JUNE 2022
SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE Living off the land and the bounty of hard work
Balancing Development and Lake Enjoyment Huntsville’s Musical Tradition Marks 30-Year High Note
Versatile asparagus – a home-grown favourite
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...telling the Muskoka story
[36]
Features
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Article by Matt Driscoll Waterfront development policy varies widely across Muskoka and its many lakes. While the goal of maximum safe enjoyment for residents and guests and protection of the local ecology is consistent, how to achieve that balance is more difficult. Experts weigh-in on the success so far.
Jenny Cressman’s Cuban Odyssey - a Real and Fictional Journey
Article by K.M. Wehrstein [11] Photography by Josianne Masseau While writing has been in Jenny Cressman’s family for years, it wasn’t until she happened upon a sweet deal to an all-inclusive resort in Cuba that inspiration truly struck. Her novels, set in Cuba, draw on her own life experiences and observations from her travels in the sunny south.
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Trees of Muskoka - The Mighty Maple
Article by John Challis There are an estimated 41 species of trees native to Muskoka and 10 of those are of the Acer genus, better known as maple trees. From the delicious, sweet syrup produced from sugar maple sap to the rosy blush of red maple buds in spring, these trees are a big player in the health of Muskoka’s forests.
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Historic Libraries - Lake of Bays Township Library
Article by J. Patrick Boyer Municipal libraries in Baysville and Dwight, located at the north and south ends of Lake of Bays, provide more than just reading materials to permanent residents and cottagers in the area. These community hubs have evolved from small, community-led booksharing initiatives into robust program and service providers. 2 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
Planning for Preservation – Balancing Development and Lake Enjoyment
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Little Market Muskoka - In-season Farming
Article by Meghan Taylor Photography by Josianne Masseau In-season farming is about selecting and harvesting produce locally, as it naturally ripens. For Melissa Johnson, sustainability, waste reduction, nutrition and overall well-being are all tied into her business and her ability to give back to her community.
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Huntsville Festival of the Arts celebrating 30 years of musical tradition Article by Bronwyn Boyer Muskoka’s largest arts organization is coming back this year and the timing couldn’t be better, since 2022 marks its 30th anniversary. Huntsville Festival of the Arts has a roster of 30 concerts and events to commemorate the milestone while also looking back on the many years of celebrating the arts. [42]
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Voices from the Past
Article by Jack Hutton As Swift River Energy Ltd. excavated for the foundation of a new hydroelectric plant at Bala Falls in 2017, it uncovered signatures chiselled into the Precambrian rock. Who were the four men who left their names in stone? Thanks to local historians, the history behind the signatures is now more clear.
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Power Generation accelerated Muskoka’s Progress
Article by J. Patrick Boyer The rivers and falls across Muskoka have been noted for their power, and the opportunity to harness it, since the region was settled. As industry came to the area, and with the dawn of the Electric Age, hydroelectric energy generation became a major factor in the growth and development of Muskoka.
JUNE 2022
SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE Living off the land and the bounty of hard work
Balancing Development and Lake Enjoyment Huntsville’s Musical Tradition Marks 30-Year High Note
[54]
Opinion Departments
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By Don Smith
By George Young
Muskoka Insights
Muskoka Moments
[60]
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What’s Happened
Article by Matt Driscoll A survey from Safe and Quiet Lakes indicates growing concerns with boat noise and wakes, Northland passenger train service is set to return to Muskoka, floating accommodations are debated by local councils and a Muskoka musician debuts a timely new single. Scott Aitchison announces his candidacy for Conservative party leadership while significant changes to regulations are contemplated for Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve and Dark Sky Preserve.
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Cottage Country Cuisine
Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography by Tomasz Szumski It’s asparagus season and this versatile vegetable can be presented in many mouthwatering ways. From growing to preserving to cooking, three Muskokans share their preferred way to [64] enjoy asparagus.
Versatile asparagus – a home-grown favourite
UM Issue 33 Coverpage Ba- Use this one.indd 1
4/29/2022 4:10:11 PM
Our Cover
Photography by Josianne Masseau Melissa Johnson, owner of Little Market Muskoka, grows and sells her own herbs and edible flowers from her home in Bracebridge.
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 5
The Sportage I N T R O D U C I N G THE K I A
…telling the Muskoka story Unique Muskoka is published six times per year by Unique Publishing Inc. Donald Smith Publisher Meghan Taylor Editor Donna Ansley Sales Lisa Brazier Design Susan Smith Administration
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Muskoka Insights First to preserve the reason so many are attracted to the district and then to find ways to share the Muskoka experience. If we allow development to occur beyond the capacity of the district, Muskoka will no longer be as attractive nor sustainable. For that reason, the article by regular contributor Matt Driscoll, Planning for Preservation – Balancing Development and Lake Enjoyment, provides insight into how some jurisdictions are attempting to keep the scales level. One woman’s decision to live a sustainable life and share her choices with family, friends and neighbours is the interesting story of Melissa Johnson and her business – Little Market Muskoka. Muskoka is known for celebrating both home-grown talent and that of others. It’s noteworthy, therefore, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts which has been a home for many great performances since its founding days. Muskoka has many hidden stories, some tucked away for generations. Such is the case with the uncovering of two etched rocks during the construction of the new hydroelectric plant. Writer Jack Hutton digs a little deeper to share this history. And speaking of history, we’re certain you’ll enjoy Patrick Boyer’s look at the impact of waterpower generation on Muskoka’s development as well as his ongoing feature on the Libraries of Muskoka. Finally, two new features – Trees of Muskoka and an introduction to Muskoka authors – give a little more insight into what makes Muskoka such a special experience. Happy reading and welcome aboard, Meghan. Photograph: Susan Smith
One thing that is important to many Muskokans is traditions. They’re the events and activities that bring friends and families together. Chat with Muskokans and some will tell you of traditions they have inherited from generations of their forebears while others will have developed more recent activities that have special meaning – once a season, once a year or over longer intervals. Maybe it’s a favourite stopping point for a meal, an annual cruise on the lakes, a family reunion, a weekly gathering around a campfire – whatever the circumstance, there is bound to be sharing of good times. It may also be the time for honest conversations, a lightening of a burden that needs the support that comes when traditions are celebrated. Over the past few years, as Unique Muskoka evolved, I have had the pleasure to work with our daughter, Meghan. First as a sounding board for ideas that might interest our readers and then as a regular contributor, her byline often appeared over more than one article in an issue. Meghan appreciates the traditions and the stories that are so important to Muskokans. She understands both the inherent and intrinsic elements that contribute to the character of Muskoka. As I shared with you in recent columns, this past year held a couple of personal milestones – 50 years since I wrote my first news article and a significant birthday. Both got me thinking about transitions. It seemed fitting that I should find someone who shared my understanding of traditions. With a sense of pride, I am pleased to advise Meghan was the person who best embraced Unique Muskoka and with this issue, she is our editor. From the line-up of articles, I think you’ll agree Meghan has stepped into this role as a natural. Striking balances in Muskoka is integral.
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Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography by Josianne Masseau
W
riting is in Jenny Cressman’s blood. Now living in Huntsville, she was born in Kitchener of literary Mennonite stock: her mother published a book on parenting and her father wrote poems and articles and worked as an editor, both for the Mennonite community. “I used big words early on as a kid,” she recalls. How did she get from this straightlaced upbringing to writing a trilogy where the first steamy, rollicking sex scene starts only a few pages into the first book? It’s a long story and central to the plot is her falling in love with a much hotter nation than Canada. Cressman’s first publication was a poem in a Mennonite youth magazine when she was in high school. After studying liberal arts and some journalism at a small Mennonite college,
Jenny Cressman’s trilogy of novels, starting with Cuban Kisses, are set in a fictionalized version of Marea del Portillo resort in Cuba and based on her observations of interactions between locals and tourists.
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 11
In 2005, Cressman left journalism and began to pursue creative projects. While her first novel did not come to fruition, Cuban Kisses is the culmination of years spent writing and editing, coupled with the inspiration from her travels in Cuba. she was hired as a reporter for a newspaper in Hesston, Kansas, then returned to Canada to attend a Mennonite college affiliated with the University of Waterloo, and edited the college paper. Her first full-time job as a journalist was in Smiths Falls, Ontario, where she also met her husband, Gord Baker. The couple moved to Huntsville in 1992, and Cressman split her work three ways: for the town’s health-food store, The Great Vine, for the Muskoka Women’s Advocacy Group as communications/media relations co-ordinator and women’s shelter crisis counsellor, and for the Huntsville Herald, one newspaper among a group of publications owned by Bracebridge entrepreneur Don Smith. Smith hired her as editor for Muskoka Magazine and other publications in 2002, a job that she left in 2005 to pursue personal creative projects. Her first attempt at a novel, however, didn’t
12 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
come to fruition. Then in February 2009, when prices to Costa Rica suddenly went astronomical before she could book, Cressman happened upon a sweet deal for an all-inclusive vacation at the Marea del Portillo resort on the
southern shore of Cuba. You need only read the lush and loving description in the first chapters of her first novel, Cuban Kisses, to find
Cressman recalls using big words as a kid. Thanks to her literary parents, writing is in her blood.
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Cuban Kisses, Cuban Wishes and the forthcoming third instalment, Cuban Missus, follow heroine Jackie as she escapes an abusive relationship in Canada, begins a luscious affair with a muscled Cuban horseman, settles into a more mature relationship and finally, a happily-ever-after, assuming she survives. out what this unassuming little paradise is like. Further into the book, you get to know Cuba’s people, culture, and some surprising differences from what you’re used to in Canada. “Going to Cuba changed my life, put me on a whole different trajectory,” Cressman recalls. She was not only struck by its “rich landscape of beauty, culture, history and tears, and its imaginative, ingenious, inspirational people,” but also felt an odd familiarity, as if she had lived there before. Within two years she had started a Cubacentric travel business that often encourages its clients to take needed items to give to the locals. But also, her writing exploded out of its shell, resulting in poetry, short stories, travelogues, blog posts, and three hot novels, the first two published by Ripple Press in Huntsville before its closure, the third currently in search of a publisher. The work’s seminal moment, so to speak, came while 50 Shades of Grey was hitting a degree of popularity that surprised everyone, and Cressman’s husband suggested she pen some romance and make a million dollars (No exposé of a pillow secret here; it’s right in the foreword). “I haven’t made a million dollars yet,” Cressman confesses. “But one Netflix deal and I’ll be golden.” The shocking prologue of Cuban Kisses reveals, however, that it is not just smut but thriller, as Cressman draws from her women’s
shelter knowledge to give her main character not just a luscious affair with a muscled Cuban horseman, but a genuinely dangerous Canadian ex-husband who seems willing to stalk her to the ends of the earth. And then the book rises above itself again, transcending both the smut and thriller genres in its expert (but not excessive) discourses on Cuban culture, history and more. “It’s set in a fictionalized version of Marea del Portillo and based on my observations of interactions between Cubans and tourists, as well as my reading on Cuba,” Cressman notes. Heroine Jackie’s Mennonite roots and similar life transformation on Cuba reveal that Cressman is writing from personal experience, but she cautions against assuming any other aspect is autobiographical. In the second book, Cuban Wishes, Jackie happens into a more mature relationship which takes her between Canada and Cuba; in the third and final, Cuban Missus, her Cuban awakening comes together with her familial roots toward a happily-ever-after ending, assuming she survives. Cressman’s next planned work? A chain of short stories about successive incarnations of the same soul living Cuban history. “It starts,” she explains, “with a young woman witnessing the arrival of Columbus in 1492.” And goes downhill from there, one is tempted to think. We’ll have to wait and read it to find out.
