There Are Stories Hidden All Across This Region — The Deep Water Project Wants People to Hear Them.

There are stories all across this region.

Stories buried in old mines.

Stories sitting quietly inside museums people keep meaning to visit someday.

Stories hidden in lakes, logging roads, train tracks, fires, hockey arenas, and communities that somehow kept rebuilding themselves every time life here became difficult.

The Deep Water Project wants people to hear them.

“There’s just so much rich history here. Every time we researched something, another story opened up.”

• Roy Dittmann, Creator of the Deep Water Project

From One Song to Twelve

Back in October, Roy and his wife Erica attended one of Charlie Angus’s storytelling performances. During the show, Angus talked about how songs and music can preserve the stories of people and places. That idea stayed with Roy.

At first, he thought maybe he would write a single song inspired by the Temiskaming region. But once the research started, it became difficult to stop. One topic led to another. Then another.

Soon the project expanded into twelve original songs exploring different parts of local history.

"There were more songs too," Roy admitted. "We just had to narrow it down into a logical show."

The Resilience That Defines This Place

As Roy researched the region’s past, one theme kept surfacing repeatedly: endurance.

"The resilience of the people here is probably what makes this region unique," he said. Communities here have survived mining collapses, economic uncertainty, harsh winters, devastating fires, and constant reinvention.

The Haileybury fire alone became one of the emotional centrepieces of the production.

"I knew there was a big fire," musician Nathaniel Preston explained. "But when you really hear the stories and read the lyrics, you realize how massive it actually was."

That reaction became common during rehearsals. The deeper people went into the stories behind the songs, the more the region itself started feeling different.

“There is something deeply human about communities that continue rebuilding themselves over and over again.”

• Roy Dittmann

More Than a Gateway

The Deep Water Project intentionally covers a wide geographic area, reflecting that the stories of this entire region are connected, not isolated to one town.

Cobalt’s silver boom. Temiskaming Shores. The Quebec side of the lake. The Indigenous presence that predates all of it. The arrival of settlers who came to carve a new life in what many then called the frontier.

"People always call this the gateway to the north, but there’s so much more depth and history and story and culture here," Roy said.

A Community Project in the Truest Sense

The production brings together a cast of local musicians who not only perform the songs but help shape them.

Nathaniel Preston, Laura Kingsley, Joanne Sheppard, and others have all contributed their playing, their voices, and in some cases their own family histories.

"Roy had this vision, but everyone has put their stamp on it," Laura Kingsley noted. "It doesn’t feel like one person’s show anymore. It feels like it belongs to all of us."

Original Music, Original Stories

All twelve songs in the Deep Water Project are originals, composed specifically for this production. They range from Celtic-influenced folk to country and roots rock.

Each song is paired with narrated historical context and imagery, so the show flows between music and storytelling.

"A lot of people said the thing that moved them the most was hearing the words," Roy said. "The stories were right there in the lyrics."

Making Room for Indigenous Voices

One of the most significant aspects of the Deep Water Project is its intentional effort to include Indigenous perspectives.

Roy worked with Timiskaming First Nation cultural knowledge keeper Adrienne Jérôme to ensure the Anishinaabe history of the lake and region was told respectfully and accurately.

"Lake Temiskaming is the heart of this project," Roy said. "And that lake has been home to the Anishinaabe people for thousands of years. That had to be part of the story."

The collaboration extended to the performance itself, with Indigenous language and cultural elements woven into the show.

“There’s history here that’s hard to really learn unless somebody tells it.”

• Nathaniel Preston, Musician

A Region Rediscovering Its Own Story

For many audience members at the pilot performance, the show was revelatory.

"People who have lived here their whole lives said they learned things they never knew," Roy said. "That was one of the most gratifying things to hear."

The goal now is to refine the production and bring it to a wider audience, with future performances being planned for schools, community centres, and larger stages.

"This is just the beginning," Roy said. "The stories deserve to be heard far and wide."

How to See It

The Deep Water Project is planning its next round of performances. Dates and venues will be announced through local media and the production’s social channels.

If you’d like to support the production, information about sponsorship and donations is available through the Deep Water Project website.

The stories of Temiskaming are still being told. The Deep Water Project is making sure they’re heard.

The Deep Water Project

An original live musical production exploring the stories, history, and identity of the Temiskaming region — performed at the Classic Theatre.