Kolokreeka

Kolokreeka mission was founded eleven miles north of Pakan (and one mile north of Smoky Lake) in 1908 or 1909 by Miss Weekes and Miss Ella McLean of Wahstao. The missions name refers to the fact that it is built right next to a creek and its school could accommodate 16 students.

E. Hawkens, another of the many missionary women who worked for a while at Kolakreeka, wrote in the March 1919 edition of The Missionary Outlook about her experiences. She wrote about how grateful those at the mission were to have a pump and water system, which allowed them the luxury of a bathroom. The luxury was provided by funding from the Women's Missionary Society. About the students, she wrote:

There were 43 in attendance every day, and I could scarcely understand a word any of them said. It took me nearly two hours to learn how to pronounce their names, and longer still to associated the names with the pupils. They all looked alike to me, but in a few days I got my bearings.

In the 1920s the mission became a residence for rural students attending High School in Smoky Lake. The Our Legacy History Book records that:

Most of the work at the Mission was done by the students, under the staff's supervision. Baking bread once a week was a co-operative effort. A special tub was brought out and all the ingredients were measured and mixed by the girls in the evening and left in a warm place until morning. Then the boys, two at a time, with sleeves rolled-up, completed the mixing of the dough. Lots of energy went into the punches and sometimes flour ended up in unusual places. Before school, several boys started a fire in the clay oven outside and banked this with some large sticks of wood to keep it going. Meanwhile, the bread was shaped into loaves by the housemother and her helper. By recess time the hot coals were raked out of the oven and the bread carried in. With a wooden shovel it was pushed to the rear of the oven, ten pans of four loaves each. A steel door was closed, the hot coals were banked against the door, and the smoke vent was closed. By noon, one and a half hours later, ten students carried in the 40 loaves of beautifully baked brown bread.