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here are an estimated 41 species of tree native to Muskoka and another 24 smaller trees classified as shrubs. All play significant roles in the balance of Muskoka’s ecosystem. This series explores some of our more visible trees. The word “maple” instantly conjures up thoughts of the enigmatic syrup so crucial to a pancake breakfast. The sugar maple, Canada’s national tree, has been tapped for its sweet bounty for thousands of years by Indigenous People, and since the 1600s by Europeans. Sooner than we may expect, the crimsons, golds and oranges of autumn will again be turning minds to the sugar
maple. Commercially, sugar maple is also highly valued for its hard, beautifully grained wood. It’s not all sugar maple in the woods, though. There are actually 10 species of maple in the genus Acer in Canada, six of which are common in Muskoka. They include some of the largest trees in the forest, along with some shrub-like species that hide in the shade of the forest canopy. Most of them produce sweet sap, too. All species of maple sprout leaves in pairs, from stems that are opposite each other. All but one species have variations on the classic maple leaf shape, with three prominent points and often many more. An interesting bit of trivia: If you have
Maple trees may actually nurture the rest of the forest’s health. Once completely leafed out, surplus sap is sent back into a maple's roots. Growing evidence indicates the sap may be shared with other nearby trees through networks of underground fungi. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 17
Photograph: Jane Clark
T
Article by John Challis
Red maple deserves appreciation for providing the first colour to spring. They send out their flowers before leaves emerge, creating a rosy blush among the forest.
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any old Canadian pennies around, look at the maple leaves on the back. They’re depicted incorrectly, sprouting in an alternating arrangement. The designer, G.E. Kruger Grey, was British and might have been drawing from a London plane tree, which has similar leaves but an alternate arrangement. Sugar maple may get the headlines, but red maple is the most common, tolerating a wide range of climate and habitats, even thriving in swamps. Red maple deserves appreciation for providing the first colour to spring. Look out over a forested hillside in April and you may see the rosy blush of red maple flowers emerging in the trees’ crowns. They send out their flowers well before the leaves emerge. Close up, they show as bright, red bundles of flower buds, usually with male and female clusters on the same tree — an important early source of pollen and nectar for many insects and birds. Striped maple and mountain maple are shrub-sized trees, with trunks rarely thicker than your forearm. Mountain maple is the smaller of the two, and it sprouts erratic clusters of stems. The trunk of striped maple has pale, greenish streaks running lengthwise, giving the tree its name. Both these trees enjoy the shade and cool soil under large tree canopies and are rarely found outside mature forests. Two maples have a bit of a bad reputation. Silver maple’s spreading roots are notorious for finding their way through basement walls and sewer lines. Manitoba maples, which do
Photograph: John Challis
not have recognizable maple-shaped leaves, have trunks which often divide near the ground, with branches and twigs that split and shed regularly. All maple species throughout Muskoka have far more value to wildlife than to people. Their bark is a tender favourite of porcupines and beavers. In winter, their buds and young twigs are important food for rabbits, deer and moose. Ruffed grouse, chickadees, purple finches, nuthatches and grosbeaks all feed on the buds and flowers of maple trees. And those iconic, winged maple keys contain
Photograph: Jane Clark
Photograph: Shirley Burton
seeds that are starchy treasures hoarded by squirrels and chipmunks for winter. Maples may actually nurture the rest of the forest’s health, too. Once a maple has completely leafed out, it will send some of its surplus sap back into its roots. There’s growing evidence indicating the sap may be shared with other nearby trees, through networks of mycorrhizae, the underground stems of fungi. A maple tree could even be feeding its own young seedlings in this way. The mighty maple - so much more than just a sweet treat.
Sugar maple, one of 10 species of maple tree in Muskoka, is easily recognizable as its leaves turn shades of crimson, gold and orange in the fall. Plus, its sweet sap is the top ingredient for maple syrup in the spring months.
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 19
Photograph: Tomasz Szumski
Article by J. Patrick Boyer books to launch a Baysville lending library. Others contributed volumes, too; a pattern across Muskoka for beginning libraries with homesteaders’ own books. In 1897, Baysville’s library opened in the hallway of the personal residence of Shirley
Campbell, daughter of village founder W.H. Brown. As it grew, the library was promoted to the balcony level in the Township Hall on Bridge Street. The hall served as council chambers, had a jail in the basement and housed community dances, fall fair exhibits,
Photograph: Lake of Bays Library
T
he village libraries of Lake of Bays Township anchor both ends of Muskoka’s highest major waterbody with the northern branch in Dwight’s Community Centre and its southern cousin in Baysville’s Community Centre. The lake between the libraries not only gave the municipality its name but created a vital vacation economy. When the 3,500 permanent residents of Lake of Bays are joined by 13,000 summer Muskokans, these libraries become busier than ever. Both libraries began as small, communityled initiatives, evolving with their residents and with the locations they occupied. In Baysville, historian Judy Vanclieaf traces the village’s library back a century and a quarter. Harvey Dwight, president and general manager of the Great North-Western Telegraph Company and avid summer Muskokan (whose memory endures in the village name “Dwight”), bought and donated
Thirty years ago, Baysville library staff held the rapt attention of more than two dozen youngsters, boosting early engagement in library-centred activity that fosters literacy, social interaction, and learning. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 21
Photographs: Tomasz Szumski
The village libraries of Baysville (left) and Dwight make up the twin branches of the Lake of Bays Public Library. Both began as small, community led-initiatives that have grown into community hubs with a wide variety of programs and services. and Christmas concerts; it was Baysville’s hub. where librarian Georgie Moeller was helped school closed in the mid-1960s. The convenient indoor balcony seemed anTHE by RIOBEL her daughterMOMENTI™ Vivian. After a COLLECTION number of Finally, a decade after a new Baysville AVAILABLE AT KNOWLES PLUMBING! ideal, if unusual, place for a library. Librarian years, the library migrated from this location Community Centre opened in June 1980, Louise Ellis opened one night a week. across the parking lot to the north end of the the library addition at its south end was After the Second World War, the library school. Vivian Mitchell succeeded her officially opened in August 1991. descended from the balcony to a basement mother as librarian and the library took up Until 1983, the Dwight Library was dressing room& inKI theTC community residence BAT H H E N centre SH OW R OinOaMformer classroom, after the housed in Irwin Public School as a joint DESIGN. INSTALLATION. REPAIR S E RVING ALL OF MU SKOKA 279 MA N ITOBA ST, B R AC EBR ID G E
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operation of the Township and Muskoka’s board of education. After the school, the library was relocated to a trailer near the municipal office. It was open just four hours a week, six in the summer months. When the township office burned down, the replacement community centre, built in 1994, included an extension for the library, readily accessible for community involvement, learning, and enrichment.
By the early 1990s, both branches of the Lake of Bays Public Library were in their own buildings, professionally staffed, and increasingly well equipped. Today, the libraries have a total of eight staff members, including chief executive officer and Dwight branch librarian Cathy Fairbairn. Fairbairn, whose background includes a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario, began her library career in 2006 part-time at
the Dwight Branch. By 2013, she became full-time branch manager and five years later, in 2018, the library board appointed her chief executive officer. While she is responsible for the entire operation, Lizann Brunskill is Baysville’s branch librarian. “We want to have the latest, especially for kids, so they are not at a disadvantage to big city kids when advancing into higher education and their careers,” explains
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Photograph: Tomasz Szumski
At the Dwight Library, concerts are held outdoors at the gazebo during the summer months and community members can enjoy their love of reading at the outdoor book nook.
Photograph: Marie Vanclieaf Collection
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Baysville’s Township Hall, seen here, was long a vital community hub. Before the First World War, Baysville’s library, under charge of librarian Louise Ellis, occupied the hall balcony (the upper window at rear showing its level.) Although the idea of a “community hub” has been a Muskoka reality since the District’s first libraries were established in the 1860s, what constitutes a “hub” has evolved – with interlibrary loans, talks by authors, programs for youth, computer technology, and internet service. At an outdoor gazebo by the Dwight branch, guest bands perform summer concerts. Indoors at Baysville, library service has advanced to a privacy oasis “pod.” The biggest shift over time is technology. The sound-dampening “pod” offers Baysville library patrons privacy in an accessible space. A self-contained unit with plug-ins for internet connectivity, its occupant can have a medical appointment with their doctor, discuss financial matters with their banker, get professional guidance from a lawyer, or hold a business meeting – all remotely. Library staff provide technical
Photograph: Tomasz Szumski
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Fairbairn. “The library is a place to level the playing field.” Since 2009, library programs offered to the Lake of Bays community have increased 310 percent while participation is up 257 percent. Since 2010, Wi-Fi usage has risen 218 percent. Clearly, both “community hubs,” as Fairbairn refers to the libraries, are dynamic. During her two decades of librarianship, Fairbairn has identified both constants and shifts in community expectations about the library. “One constant is ‘connection’ – how people want to feel part of the community,” shares Fairbairn. “A sense of belonging, being part of the community, is an unchanging element and we’ve striven to implement new ways to make this aspiration a reality. This is possible in communities like Lake of Bays more than in a big city library.”
