ALGONQUIN DEFINING MOMENTS

Episode 70: Our Algonquin Park Experiences Part III

In this episode I share my experiences at Algonquin Park Children's Camps (Camp Tamakwa on South Tea Lake and Camp Wapomeo on Canoe Lake) and Rory shares his experiences working as a summer naturalist and his later work helping establish the Archives and undertaking various archeological projects in and around the Park. 

We both then share some ot the details as to why we had to leave and our lives now.

Episode 69: Our Algonquin Experiences - Part II

This is the second of 3 episodes capturing the experiences of Gaye Clemson and Rory MacKay who were blessed to be able to spend the summers of their youth on Canoe Lake and Lake of Two Rivers respectively. It is dedicated to Brock Easterling, who suggested that this would a fun topic for our listeners. In this episode we focus on Canoe Lake’s 1960s social life, the challenges of mice and bears, canoe trips and park visitors.

Key References include:

The musical interlude is called Whispering Pines from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes Lakeside Retreat CD. It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Episode 68: Our Algonquin Experiences Part 1

This is the first of three episodes capturing the experiences of Gaye Clemson and Rory MacKay who were blessed to be able to spend the summers of their youth and most of their adult lives as leaseholders on Canoe Lake and Lake of Two Rivers respectively.

Key References include:

The musical interlude is called Lakeside Retreat from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes Lakeside Retreat CD. It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Episode 67: Childrens' Camp Founders 

In this episode I share profiles of many of the founders of the key childrens’ camps in Algonquin Park including Fanny Case from Camp Northway and Wendigo on Cache Lake, Franklin Gray, William Bennett and Herman Norton from Camp Pathfinder on Source Lake, Taylor and Ethel Statten from Camp Ahmek and Camp Wapomeo on Canoe Lake, Mary Jean Hamilton from Camp Tanamakoon on Lake Tanamakoon, Lillian Kates  from Camp Arrohon on TeePee Lake and Lou Handler and Omer Stringer from Camp Tamakwa on South Tea Lake.

Key References include:

The musical interlude is called Time Stands Still from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes Lakeside Retreat CD. It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Episode 66: Part II - How Logging in Algonquin Park has Evolved over a Century (1922-Present)

This follow-on episode shares how logging dramatically changed in 1974 when the Algonquin Park Master Plan came into being and created the Algonquin Forest Authority. They were now responsible for all tree marking, harvesting, delivery to sawmill operators in the area, and later all of the silviculture efforts. 

Key References:

The musical interlude for this episode is called Standing Tall and comes from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes Breaking Through the Mist CD. It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Episode 65: Modern Day Lumbering 1919-Present

For those of us who have been long-time summer residents of Algonquin Park, the issue of logging in the park has been a difficult one. Difficult because, though most people don’t realize it, logging has always been an integral part of the Algonquin Park governing mandate. Though known today as a recreational paradise and wildlife refuge, those of us who have lived in and around the park are very much aware that allowing logging was one of the key compromises that was needed in order for the Park’s creation in 1893. Though hard for us to visualize today, the idea of setting aside such a large expanse of land, so close to the industrial heartland of Ontario was truly a game-changing event, with many conflicting voices. Another parallel objective has always been economic support for the local communities of Eastern Ontario.

In this episode, my goal is to focus narrowly on what has changed since the days of John Egan and J. R. Booth’s logging efforts in the Park. I am going to try to look at the topic from four perspectives, namely: the cutting of the trees; the process of getting them to the sawmills; the actual sawing of the wood into lumber; and its marketing; and to the degree possible how this has all impacted the surrounding people and communities in general and the Whitney area in specific. Part 1 focuses on the 20th C, up until 1974, when the Algonquin Park Master Plan was issued.

Key References:

Donald Lloyd’s Algonquin Harvest: The History of the McRae Lumber Company 2006

Roderick MacKay’s Algonquin Park: A Place Like No Other 2018

George Warecki’s Douglas Pimlott and the Preservationists in Algonquin Park 1958-1974  2021

Bob Lyons Whitney: Island in the Shield 1986

Algonquin Park Forest Authority’s Annual Reports (2021-22 and 2022-23)

Algonquin Park Forest Authority Website (www.algonquinforestry.on.ca)

Maintaining the Balance in Algonquin Park: Algonquin Forest Authority and the Use of Portable Bridges – Forestry Success Stories 2015

The musical interlude for this episode is called Hardwood Haven and comes from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes Breaking Through the Mist CD. It has been brought to your attention with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Episode 64: J. R. Booth Part II: Industrialist and Great Canadian

This the second of two episodes on the life and times of John Rudolphous Booth. Most of the content comes, with many thanks from Roderick MacKay’s second edition of a Booth biography called J. R. Booth Lumberman, Railway Builder, Industrialist, Great Canadian and Influence on Algonquin Provincial Park. 

 The musical interlude is called 'Master of the North' and comes from the Wakami Wailers’ Un, Deux, Trois Four album.

Episode 63: J. R. Booth - An Ottawa Valley Lumber King (PT1)

This is the first of two episodes on the life and times of John Rudolphous Booth one of the great Ottawa Valley Lumber Kings in the second half of the 19th C. Much of the content comes, with great thanks and appreciation from Roderick MacKay’s, newly published second edition of a Booth biography called J. R. Booth Lumberman, Railway Builder, Industrialist, Great Canadian, and Influence on Algonquin Provincial Park. 

 The musical interlude is called The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Rail and comes from the Wakami Wailers’ Un, Deux, Trois Four album

Episode 62: Ontario Lumber Kings - John Egan

Up until recently, I’d always thought that anyone who cared about Algonquin Park human history was already familiar with J. R. Booth and so never put any energy into building an episode around his life experiences. However, last summer I stumbled upon a 2018 biography by Michael McBane on John Egan.. In so doing, I discovered a whole new aspect of lumbering in the Ottawa Valley that I knew nothing about. The end result is this multi-part series about two of the most well-known of the Ottawa Valley Lumber Kings, namely John Egan and J. R. Booth. In my view both are tightly connected in history because as you all know J.R, Booth made his fortune by buying at auction Egan’s timber limits in 1867. In this episode I’ll focus on the life of John Egan. I think though I have no proof that, though of different generations, Booth may have seen Egan as a role model in the lumber industry

The musical interlude for this episode is called Below a Towering Pine and comes from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes Breaking Through the Mist CD. It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Key References:

• Michael McBane’s John Egan: Pine & Politics in the Ottawa Valley, published in 2018

Episode 61: The Earth Caretaker Way - Being of Service

This episode is the last of a six-episode series on the Earth Caretaker Way Tim Corcoran, Julie Boettler from Headwaters School in Mt. Shasta California and focus on one of the most important aspects of The Earth Caretaker Way, which is to contemplate how to be of service in ways both big and small.

The musical interlude in this episode is called Silent Meditations and comes from Dan Gibson’s Solitudes CD 2024 CD called Mountain Magic  It is brought to you with the approval of Digital Funding LLC. Solitudes music can be found wherever you get your music streaming.

Referenced Books and Articles:

• Peter Mathiesen- Wildlife in America - Discusses the injustices committed by people against the North American wildlife from the first colonies to the present published in 1987