Feature Article August 7, 2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeLogs, Lodges and CottagesIn one of the rooms of the new Pioneer Museum there is a display of artefacts derived from the Settlement period of the region. In the mid to late 1880s life was difficult in what was then an extremely remote area. Major cities such as Kingston and Ottawa took days to get to, and with no electricity, well-designed wood and metal tools and hard work made the difference between survival and disaster for many settlers. Lumbering was the sole source of income in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Much of the old growth timber was removed in short order and the lumber industry abated. As early as 1910, when the Bon Echo Inn was built on Mazinaw Lake on the property that is now Bon Echo Provincial Park, Lodges were built on some of the larger lakes in the region. By the 30s and 40s, lodges such as Whip-Poor-Will Lodge, Fernleigh Lodge, Salmons resort, and Loon Lake Lodge, some of which thrive to this day, sprang into existence. The Second World War brought business at the lodges to a standstill, mainly as a result of gas rationing.
Meanwhile, lumbering came back with a vengeance. The Sawyer Stoll company began operating in 1939, and other companies followed.
With the end of the Second World War in 1945, came a bit of boom time to the region. American tourists flocked to the lodges, and lumbering hit its peak. The huge success of Lumbermans Picnics in the late 40s and early 50s attest to this.
In the late 50s the trees were running out and the lumber industry went back into decline in the area. The tourist industry carried on, however, and hunting and fishing remained popular in the area. The building of summer cottages had never taken hold on the local lakes until the early to mid-1960s. Previously there were small rustic cabins around the lakes, but the establishment of cottage lots, and cottage roads became a major source of income in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
As we reach the 21st century, there are many people who are refashioning cottages into year-round homes as they retire. Many of these people discovered the region as youngsters. In the days before Hwy 41 was paved, they sat in the backs of their parents cars biting their nails while the cars took several passes at the Kaladar Hill, and now they are renovating cottages into year-round homes as they retire. The beauty of the lakes and rocks drew them in back then and they have been drawn back ever since.
The changing demographics and the advent of technology is providing employment in the trade and service sectors, while the tourism industry continues to thrive.
Life on the Hwy. 41 corridor is easier now than it was 120 years ago, but the character of the landscape and the tenacity of the early settlers is alive in the people who have taken the trouble to maintain and enhance the Pioneer Museum