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As libraries have evolved with community needs, the addition of new services and programs, like the Baysville library’s technology hub, have been integral to continued growth and usage.
support to individuals as needed. “We do a lot to get people in the door,” says Fairbairn. “They discover this place is not a formal institution but can be an interesting and helpful part of their lives.” In September the library board voted unanimously to become fine-free – joining more than 500 North American libraries who’ve taken this plunge since 2019. In finefree libraries people still return items, the number of materials borrowed increases, and people’s experience is more positive. Such ideas flow from Lake of Bays Library’s membership in the Ontario Library Service. “For small libraries like ours,” says Fairbairn, “we get policy development on new matters that emerge, education and training for staff, and new ideas for librarians. We’re far more effective and relevant than we could ever be on our own.” With such varied programs and offerings, the Dwight branch planned an 1,800 square foot extension to their existing space five years ago. However, the pandemic changed social patterns and workplace expectations. “What we’d planned back then may not be what the community needs now,” shares Fairbairn. “It’s the community’s library, so we’ve got to listen to what people want. We’re stepping back from that five-year-old plan to take stock of our new social and community and economic realities. The library is the only free space for everyone in the community.” Unafraid to re-evaluate, the libraries are asking people what they want, and what they’ll need five and ten years from now.
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In the mid-1990s, Baysville librarian Linda Lacroix introduced two youngsters to the marvels of computer use which, like books themselves, offer a passport to the larger world. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 25
W
ith the boom in the real estate market in recent years, development of waterfront properties continues as a hot topic in cottage country. In Ontario, it seems there are as many ways to formulate waterfront development policy as there are lakes. In Muskoka and the surrounding municipalities, that
26 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
includes a number of different methods. All aim to achieve the same goal – maximum safe enjoyment for residents and guests while protecting the local ecology. However, hitting that target includes many variables, everything from balancing local economic priorities and social crowding, to water quality and the ability to sustain a true “wilderness” experience.
Photograph: Muskoka Conservancy
Article by Matt Driscoll
Top Photograph: Gord Nielsen skoka Conservancy Bottom Photograph: Mu
Bordering Muskoka to the northwest, Seguin Township, which includes the village of Rosseau, uses a different system called recreational carrying capacity, or RCC. Seguin has a population of 4,280 permanent residents, which swells to 15,000 during the high season. It encompasses some 186 lakes and has 30 lake associations. An RCC is essentially an estimate of the number of users that can be accommodated on any given lake while maintaining the character and quality of the lake for all users. The rules in Seguin dictate a maximum density of one residential unit per 1.6 hectares of land and one tourist accommodation per 0.8 hectares of land. Seguin made the RCC a part of their Official Plan in 1982 and the issue was revisited again during their Official Plan update in 2006. At that point, the municipality hired Meridian Planning to look at lake capacity issues in the area. Meridian determined that the only way to control the RCC is to regulate the land use adjacent to lakes and that some aspects of social crowding can be mitigated through minimum lot sizes,
Gord Nielsen (top), an ecologist and President of Michalski Nielsen Associates Limited, believes planning policies, like recreational carrying capacity, may not produce results that work for everyone. For lakes with large boatable surface, these policies may reduce and control development but they can also limit public access, reducing the ability for all to enjoy Muskoka’s natural beauty. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 27
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naturalization and viewscape protection. They also recommend that issues of RCC and social crowding are assessed when reviewing development. Taylor Elgie, Seguin’s director of planning, says the municipality is currently in the midst of another Official Plan review, but he isn’t aware of any impending changes as far as the RCC is concerned. “I believe the policy has been working quite well for us,” says Elgie, who took over as director of planning in November 2021. “I know it’s withstood some challenges at the Ontario Land Tribunal, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be challenged again.” Few people in Ontario have a better understanding of RCC than Anthony Usher. Usher started his firm, Anthony Usher Planning Consultant, in 1984, providing services in land use, resource, recreation and tourism planning and has studied RCC extensively. He was called as a witness for Seguin Township when their RCC was challenged at the Ontario Municipal Board (now known as the Ontario Land Tribunal), and was more recently asked to peer review a boating capacity study as part of the controversial Langmaids Island development on Lake of Bays. “The term recreational carrying capacity has a very different definition than it did
Brent Parsons (above), principal and senior aquatic scientist with Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd., is in the midst of working on causation studies for the District of Muskoka. Ensuring lake management is properly executed relies on up-to-date information from these studies informing the guidelines implemented across the region. when it first surfaced in the 1960s and 70s,” says Usher. Following the Second World War there was a tremendous boom in outdoor recreation across North America. That saw ever-increasing numbers of people heading to lakes and rivers, and building homes, cottages and resorts in close proximity to bodies of water. “It was around that time people first
started to wonder if there was a maximum level and whether there should be some type of limit on the number of people allowed to use the lake,” says Usher. “There are studies on boating capacity and water quality but recreational carrying capacity is something different.” The factors that determine an RCC can be quite varied, says Usher, and can also change from lake to lake. An RCC typically isn’t
Photograph: Gord Nielsen
Common concerns among waterfront property owners are a perceived increase in boating traffic and noise levels. While development on Muskoka’s lakes may be controlled, current development models have not fully considered the new emphasis on shared ownership cottages.
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concerned with water quality, per se, but more so with factors related to overdevelopment like noise, lights and boat traffic. “I prefer to think of it as the social capacity,” Usher comments. Usher says determining what constitutes a social capacity can be challenging at the best of times. “It’s really indefinable. It isn’t strictly about boating capacity,” says Usher. “It’s a little bit like a neighbourhood in Toronto. People can sometimes become high-minded in terms of maintaining control over the character of the neighbourhood. Sometimes they don’t like the way their neighbourhood has changed and they don’t trust the ‘other’. I think that mentality can translate to cottage country.” Neil Hutchinson has a Ph.D. in Zoology (Aquatic Toxicology), and already had decades of experience in the study of lake capacity before he formed Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd. in 2009. The consulting firm works across the country from its base in Bracebridge and specializes in aquatic science, technical facilitation and peer review services. “Lake capacity is a little bit like a speed limit,” says the recently retired Hutchinson. “If I drive a little bit over the speed limit, I’m
Recently retired Neil Hutchinson has decades of experience in the study of lake capacity, has a Ph.D. in Zoology (Aquatic Toxicology) and has helped establish the provincial guidelines for lake capacity.
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DOWNTOWN TORRANCE
Municipal policy on waterfront development varies across the province of Ontario. In Muskoka, all of the methods in place aim to achieve the same goal; maximum safe enjoyment for residents and guests and protection of the local ecology. likely to be all right but the more I go over the speed limit the more likely I am to get into trouble.” Hutchinson helped establish the provincial guidelines for lake capacity and various approaches for the District of Muskoka, and his firm has worked with many municipalities and individuals to develop capacity estimates. The planning standards in the District of Muskoka call for minimum lot frontages ranging from 200 to as much as 800 feet per lakeshore lot, depending on the lake and lot characteristics. “Simply having those standards in place reduces crowding,” explains Hutchinson.
“That being said, it’s very difficult to manage behaviour and behaviour has a large effect on lake development impacts and lake aesthetics.” Some of the more common concerns among waterfront property owners are a perceived increase in boating traffic and noise levels. Hutchinson says part of the issue is that waterfront development models have at least partially failed to take into consideration the new emphasis on shared ownership cottages. “Just one or two loud groups of individuals on a lake, or a few boats that are very loud and very fast, and you can end up with some
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Recreational carrying capacity is not typically concerned with water quality, per se, but more so with factors related to overdevelopment like noise, lights and boat traffic. However, water quality is a clear indicator of the health of lakes in the region. very challenging outcomes,” Hutchinson says. In terms of ecology, Hutchinson shares there are several triggers that the District of Muskoka has in place to help recognize any potential threats to water quality and manage
development accordingly. Those triggers include any significant increases in phosphorus levels or documented algal blooms, which will, in turn, prompt the District to launch lake causation studies to determine if development, or other factors
are responsible and to then identify appropriate management strategies. “The problem is climate change has really complicated things,” Hutchinson says. For instance, algal blooms seem to be appearing with much greater regularity in
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Muskoka over the past decade and are appearing in lakes where nutrient levels, historically an important cause, are low. Brent Parsons is a principal and senior aquatic scientist with Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd. In addition to helping create the guidelines for the District of Muskoka, the company has also completed one causation study and is in the midst of conducting four more causation studies in Muskoka. To make sure lake management is properly executed, Parsons says they need to stay on top of the latest developments. “It changes with the science,” Parsons says. “That means we need to stay up-to-date on peer-reviewed scientific literature, evaluate the success of management tools used by other lake managers, and continue to collect feedback from municipal staff and lake associations as well as landowners.” According to Gord Nielsen, an ecologist and President of Michalski Nielsen Associates Limited, an environmental consulting firm located in Bracebridge, part of the issue is the changing nature of cottage ownership.
“Investment in cottages and the wealth involved is very different than it was 40 years ago,” says Nielsen, whose company has been providing services throughout Ontario and also in Quebec and Nova Scotia since 1983. Nielsen says part of the perceived problem is also down to changes in technology and the watercraft being used on local lakes. “There used to be a lot of small tinnies and runabouts,” Nielsen says. “Now the boats are faster, louder and they create bigger wakes. I think most people would say they’re concerned about it.” Nielsen says many people believe the problem is an increase in new development but that really isn’t the case in Muskoka. Much less waterfront Crown Land is sold now than it has been in the past, says Nielsen, and there has been comparatively little waterfront development, which is also only allowed under much tighter standards
As Muskoka’s population, permanent and seasonal, continues to change, municipalities, planners, lake associations and other stakeholders will continue their efforts to strike a balance between development and preservation.
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Wealth and cottage ownership has changed dramatically over the last 40 years, as has the technology and watercraft used across the lakes. Regulating the “social capacity” of a body of water is challenging and needs to reflect the current state of the environment and those who use and live in the area. than it had been years ago. Nielsen is skeptical about the ability of planning policies like RCC to produce results that work for everyone. “It really isn’t a very effective way to deal with large lakes that have a huge boatable surface,” he says. “My concern is that it can
be used as a tool for cottage owners to say we like what we’ve got and now you can stop coming here. There’s also the potential to impose public access limits and that’s very bothersome to me. They’re not just a resource for cottage owners.” As the wealth concentrated on Muskoka’s
lakes continues to increase, year over year, it’s unlikely the issue will resolve itself anytime in the near future. However, the area’s municipalities, planners, lake associations and myriad other stakeholders will carry on in an effort to find a balance between development and mitigation.
