By the time the big launch had crept through the growing darkness past Eshpabekong Island, waves pushed by a strong east wind began to make it roll. Giving a wide berth to a shoal at the north end of Giant’s Tomb Island, the skipper ran south along the boulder beds of the Tomb’s west shore.Continue reading “Of unsung heroes”
Category Archives: People
Indian Summer
It being autumn as I write this, the Ontario landscape is rich in smoky hills, vivid colours and bluejays calling. A poem that people of my vintage memorized in school replays in my mind. It is William Wilfred Campbell’s “Indian Summer”. What has this to do with Georgian Bay? Well, the poet grew up onContinue reading “Indian Summer”
Emery O’Rourke: a man of the shore
He was not a hard-nosed businessman but he was competitive in his own way without being aggressive. He seemed to live by the Golden Rule and would go to great lengths to help friends and customers. He was a physical strongman despite being seriously ill as a child. He knew the waterways among the islandsContinue reading “Emery O’Rourke: a man of the shore”
‘Schooner Days’ man
One hot and humid summer day in 1969 at Nancy Island, Wasaga Beach, an elderly man sat in a wheelchair in the shade off to the side of a growing crowd of people. Occasionally someone would go up to him, shake his hand, and chat for a few moments. This was the man who, followingContinue reading “‘Schooner Days’ man”
Living in harmony with the land and water
A nature writer who has been my idol for about 60 years is the late Sigurd F. Olson of Ely, Minnesota. The title of his first book was The Singing Wilderness. Now, how can that not make you want to read it? His home ground was the Quetico-Superior canoe country northwest of Lake Superior. ButContinue reading “Living in harmony with the land and water”
‘Up The Shore’ by Juanita Rourke
That title may bring back memories to people in southeastern Georgian Bay. For decades it was a weekly column in the Midland Free Press and its summer hand-out The Georgian Tourist. In 1994 some of the columns were published in a book with the same title. Two more books of the Rourke family’s life andContinue reading “‘Up The Shore’ by Juanita Rourke”
Pluck is all a man needs
Scattered settlers and early cottagers along the Georgian Bay shores relied upon small local steamboats for supplies and transportation during the navigation season. One of the year-round people was James Drummond, a widower who settled on a small mainland bay north of Honey Harbour in 1899. He built a frame cottage and two stone barnsContinue reading “Pluck is all a man needs”
A hardy homesteader
On the east side of Tomahawk Island is a narrow S-curve channel. In the days before power boats it must have been a peaceful, serene waterway protected from the winds and waves of the main channel on the west side of the island. A frequent user of it in the 1930s was an elderly manContinue reading “A hardy homesteader”
An old charmer
He talked like a really tough, old-school skipper. But when we met Capt. Don Keith in 1970 his mask slipped a bit revealing an old rascal with a sense of humour and a capacity for mischief. He’s been gone for many years now but I still remember him fondly though I didn’t know him well.Continue reading “An old charmer”
Testing their mettle
With packed snow squeaking underfoot, the two young Englishmen shouldered their knapsacks, clipped their boots onto long wooden skis, grasped their poles, and looked out across the ice of Midland harbour at the route they would follow. It was mid-winter of 1940. “Right,” said Ken, elder of the brothers, “let’s get started.” Ron agreed, andContinue reading “Testing their mettle”
