River.
MNR investigated the find of five deer and a moose carcasses near Rainy River; all poached.
Canada Customs announced plans to expand its facilities at Rainy River.
RRHS students won the regional Quit Don’t Start Smoking contest.
Work on the expansion of Oak Harbour Golf Club started.
Former Rainy River man, Jamie Arpin publishes a book.
December
Many Great Grey Owls have been spotted in the area. It is believed that they are in abundance because food up north is scarce.
Pat Giles and Clayton Shannon of Rainy River, Jerry Galusha of Sleeman and Ken Larson of Birchdale, MN. returned from a mission in Grenada where they helped rebuild homes destroyed by hurricanes.
New LoW town councillor Tony Sepers was upset by council’s degree of secrecy.
Long time LoW fire chief Larry Nordin resigned.