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iving off the land and the bounty of hard work has been the Muskoka story since the area was settled in the 1800s. That meant finding rhythms within the seasons and planning for bountiful harvests
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returning to growing their own produce and searching for a more local, sustainable lifestyle. “Waste is my biggest pet peeve,” explains Melissa Johnson, Bracebridge resident, daycare provider and homesteader. “I really thought about how much we consume and we consume so naively. It was about having and providing the best food for myself and my family and avoiding waste as much as possible.” Much like those first settlers in Muskoka, Johnson approaches gardening and farming,
along with the goods she produces for her business, Little Market Muskoka, with an inseason only approach to growing and harvesting. “We had our homestead for about six years before the Little Market transition and even now, it’s still trial and error,” she says. In-season only is precisely what it sounds like – selecting and harvesting produce as it is grown locally. Fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers that are harvested in-season require less transport, are picked at their ripest (instead of early to ripen during transport)
and, therefore, contain more nutrients due to the natural ripening process. Produce that’s in-season is used at its freshest but can also be dried or preserved for use outside of the seasonal harvest. In addition to what she grows at their home property, Johnson spends significant time harvesting and preserving goods from other local producers. A family trip or field trip to a berry farm or an apple orchard means more in-season selection to eat or to preserve and then share. Focussing on in-season goods maintains Johnson’s eco-friendly approach
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 37
and preserving increases the shelf-life of perishables. “We get to enjoy ourselves throughout the year, harvesting as a family activity,” comments Johnson. Producing food from her own land is more than a hobby or cost-saving measure. For Johnson, it’s about nutrition, along with waste reduction. Any packaging she uses for goods is 99 percent, if not 100 percent plantbased and biodegradable. The garden beds at Johnson’s homestead are made out of reduced or reused products, like repurposed cedar boards. This spring she plans to test using old tires for a garden bed, continuing to evolve and grow while keeping sustainability at the forefront of her practices. How does someone go from growing their own garden and operating a childcare business to producing goods for donation and selling dried herb and flower blends? “I just thought ‘why not start a whole new adventure?’,” says Johnson. “I was transitioning my day-care business because it wasn’t that busy with the pandemic.” Johnson has always worked as an entrepreneur in childcare and was even more dedicated to the sector after becoming a mother herself. Little Market Muskoka truly began when her children started to sell extra eggs from their chickens. They had wanted a lemonade stand, but Johnson knew their location out of town would make sales difficult and disappointing for the kids. “The kids came up with the name themselves,” shares Johnson. “They were really involved and loved it.” Johnson and her family have a strong focus on producing a variety of goods for their own use. However, the idea of having their own source of produce and eggs did not mean she wanted those items to go to waste. At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Johnson’s kids began to lose interest in selling eggs to friends and neighbours. “We were still having the problem of having extra produce plus it was the pandemic, so we wanted to do something to bring people’s spirits up,” shares Johnson. “Plus, food and nutrition are something people don’t always have access to.” Johnson began with providing deliveries
38 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
Johnson approaches gardening and farming, for her family and her business, with an in-season only approach to growing and harvesting.
of bagged salads from her garden’s extra yield to community members. From that starting point of kindness and waste reduction, Little Market Muskoka has slowly evolved into something Johnson loves. Recently, Johnson secured a partnership with Gravenhurst Against Poverty to supply them with fresh produce from her garden. That means she can increase the amount she’s growing, knowing all the yield will be put to use. Johnson would love to supply even more organizations, if possible. “We get to live a fulfilling life
while helping our community,” says Johnson. Working outside when the weather cooperates and throughout the growing season, Johnson spent time sharing her knowledge with her own two kids and with those who attended her day-care. While Johnson would tend the gardens, she could share the progress with the children, while they also had a chance to play in the sand and soil. “The day-care kids get to do the fun stuff when they want to,” shares Johnson. From traditional produce, Johnson began to add edible flowers and herbs to her garden and her family’s
diet. Johnson has shifted the focus of Little Market Muskoka’s sold goods to dried, edible flowers, herbs and blends to boost and supplement daily nutrition, along with other ailments. “Nutrition is very important and I find edible flowers and herbs are often overlooked as part of that,” says Johnson. While culinary farms dedicated to producing these edible florals and herbs exist, there are few in Canada. Most are located overseas in Europe and in Australia. Johnson has dedicated significant time to research including the types of edible flowers, how to grow and harvest them and their benefits. As with anything, understanding where and how these dried floral blends are produced is important and key to ensuring they’re safe and helpful. During her research, Johnson reached out to some of these farms for details and support. “For me, I don’t eat a lot of meat, so adding edible flowers increases iron and magnesium in my diet,” says Johnson. “For those with anxiety, adding spearmint and lemon balm to their water helps. Those plants have calming effects in them.” There are a multitude of advantages to incorporating plants into meals, beverages and skin care. Herbs and flowers provide a wide range of health benefits, in addition to their nutritional benefits. Johnson’s favourites include thyme and rosemary, which help boost the immune system and have antibacterial properties, in addition to the nutrients they contain. “A lot of people are worried about wrinkles and they buy all kinds of products for their skin but there are natural tricks that have been lost over the years,” she shares. With research and trial and error, Johnson developed natural recipes for bug spray and sunscreen, safe for those with allergies, sensitivities or those who choose to avoid added chemicals or preservatives. She is no longer producing the bug spray and sunscreen to sell but is quite happy to share the recipe with anyone
Top photo - There are a multitude of advantages to incorporating plants and dried flowers into meals, beverages and skin care. Johnson eats very little meat, so adding edible flowers increases iron and magnesium in her diet. Bottom photo - The focus of Little Market Muskoka’s sold goods has shifted to dried, edible flowers, herbs and blends. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 39
interested. Johnson also swears by a spray of floral tea blends, full of natural collagen, that can be sprayed on skin and benefit the whole body. “This year I’m getting the flowers and herbs into some of our local stores and expanding, and have some go into local restaurants, if they’ll have me,” explains Johnson. “Currently, the dried blends are just online and I’ll be at the Bracebridge farmers’ market this summer as a guest vendor.” Having worked in childcare for over 15 years, Johnson plans to continue in that field, while also growing plants to help the community have more access to nutritious food. Johnson only donates their extra
Food and nutrition are not always accessible for people. Johnson recently partnered with Gravenhurst Against Poverty to provide the organization with fresh produce. Johnson only donates the extra produce from her garden.
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produce and has no intention of selling those items. Selling dried flowers and herbs is the focus for Little Market Muskoka, for the time-being, and that continues to develop each year. “I get to incorporate everything I love while also being able to support and provide for my family,” says Johnson. “I’ve incorporated all the best parts of what I enjoy and created something that’s positive and proactive for our community and the little people in it.” With her homestead and business, Melissa Johnson is building a sustainable lifestyle and teaching her kids, and others, the importance of mindfulness, nutrition, community and sustainable, eco-friendly practices along the way.
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Photographs: Huntsville Festival of the Arts Archive
Article by Bronwyn Boyer
“I
t’s great to be back!” proclaims Dan Watson, executive director of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts (HfA). “It’s so wonderful to be able to return to HfA’s favourite live spaces and events.” The Covid-19 pandemic has been like a wrecking ball for the arts. While culture is vital for quality of life, it’s also the last to recover from economic hardship. But just as
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diamonds are formed from heavy pressure, the Huntsville Festival of the Arts remains unbreakable. Muskoka’s largest arts organization is coming back this year with a vengeance.
Venues, like the Algonquin Theatre (above) opened in 2005, as much as the variety of artistic mediums are critical factors in the continued success of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts.
Photographs: Huntsville Festival of the Arts Archive
The addition of Nuit Blanche North to HfA’s lineup in 2011 included 25 performances, featuring interactive art, site specific performances, buskers, and a fireworks show at the town docks.
And the timing couldn’t be better, since 2022 marks its 30th anniversary. A roster of 30 concerts and events will commemorate this milestone with a wide variety of musical and theatrical flavours to satisfy every cultural palette. The 2022 line-up will feature everything from comedy, theatrical presentations, virtuoso musical performances of multiple genres, and even a drag show. Venues range from the sophisticated Algonquin Theatre to romantic outdoor gems among the wild Muskokan landscape. Variety is said to be the spice of life, and HfA lavishes its community with a generous dose of all the flavours it can conjure. HfA was the brainchild of Toronto residents Attila Glatz and Susan Alberghini.
As accomplished curators of the arts, they recognized the potential of the area. The meteoric rise of summer population and natural beauty made Huntsville a logical setting for an arts festival. Local residents Jim and Jane Alexander
were the biggest supporters of the idea and jumped on board as founders. As president of Algonquin Automotive Industries, Alexander used his business connections to gather and mobilize 34 more individuals. Their vision was to form a collective that would enrich community economic development through the arts. Even in its humble beginnings in 1993, HfA was spreading its wings across Huntsville and taking flight. Events were held in several venues including Grandview Resort, Deerhurst Resort, Town Hall Theatre and Muskoka Heritage Place. Over the years, more venues have been added to the list. The inaugural season in 1993 featured 20 ensembles and a 36-member festival orchestra led by maestro Kerry Stratton. Dancers from The National Ballet of Canada were featured as well as local groups Muskoka Dance Academy and the North Muskoka Players. There was even a parade down Main St. to kick off the occasion. In 1994, HfA received federal funding through the Canadian Heritage grant as well as provincial funding through the Ontario Arts Council and Ministry of Culture & Tourism. The Town of Huntsville and the District of Muskoka also contributed support along with 46 local sponsors. This allowed the festival to present 42 events and host 56 artists. At its outset, classical music was at the core of HfA’s programming. The Huntsville Festival Symphony led by maestro Kerry Stratton remained the musical centrepiece for 12 years. This
Volunteers, like festival founders Attila Glatz and Susan Alberghini, have made all the difference in building a successful festival every year since the event’s inception. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 43
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En Plein Air annually invites visual artists to create art in a performance style setting. The pieces are then auctioned off with all proceeds supporting HfA’s art scholarships. earned an HfA scholarship and studied theatre at Humber College. He followed this up with two years in Paris at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He then spent 12 years in Toronto as a theatre artist while teaching at Humber College before Muskoka called him home. From a young age, Watson participated in local theatre and musical productions but never anticipated where it would lead him. “I never really took it seriously as a career
Photographs: Huntsville Festival of the Arts Archive
tradition is upheld to this day, most notably with the Huntsville Festival of Music. This program is modelled on the Kiwanis Music Festival’s mission to foster “self-discipline, teamwork and excellence” in young musicians. World music has also always been an important part of HfA programming. Kyoshi Nagata Drum Ensemble brought Japanese Taiko Drumming and percussion to the mix. The Soweto Gospel Choir, Black Umfolsi, Arvel Bird, Jesse Cook, Pavlo and Johannes Linstead, Alex Cuba, Goitse, and the Sultans of String have been among the most successful shows. In 1997 the festival was greatly benefited by the addition of Rob Saunders as general manager. Saunders’ financial expertise as a commercial account manager was a welcome addition to the board. For 23 years, Saunders steered the festival from a summer event into a year-round celebration. Festival program-ming was diversified to include more contemporary music, more local artists, and innovative ideas that kept the festival growing. In 2001, the festival was proud to present Huntsville’s own Hawksley Workman. Having just caught the world’s attention with his sophomore album Last Night We Were the Delicious Wolves, it was an exciting event. The retirement of Rob Saunders in 2018 was a blow greatly softened by his successor, Dan Watson. A native of Huntsville, Watson
Incorporating a variety of world music, such as the Kyoshi Nagata Drum Ensemble, has always been an important part of programming for the festival.
path,” he says. “But I loved acting and being on stage, and the whole process of putting a show on. The kind of theatre I was interested in involved having to be the producer as well as the creator, and I discovered I had an aptitude for that.” Since 1997, HfA has continued developing Youth in the Arts, a concert series featuring alumni from the Festival Scholarship Program returning to showcase their talent. The scholarship program is designed to financially support youth seeking a postsecondary arts education. Since its inception, the program has supported over 100 artists. Guided by its education committee, the festival also offers a number of classes and camps teaching theatre, photography, puppetry, and music. Dance education programs through the festival also provided a rare opportunity for Huntsville’s students to perform with dancers from the National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Ballet Jorgen. Additionally, HfA supports a visual arts student annually through the Kareen Burns HFA Scholarship. The late Kareen Burns was an HfA board member and valued member of the Huntsville community. Her spirit of imagination and ingenuity lives on in the youth aided by the scholarship. Literacy programs are also offered through
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 45
Photograph: Huntsville Festival of the Arts Archive
Rob Saunders (left), former general manager, pictured with Natalie McMaster in 1997, spent his 23 years at the helm steering the festival from a summer event to a year round celebration.
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HfA. The Novel Marathon grew to become a popular outlet for writers and has donated over $200,000 to support literacy causes throughout the Muskoka area. Each year, the festival evolved and grew, adding diversity with the performances and venues involved. 2005 saw the grand opening of the Algonquin Theatre in Downtown Huntsville. The 408-seat state-of-the-art performance space was a watershed, and the culmination of 20 years of ground work. The theatre allowed the HfA to expand their yearround concerts and events even further. The rest is history. In 2006 the Jazz Festival was launched. Jazz was a large component of programming that summer and was also presented at the annual event Jazz in the Garden, hosted at Tall Trees Restaurant. Jazz also remains an important part of the HfA scholarship program, supporting many young local musicians who are pursuing studies in jazz. 2010 was the year Huntsville hosted the G8 Summit, and HfA celebrated the opening of the G8 Summit Centre with a concert by Canadian rock band legend Blue Rodeo. Watson brings a distinctive energy to the festival, including his focus on one of HfA’s most popular events – Nuit Blanche North. Interactive multi-arts performances that emphasize a physical presence in the community are more in his wheelhouse than the traditional performance settings. Rob Saunders knew that Watson would be perfect to head up the Nuit Blanche North event because Watson and his wife, Christina Serra, had been producing the Edge of the Woods show for a number of years.
proceeds going to support HfA’s art scholarships. HfA also commissions local artists to create images for the cover of their summer programs. Artists like Gerry Lantaigne and Marc Walter were commissioned to paint the hugely popular Group of Seven Canoe Murals and build two large wood sculptures, respectively. During the pandemic, HfA presented online concerts including the Music at Noon program directed by piano virtuoso Kyung-A Lee and the Black Whole Quarantine Reunion Concert, which raised thousands of dollars for the Table Soup Foundation. They also launched the Art Breaks program, which offered free online arts
programming for youth while schools were closed. Watson particularly enjoys the multivenue aspect of the festival. Each show is designed and curated the way an artist prepares his canvas before the painting is made. “It’s great to be back in Huntsville and have more space,” he says. “The performance space is really important, as I like to think about the experience we’re trying to cultivate with each show we’re considering. Each event is like a work of art, and the venue is the medium.” Keeping a not-for-profit organization for the arts afloat in troubled waters is commendable. HfA
Classical music has always been at the core of the festival’s programming. The Huntsville Festival Symphony, led by maestro Kerry Stratton (pictured), was the musical centrepiece for 12 years.
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Photograph: Huntsville Festival of the Arts Archive
“We’d tour the parks all over Muskoka,” Watson explains. “We’d arrive on site, serve food, have hands-on art-making activities, and then put on a show. HfA sponsored that for a couple of years, so Nuit Blanche North was a natural transition and a great opportunity to take on a bigger project.” With provincial support through the Celebrate Ontario grant program, the first Nuit Blanche North took place in 2011 and included 25 performances throughout downtown Huntsville. The night featured interactive art, site specific performances, buskers, and a fireworks show at the town docks. The event was even attended by British Royals, who were served butter tarts. The response was electric and, in the years following, the event has continued to grow, drawing between 4000 and 6000 people to Huntsville annually. Visual art is a vital element of the festival’s mandate. En Plein Air, organized by Kelly Holinshead, is an annual event that invites artists to create art in a performance style setting. These pieces are auctioned off with
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Youth arts has and continues to be a focus for Huntsville Festival of the Arts. The “Youth in the Arts” series features Festival Scholarship Program recipients returning home to showcase their talent.
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also manages to put a small town on the map by bringing thousands to the area each year. It takes a village, to be sure. The festival owes its success to its many corporate and private sponsors, members, and hundreds of volunteers that keep the gears turning. Notable performers slated for this year’s roster include Natalie MacMaster, Downchild Blues Band, Jim Cuddy, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, Kathleen Edwards, William Prince, Joel Plaskett, Dan Mangan, Michael Kaeshammer, and Gord Sinclair of The Tragically Hip. The Huntsville String Quartet
will also be featured this year as well as many local performers as part of the popular Music at Noon Series. Audiences can look forward to the resurrection of Ralph & Lina, a comedic melodrama starring Dan Watson and his wife, Christina Serra. Considering the festival’s accomplishments to date, there is a lot to celebrate. The number of high calibre shows and the people who made them happen are too many to mention. And after the isolation and uncertainty of a global pandemic, patrons can look forward to a vibrant 2022 season.
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48 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts relies on its board of directors and volunteers to guide the programming and execute high calibre performances, year after year, even during and post-pandemic. The festival’s success is always worth celebrating.
Photographs: Huntsville Festival of the Arts Archive
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Article by Jack Hutton
Century-old signatures decorate a large slab of granite, now on display at Bala falls.
to be situated. By morning, history halted construction. As Jean-Marie Gagné, the site supervisor, began his day, he thought he could see outlines below the heavy mud and soil crust on the granite ridge. Acting on his hunch, Gagné used the handle of a broom to chip away at the grime. His heart almost missed a beat when he saw “1888” chiselled into the rock.
By noon Gagné had uncovered two sideby-side inscriptions. Under 1888 were two signatures, HIRAM DEPUY and G.V. WILLSON , followed by PITTSBURG US. At the right were two names: W.A.T. AND G.G. BIRRELL, AUG 1919, followed by LONDON ONT. The discovery was a shock for Swift River, recalls Nhung Nguyen, a vice-president of the company. Halting construction due to century-
Photograph: Andy Zeltkalns
S
everal voices from the past were heard when a granite ridge overlooking the Moon River in Bala was exposed in November 2017. Overnight, heavy equipment had been used to uncover the bedrock where the foundations for Swift River Energy’s new hydroelectric plant was
Photograph: Jack Hutton Photograph: Andy Zeltkalns
Gordon, who had also served overseas, for a brief stay in early August. Both were electricians with the City of London’s Hydro unit. This was not the only inscription W.A.T. Birrell had left in Bala during his 1919 visit. He also chiselled his name on the United Church side of the North Bala Falls. For years, local historians had wondered who W.A.T. Birrell was. However, no connections were made until 2017, when the newly Walker Birrell left his signature in rock on the unearthed signatures noted that Walker was United Church side of the Bala falls (top photo) from London, Ontario. before adding his and his brother’s name to an With this new information, Pam Wong inscription left by members of the Pittsburgh Rod made a connection with the Birrell family – & Gun Club in 1888 (middle). Jean-Marie Gagné Robin M. Birrell who lives in Waco, Texas. (bottom), site supervisor for Swift River Energy Robin, the self-proclaimed family historian, Ltd., unearthed the side-by-side inscriptions from is married to the grandson of Chester Birrell, 1888 and 1919 in November 2017.
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 51
Photograph: Jack Hutton
old rock signatures was definitely not in the plans. Nguyen had no doubts the signatures had to be preserved after a lengthy phone conversation with Gunta Towsley, president of the local branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Just before Christmas, Nguyen announced that a construction team led by Alan Labonté had successfully removed the block of granite with the signatures unharmed. Meanwhile, a small group of individuals involved with Muskoka history and heritage were diligently combing records to find out who the individuals were behind the signatures. Liz Lundell, founding president of the Muskoka branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and author of several books on Muskoka history, connected two of the signatures to an archival photo of the Pittsburgh Rod and Gun Club. The club visited the North Falls of Bala in 1888, camping in large tents. Lundell also found online an 1887 issue of American Angler Magazine which reported that the Pittsburgh club made a similar visit to a small freshwater lake in upper Michigan State, just south of Sault Ste. Marie, that year. Hiram DePuy, a Pittsburgh dentist who would leave his signature at Bala a year later, caught three black bass, according to the magazine. Meanwhile, Pam Wong, a Bala area cottager, Muskoka historian and artist, was able to identify G.V. (George) Willson as general manager of a Pittsburgh steel plant. Lundell further researched other roles that Willson held in the steel industry. George Willson was still a prominent figure in the Pittsburgh steel industry in 1909 when he died at 55. Hiram DePuy left dentistry in his later years to become the horticulturist for the Tacoma Parks Board in Washington State. He was also the creator of several new hybrid roses. So, who were W.A.T and Gordon Birrell who added their signatures in 1919? One day after Swift River discovered the signatures, a Toronto genealogist, Jeff Stewart, told Bala’s Museum that W.A.T. (Walker) Birrell was a 19-year Canadian soldier who had just returned from service on a troop ship in late May or early June. He came to Bala with his slightly older brother
Photograph: Andy Zeltkalns
Nhung Nguyen (left), vice-president of Swift River Energy Ltd. showcases the rock signatures that paused construction at the new hydroelectric plant, along with Laura Carter, a member of the Municipal Heritage Committee, Jack Hutton, Bala historian and Liz Lundell, Muskoka representative of Architectural Conservancy Ontario.
52 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
about friends dying on the battlefield. As a dispatch rider, he was never in a battle but risked his life each day, all the same. Often he was not far from enemy forces and was
Photograph: Birrell Family Photo Collection
a younger brother of Walker Birrell. She graciously shared wartime photos that included 18-year-old Walker in uniform, as well as Walker with his brother Gordon, both in uniform, and an unidentified Canadian nurse standing between them. Further discoveries came from discussions with a longtime cottager at Torrance, Donna House, who is related to the Birrell family through her late husband’s mother. She revealed that Walker and his brother Gordon were both motorcycle dispatch riders for the Canadian Army during World War I. She also shared that a half-sister, Della, 12 years older than Walker, served as a Nursing Sister. The unidentified nurse from Robin Birrell’s photo now had an identity – Della. Walker and his brother arrived in Europe in 1917 in time for some of the war’s bloodiest battles. They were involved in action somewhere not far from the Battle of Amiens in northern France, where Canadian forces were the first to break through German lines before dawn on August 8, 1918. This battle signalled the beginning of the 100 Days Offensive that concluded with the Armistice on November 11, 1918. Canadians helped win a series of battles but at a heavy cost. Walker would have heard almost every day
Walker Birrell left his name twice, chiselled into granite, when he visited Bala with his brother in 1919, shortly after his return from serving in World War I.
expected to burn or swallow top secret messages if he faced capture. Totally on his own, he carried two cans of gasoline and a tool kit with a replacement for every part on his motorcycle. If the enemy appeared Walker was expected to carry on his delivery through the woods, no matter how difficult the terrain was. However, he did continue to make use of his wartime experiences once he was home. For several years after World War I Walker and Gordon Birrell drew big audiences as they did motorcycle stunt riding at London’s Western Fair. Understanding Walker’s dangerous wartime role, it’s easier to appreciate why he wanted to tell the world that he was still alive. Just days before the first anniversary of the Battle of Amiens, he brought a rock chisel and mallet with him to Bala, plus a smaller chisel with a rounded point for the periods. He sat down on the granite rock on the church side of the Bala Falls on August 1, 1919 and would have spent most of the day leaving his message in the rock. A day or so later, Walker chiselled his name and Gordon’s on the other side of the falls beside the 1888 signatures. In the early 1960s, highway construction caused tons of earth to be pushed down the
Photograph: Birrell Family Photo Collection
Walker Birrell (right), his brother, Gordon (left), and their older half-sister, Della, all served with the Canadian Army in World War I. Della out-ranked her half brothers as Nursing Sisters were equivalent to full lieutenants. banks, towards the river, covering the granite slabs. The signatures remained entombed until 2017. Drive through Bala today and you will see a large granite rock the size of a small car beside a new hydro plant. A closer look reveals the signatures from 1888 and 1919. The large block of Precambrian Shield, almost as old as the planet, was severed from the ridge below the falls in an operation almost as delicate as human brain surgery. Today, it is finally on display. The rock’s prominent location in Bala is thanks to the municipal Heritage Committee, which is headed by respected Port Carling historian Susan Daglish. She and the committee were closely involved in preparing the rock and selecting its location for display. These signatures and their stories have now become part of Bala history. The display is an
honorarium to those who made the carvings, as well as those who found them. Without Jean-Marie Gagné’s eagle vision on that November morning in 2017, the rock signatures would never have been discovered. The inscriptions are simple, yet enduring reminders of the visitors to Bala in 1888 and 1919. The more than century-old signatures have become difficult to read. However, their story can now be shared based on two years of research and interviews with family members. Hiram Depuy and George Willson, who left their signatures behind in 1888, and Walker and Gordon Birrell who added theirs 30 years later in 1919 might be amazed to know that their rock calligraphy has become the most exciting archeological find in Bala’s history. Voices from the past are speaking through those signatures.
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 53
POWER GENERATION Photograph: Gary Long Collection
ACCELERATED MUSKOKA’S PROGRESS Ontario Hydro’s expansion of the South Falls generating station, completed by 1925, remains intact a century on. At the top of the South Falls Gorge, concrete barriers along Highway 11 block views of Muskoka’s largest power station, and what might have once been Muskoka’s greatest natural attraction.
O
n February 16, 1848, 26-year-old Robert Bell, who’d led his survey crew for a gruelling half-year from Renfrew to the centre of Muskoka, explored the north branch and declared “the river affords water power of the first order.” A halfdecade later, but during summer, 43-year-old Alexander Murray, exploring Muskoka for the Geological Survey of Canada, recorded “the river affords every facility for using water power in a great many places.” By the 1860s, when Muskoka opened for development, new arrivals brought ancient waterwheel technology with them. Soon after, the District’s many waterfalls and rapids were being tapped to produce mechanical power. Water flowing downstream caused the waterwheel to turn and – with driveshafts, belts, and gears – drive machinery. These mills benefitted from “free” fuel – no need to
54 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
Article by J. Patrick Boyer burn wood or coal, just direct some of the plummeting river into a millrace to spin the waterwheel. In Muskoka, where generally a good drop could be obtained at the numerous falls, powerful mills used “overshot” waterwheels. The water, feeding in at the top, filled buckets on the wheel’s perimeter and this weight caused the wheel to spin. Far less efficient was the “undershot” wheel, occasionally used where only slower water was available, turning like a steamboat paddlewheel as flowing water pushed against the paddles. The mills beside Muskoka’s waterfalls began to rotate saw blades slicing logs into lumber or to turn grindstones making flour and oatmeal from field crops. While lumbermen delivered their logs and farmers brought their grain to these sawmills and gristmills, other mills manufactured shingles from wood, cloth from sheep’s wool, cheese from milk.
Around the mills other businesses sprang up selling goods and services to Muskoka’s homesteading pioneers, and soon riverside villages clustering around mills dotted the district’s landscape. Impassable falls at Bala and Bracebridge further underpinned their local economies – making them transhipment centres for passengers and freight, while offering appealing scenery for tourists. Yet the Canadian Shield’s rugged watershed distributed its blessings unevenly. Flat Gravenhurst had no large waterfall, and even hilly Huntsville faced a similar conundrum, despite both having plenty of water nearby. However, this was also the Steam Era. Steam engines burning wood or coal boiled water into steam whose pressure generated mechanical power and propulsion. Steam engines made waterfalls unnecessary for places like Gravenhurst or Huntsville. Indeed, versatile steam power meant mills
Photograph: Ontario Hydro
Photograph: Ontario Archives
could even operate away from falls, deeper in Muskoka’s forests, closer to the logs, extending the scope of the District’s numerous wood industries. Both towns, adrift in sawdust and off-cut lumber from their steam-powered sawmills, used by-product as fuel, as well as low-cost cordwood, and had ample power – at least while the district’s lumbering boom lasted. Steam boats on Muskoka waters, from the early 1870s, pulled log booms, moved freight and construction materials, carried passengers, and delivered mail. Muskoka’s development became Exhibit A of the Steam Era’s revolutionary impact. Automobiles of the 1800s showed just how much the Industrial Revolution was surging with new technologies. “Horseless’’ carriages were propelled by steam, others by internal combustion engines, and some with battery-produced electricity. For a century, experimenters sought to make electricity, which had many sources, an alternative to steam. Benjamin Franklin and Nikola Tesla sought to tap the immense supply of it from stormy heavens. Those unwilling to risk lightning turned to various forms of pile batteries. Others sought to modify waterwheel power, producing electricity using a rotating millwheel linked to a generator that converted the mechanical energy
This 1904 view of the lower Bracebridge Falls generating station shows the “penstock” or water pipeline running from the top of the falls to the generator that it supplied at the foot of the falls. In 1906 a second penstock was added. into electricity. An initial problem using this power for lights was inability to regulate water flow powering the generator. If too fast and high, lights would burn out. Short circuiting was frequent. However, Thomas Edison’s perfection of the incandescent light bulb in 1880 rapidly changed all that by creating huge demand for electric lighting. This tipping point for electricity ignited a high-stakes race for the best means of generating it. Entertainment was out; enterprise was in. Millions of dollars were at stake. Within two years, in 1882, the world’s first hydro-electric station opened on the Fox River in Wisconsin. Just a decade later, a water-power station was also producing electricity in Bracebridge. The great advance with “hydro” electricity was water now passed through hydraulic turbines. A shaft from the turbine connected to the generator. This innovation rapidly replaced the traditional waterwheel as the means of converting water power to mechanical power – Muskoka’s universal pattern from the 1850s to 1880s. Not only were turbines smaller, faster, and more powerful than waterwheels, but by operating completely submerged they could function
By May 1924, after the Great War ended, Ontario Hydro completely rebuilt the facility at South Falls to extract its full power potential. As shown, construction was underway during spring in Muskoka, as testified by water flowing down the log chute.
in winter without ice buildup. With this accomplished, the electrical revolution next began applying science and engineering to upgraded generator design, transmission technology, and more powerful electric motors. In this dawning of the Electric Age, which Thomas Edison’s light bulb did so much to spark, transmission of electricity became a particular battlefront. Edison’s patented “direct current” system was unsuited to transmit “juice” over long distances, but Nikola Tesla’s rival “alternating current” system for electricity meant it could travel far with little degradation. Eventually AC triumphed over DC as Tesla and George Westinghouse supplied it to ever wider markets over increasingly better long-distance transmission lines. And on the other fronts, larger generators were being engineered to supply growing demand for electricity to power the higher capacity electric motors. The first hydro-electric generating stations in Muskoka, as everywhere else, were built by either private companies (pulp and paper mills, leather tanneries) for their own industrial use, or by privately-owned businesses selling power to their customers. The pattern was ground-up, small-to-larger, with local control. Government was not in the picture. In 1890, Bracebridge council began dealing
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 55
Photograph: George H. Johnson Collection
By 1900, Sydney-Smith’s mill at Port Sydney was prosperous, evidenced by the expansion of the operation. The expanded complex housed not only the sawmill with a jack-ladder to carry in logs, but also a combination grist-mill for both flour and oatmeal milling.
William Sutherland Shaw appeared on the scene. For generations the Shaw Family had tanned leather in Maine and was now expanding into Canada with tanneries in Bracebridge and Huntsville. In the early 1890s Shaw built small generating stations in both towns to power their sprawling plants. The one in Bracebridge was a 60-kilowatt generating station at the top of the falls, beside Henry Bird’s woollen mill. (W.S.
Photograph: Ontario Hydro
with the Ball Electric Light Co. to build a power plant. The mighty Bracebridge Falls had been powering mills for three decades, and now with the miraculous light bulb, council decided to replace its kerosene street lamps with electric ones. Ratepayers voted with strong approval for the cost of this public work. But Ball Electric failed to perform; the Town sued for breach of contract. At this point of extreme frustration,
By May 1924, after the Great War ended, Ontario Hydro completely rebuilt the facility at South Falls to extract its full power potential. As shown, construction was underway during spring in Muskoka, as testified by water flowing down the log chute. 56 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
Shaw should not be confused with his cousin, Charles Orlando Shaw, who came to Muskoka from the U.S. in 1898 to take firmer charge of their two “Anglo-Canadian” tanneries.) Both towns contracted Shaw to supply electricity from his generator for their streetlights. In Bracebridge, this was only until council could secure its own power plant. Ball Electric had already failed in this project and, with no satisfactory bids tendered for its new generating station by 1884, council instead, again with ratepayer approval at the ballot box, simply purchased Shaw’s power plant for $3,500. In “nationalizing” a privately owned power company and making it a public utility, Bracebridge was in the vanguard. Along with two other Ontario municipalities, Thorold and Campbellford, Muskoka’s capital town had its own hydro plant to serve local needs. The very next year, to supply all the electricity it required, Bracebridge confidently installed a new turbine and larger capacity generator in its power station. It wasn’t until 1914 that the province’s publicly-owned electricity utility, Ontario Hydro, began controversially buying up existing private power companies to help meet public demand for low-cost electricity. Meanwhile, with more powerful electric motors being installed, industrialization and modernization in Muskoka accelerated. To keep attracting more industries to town, Bracebridge Council not only brandished the expected tax concessions, but sweetened
Photograph: Mervyn “Bill” Kelly Collection
Sawmills, like this one built by W.H. Brown above the Baysville dam on the Muskoka River’s south branch in 1873, benefitted from “free” fuel by directing some of the plummeting river into a millrace to spin the waterwheel. established reality. Attentive development of the Muskoka Falls site with appropriate dining facilities, spa, accommodation, and excursions could be for Muskoka what the Niagara Falls were to New York State and the Niagara Peninsula – a powerful tourist magnet. Gravenhurst’s intent to harness majestic South Falls with a generating plant rekindled intertown rivalry with Bracebridge and, for a half-decade, the two towns fought over development rights. In 1906 Gravenhurst changed course, opting for a lower-cost plant on smaller upstream Trethewey Falls, leaving Muskoka’s greatest geographic feature in its natural state, essentially for financial reasons. Then Gravenhurst reversed gear and resumed competing with Bracebridge for the South Falls power lease. Bracebridge refused a compromise jointdevelopment in light of its own projected electricity needs. Now it was Bracebridge that seemed more interested in electricity
Photograph: Mervyn “Bill” Kelly Collection
matters by offering plentiful supplies of lowcost electricity. Yet with electric power accelerating Muskoka’s economic development, effect became cause: still more power was needed. As the promising new 20th century began, Bracebridge’s next project at the falls epitomized townsfolks’ resolute faith in “Progress.” A second powerhouse was built at the foot of the falls to harness their full force. The entire drop – 35 feet (10.7 metres) below the Bird mill tailrace and the original powerhouse – now fed two generators. The first, with 250 kilowatt capacity, came into service in 1902; the second, rated at 300 kilowatts, in 1906. Those running Bracebridge, visionary about laying foundations for long-term prosperity, also remained mindful of their municipality’s economic dependence on tourists. The second powerhouse, still one of the oldest operating power plants in Canada, was built as a handsome stone structure, endowing Bracebridge Bay with a measure of class enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of summer visitors arriving for decades aboard steamships. Understandably, steam-powered Gravenhurst and Huntsville sought to join the Electrical Revolution and enter the 20th Century, too. In 1900, Gravenhurst began searching for hydro-electricity to replace its costly fuel-burning steam generators of limited capacity. The Muskoka Falls, also known as South Falls, were very close to Bracebridge. As the most dramatic waterfalls in all of Muskoka, their potential to become an outstanding tourist draw was real. By this date the District’s vital vacation economy was an
than scenic splendour. The province gave the rights to Gravenhurst and in 1907 the town built a tiny red-brick, 360-kilowatt generating station at the foot of South Falls, flowing river water for its turbine down through a 1,000 foot (305 metre) pipe. Bracebridge, annoyed that only a tiny fraction of the fall’s power potential had been tapped, and worse, by another municipality, immediately acquired upstream rights on the Muskoka River’s north branch for both Wilson’s Falls and High Falls. On the first, it built a 600-kilowatt plant for $52,000 in 1910 and brought its electricity on stream to supply Bracebridge’s soaring power demands from expanding industry. Huntsville’s impatience to advance beyond its inadequate steam-generated electricity was compounded, as Gravenhurst’s had been, by having no waterfalls within town limits. By 1908 engineers had canvassed every prospect, from the Oxtongue River’s Ragged Falls at the east to the Muskoka River’s High Falls down south. Bracebridge, gaining the High Falls’ rights after being denied South Falls, intended that power for its own needs. Another Huntsville plan, to divert water from Lake of Bays into Peninsula Lake and generate power at the Portage, was vigorously opposed by all concerned and prohibited by the Government of Canada on the grounds the diversion would adversely
In 1918, a second dam built of stone replaced the early 1870s wood dam. W.H. Brown’s sawmill, seen here from below the dam, is still in service, sawing logs – such as those in the bay and jammed at the foot of the dam – into lumber. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 57
Photograph: Mervyn “Bill” Kelly Collection
Prospering Baysville’s townsite, seen here in 1890 from the east side of the Muskoka River’s south branch, shows the grist mill (on the left, beside the dam) William Gammage built in 1877 to grind corn, wheat, and oats for homesteading farmers.
Photograph: Gary Long Collection
impact navigable waters. Burgess built this power Huntsville then imagined station on the millstream buying hydro-electricity from where, decades earlier, his Gravenhurst’s wee generating father Thomas had built the station at South Falls, but water-powered sawmill that protracted negotiations first launched Bala as a between the towns stalemated. settlement. Now other Ontario Hydro, asserting communities in the vicinity, jurisdiction, took charge. mirroring what happened in “It was becoming increasingly Gravenhurst and Huntsville clear,” explains geographic when Bracebridge developed historian Gary Long, leading its own hydro-electricity, authority on the subject, “that wanted to enlist in Bala’s South Falls held the key to march of progress. Bala When Bracebridge, outflanked by Gravenhurst and the provincial meeting the future electricity Electric Light and Power government, was unable to develop electricity from South Falls, needs not only of Huntsville Company, the Burgess it promptly acquired rights on the north branch and built this but, because of its enormous company, ran transmission generating station at Wilson’s Falls in 1910. power potential, all Muskoka.” lines to MacTier and Port But Hydro was busy elsewhere. Huntsville’s its obligations to Hydro. The provincial Carling. In 1922, Bala Electric Light installed frustration grew as its dependence on steam- utility revamped South Falls generation to a second generator, needed to meet everyone’s power continued. supply enough power for both Gravenhurst rising demands for clean, inexpensive power. “Finally,” reports Long, “the situation and Huntsville. By 1916, along a 26-mile Without the interconnected power service came to a head in 1915. Ontario Hydro (42-kilometre) transmission line, electricity that would come later in the 20th century signed a contract with Huntsville to supply began flowing to Huntsville at last. with Ontario Hydro’s province-wide the town with hydro-electricity within 18 In 1917 at Bala, which like Bracebridge electricity grid, small hydro-electric plants in months.” Gravenhurst, with the South Falls developed around waterfalls, the Burgess Muskoka meant all the difference between rights but heavily in debt from its power family built a 100-kilowatt generating plant stagnation and progress. Muskokans, as the plant, was relieved to turn over its “asset” and to create electricity from the falls. Alexander historical record shows, chose progress.
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Whats Happened Gravenhurst Council heard recently that a number of potential changes are being considered for the operation of Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve and Dark Sky Preserve. The area includes sections of Crown Land as well as property which falls within the borders of both the Town of Gravenhurst and the Township of Muskoka Lakes. It is the location of the first dark sky preserve in Canada and is also notable for its unique geological and environmental features. Mike Nageleisen, who represents the Torrance Barrens Working Group, spoke Torrance is the Barrens location of the first dark sky preserve in Canada and is also notable for its during a recent Gravenhurst committee of unique geological and environmental features. the whole meeting and explained that the park is being “loved to death”. large parties, which coincide with overnight so that large vehicles cannot drive through Nageleisen discussed some of the the Barrens and engage in large parties. camping in the park. He said those parties possible recommendations that the working often, in turn, lead to those other concerns Another concern that the working group group is considering. He also solicited is dealing with is parking, specifically along such as fire and noise. information and input from Gravenhurst the Southwood Road area. Last year some The group is proposing and looking at council. He told Council that the working parking restrictions and associated signage maps, in detail, to restrict camping to group is composed of representatives from were constructed, and the group reported designated areas that would make it much both Gravenhurst and Muskoka Lakes, as to council that the situation has improved easier for the Ministry to manage and well as government agencies and concerned somewhat. enforce camping regulations, he said. residents. Nageleisen summarized by saying, “I “It would be more of a permit-typed He told councillors that many concerns camping, similar to what you might see in a think we might have a park that encourages have been raised. Those concerns range day hiking on well-maintained and signed provincial park,” Nageleisen explained. The from the risks of uncontrolled fires and trails and backcountry camping sites for the process is underway, but the designation increases in people dumping garbage, to people who are really going there in the and location of those sites has not been noise control and overuse for camping. spirit of enjoying nature and leaving no finalized for recommendation. Nageleisen said one significant concern is Backcountry camping will be encouraged footprint as opposed to what is currently happening.”
Safe and Quiet Lakes works collaboratively with lake community stakeholders to promote safer and quieter lakes. 60 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
Photograph: Pixabay
Survey indicates growing concerns with boat noise and wakes Muskoka residents are becoming increasingly concerned with boating safety and increased noise levels throughout the region. That’s the message from Safe and Quiet Lakes, a group formed in 2011 by
Photograph: Matt Driscoll
Significant changes contemplated for Torrance Barrens
don’t exceed noise-emission levels. The considerations listed by Transport Canada include: • Proposed changes would make sure that new and existing vessels don’t exceed noise-emission levels • Police could more easily identify whether a vessel complies with the regulations • Police would need to buy equipment to measure noise levels and train officers on how to use it • Vessel operators who comply with the current regulations may need to modify their vessels to meet new requirements Councillor Barb Bridgeman said she has already received complaints about new boats on the lake that are way above the allowable noise level. She said voting for the motion would be a strong show of support for organizations like Safe Quiet Lakes and the Decibel Coalition. Councillor Peter Kelly said one of the major problems was people blasting music from their watercraft and he questioned whether the new rules would apply to stereo systems. Councillor Bridgeman said the
restrictions would not apply to stereo systems but would apply to personal watercraft.
Northland passenger train set for return to Muskoka The Ontario government recently announced that it plans to invest $75 million to bring passenger rail service back to northeastern Ontario, including service through Muskoka. Ontario Northland passenger service was cancelled in 2012. The province released an updated initial business case that outlines options for passenger rail service from Toronto to Timmins. Future feasibility work on a preferred route will include a new rail connection to Cochrane, which will provide a connection to the Polar Bear Express service to Moosonee. The planned return to service will not happen until some time in the middle of this decade, and will be based on seasonal travel demands. Seven-day-a-week service is proposed for the peak season of July to December, dropping to four days per week
Photograph: Government of Ontario
representatives of lake associations in central Ontario to work collaboratively with lake community stakeholders to promote safer and quieter lakes. Speaking during a recent Gravenhurst council meeting Colleen Kennedy, a director from the Safe and Quiet Lakes organization, discussed the results of a 2021 study they conducted. That study included more than 6,000 respondents and resulted in a 72-page report. Kennedy said the number one message that came across was that noise and traffic are increasing and the quality of the lake experience is decreasing as safety also declines. She said those frustrations led many respondents to express a desire for stronger interventions. Kennedy said that more than 90 percent of respondents said they feel like they have a responsibility to preserve the natural state of the lake for future generations. Safe and Quiet Lakes have previously conducted surveys in 2013 and 2017. Kennedy said compared to those surveys, noise and behaviour complaints have increased significantly. She also pointed out that the largest source of those complaints was due to personal watercraft - which only account for an estimated five percent of the watercraft on the lakes, she said. Kennedy finished by urging Council to join the Decibel Coalition, which currently has over 65 member associations including the Town of Bracebridge, the Township of Seguin and the Township of Muskoka Lakes. “We want reasonable standards that are consistent with the U.S. and European Union and that are easy to enforce,” she said. Meanwhile, in Muskoka Lakes, Safe Quiet Lakes was encouraging councillors to contact Transport Canada, who are currently collecting submissions via their Let’s Talk website on vessel engine noise emissions. Council voted unanimously to support option five of the various options listed on the government website. Option five would update the Small Vessel Regulations so both manufacturers and operators must make sure their vessels
Ontario Northland passenger service was cancelled in 2012 but a recent announcement from the government of Ontario plans to restore the service to Muskoka. June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 61
from January to June. According to the business plan, southbound service would travel through Muskoka in between 7:50 and 8:40 a.m. and arrive at Union Station at about 11 a.m., while northbound service would leave Union station at 6:30 p.m. and pass through Muskoka between 8:35 and 9:45 p.m. The proposed service would stop at the following locations: Toronto, Langstaff, Gormley, Washago, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, South River, North Bay, Temagami, Temiskaming Shores (New Liskeard), Englehart, Kirkland Lake, Matheson, and Timmins or Cochrane.
Muskoka councils debate floating accommodations
Huntsville general committee before asking the Ministry to allow them to provide their input if the Ministry decides to legislate floating accommodations. Lake of Bays Council also debated the issue before agreeing to forward on a number of recommendations to the Ministry. Among those recommendations was that all vessel gray water should be discharged into a holding tank and disposed of as per provincial regulations, floating accommodations require permits from the Ministry which will, in turn, require consent from the local municipality, and a reduction in the maximum duration of a stay from 21 days down to seven. Lake of Bays Mayor Terry Glover said he was shocked to learn that watercraft are allowed to discharge gray water into the lakes. He also had serious concerns with the potential for noise violations, as well as the fact that such floating accommodations do not pay taxes.
Muskoka musician debuts Let There be Peace
Photograph: Michael Lauer
The Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is engaging the public for ideas and approaches to manage the use of floating accommodations on the water. During the latest Muskoka Lakes Planning Committee meeting, Muskoka Lakes councillors voted to send a message to the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines Natural Resources and Forestry asking that floating accommodations be prohibited across the province. The move comes in response to a request
from the Ministry sent in March looking for engagement from municipalities on the subject. The Ministry says there has been increased use of public waterways by floating accommodations, or what they term “camping”. The Ministry says the “camping” typically involves watercraft equipped for overnight accommodation, and in some cases vessels that are primarily designed for accommodation and not navigation. Muskoka Lakes staff told councillors that “camping” doesn’t appear to be an overly common practice in the Township or a very pressing concern right now. However, staff also said they have heard some concerns from waterfront property owners who might take issue with property owners using a houseboat or some other kind of floating accommodation in the waterway on which their recreational properties face. Staff said the concerns are typically related to navigation, negative impact on waterfront views and character, and potential environmental impacts from a sewage spill. Staff indicated they share those concerns, and recommended that floating accommodations be prohibited. The committee agreed and the input was sent to the Ministry. In north Muskoka councillors also debated the subject earlier in the spring at
At a recent Muskoka Lakes Planning Committee meeting, councillors voted to request that floating accommodations be prohibited across the province by the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines Natural Resources and Forestry. 62 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
A Muskoka-based musician’s debut release appears to be a track perfectly timed to spread hope in challenging times. Bodeen is a singer-songwriter from the Toronto area who is currently living in Muskoka and in April she released her debut song Let There Be Peace. “It is an extremely timely piece of music due to there being so much hate and war in the world right now,” she says. “It touches on social issues like disease (COVID19), police brutality and hatred within mankind.” Bodeen was born and raised in Toronto and spent the majority of her life in the Beaches, leaving Toronto after high school for London to get her sociology degree at Western University. It was in London where she created a name (and alter ego Bodeen) for herself before relocating to Muskoka. She says that creating the artist name and image for Bodeen meant she could step into the light and be who she wanted to be, without her past getting in the way. The drive to make music began when Bodeen asked for a guitar at the age of nine. That Christmas her wish was answered and
INTRODUCING
APPAREL
Photograph: James Ellis
help achieve their goals in the next general election. In April he released a plan called YIMBY: A Plan To Build More Homes for Canadians. In it he called for federal, provincial, and municipal governments to work together to end exclusionary zoning in big cities, get shovels in the ground faster and Bodeen is a 26-year-old singer-songwriter from the Toronto area who is expand skilled trades, currently living in Muskoka. In April she released her debut song Let invest in affordable and There Be Peace, which is available on all platforms. social housing and by the age of 10 she was taking classes for crack down on money laundering. both guitar and singing. By the time middle “We got housing built when I was mayor school and high school rolled around in Huntsville with a common-sense Bodeen had a long list of original material approach to planning,” said Aitchison. “We she created. set clear rules and incentives for builders, Fast forward to today, the 26-year-old and it’s the kind of leadership we need in artist is writing, recording and releasing Ottawa to solve the housing crisis.” music on all platforms. Aitchison was elected as an MP in 2019. You can find out more and listen to Let While in the federal office he has served as There Be Peace at bodeen.ca. the Conservative’s labour critic. Aitchison joins a crowded field of candidates that includes former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, Pierre Poilievre and Patrick Brown, the current Mayor of Brampton. Local Member of Parliament for Feature by Matt Driscoll Muskoka - Parry Sound, and former mayor of Huntsville, Scott Aitchison has set his sights on becoming the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Aitchison made the announcement via Twitter on March 16, and followed it up with an official opening ceremony on March 21 at the Canvas Brewing Company in Huntsville. The Huntsville launch party was attended by roughly 100 people including former Huntsville and District Councillor, Fran Coleman and Eric Melillo, the Conservative MP for the Kenora riding. Aitchison says the country is facing a serious crisis that includes uncertainty about climate change, a housing crisis and a failing Scott Aitchison, first elected as an MP in 2019, healthcare system, among other things. He has announced he will run for leadership of the said that partisan bickering won’t get anyone Conservative Party of Canada. His announcement the results they desire and strong leadership included his intention to focus on affordable housing and reducing barriers to development. is needed within the Conservative Party to
Photograph: Scott Aitchison
Scott Aitchison running for Conservative leadership
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Asparagus – nutritious, versatile and most importantly, scrumptious Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography by Tomasz Szumski It’s one of my favourite vegetables, with its rich flavour, crunchy texture and those melt-in-your-mouth tips. It’s asparagus season in Muskoka, and this delicious vegetable can be presented in many mouth-watering ways. But first it must be grown, and it can be grown in Muskoka; just ask Ken and Katya Riley of Brooklands Farm, located near Milford Bay. Ken’s great-great-grandparents, Charles and Emma Riley, moved onto the farm in 1876 and it has gone through a few reinventions. Part of Ken and Katya’s market-gardening emphasis is four 200-metre rows of asparagus, originally planted in May of 2000. As the rows are coming to the end of their natural lifespan (an asparagus planting lasts about 30 years), the Rileys no longer sell them in large amounts, but still enjoy them. There are two ways of starting an asparagus patch: rootstock or seeds. Go with rootstock if you’re in a hurry to start eating it. “You have to dig a trench at least 8 inches deep,” instructs Ken, “then add at least a couple inches of manure on the bottom, the more the better. Cover that with a little bit of soil so you don’t burn the roots, then put the roots in about a foot apart.” Cover the roots and don’t harvest for the first year to let the plants develop. If using seeds, plant them indoors in later winter in plant cells, “like any vegetable,” advises Katya. “When they get about two or three inches tall, and look like little pine trees, plant them in the garden”. Use the same trenching technique, but place the
64 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
Katya and Ken Riley share their tips for growing asparagus. With proper care, a patch will produce for up to 30 years. seedlings level with the soil surface. Wait three years before harvesting. “The roots have to develop and that takes a while,” says Katya. To maintain, cultivate between the rows annually, top-dress with manure in early spring before the spears emerge, and harvest every day, picking all spears when they’re 8-10 inches high,
starting from when they first spring up in May to mid-June. Then let them grow, which they will, into spectacular six-foot male and female plants, to maintain them year after year. The Rileys grow two varieties: Millennium (originated in Guelph) which the farm website says is Ontario’s favourite, high yielding and delicious; and Jersey Giant,
Michelle Shabatura
Ingredients
6 lbs. (bunches) fresh thicker asparagus (short asparagus is recommended as there’s less of the tough part) Enough spring water to cover the asparagus (for soaking in fridge) 2½ litres spring water 2 litres white vinegar 5 cups white sugar 2 Tbsp + 4 Tbsp coarse salt 1 small white onion, chopped Asian style (wedges) 1 large carrot, cut into strips 3 average-sized cloves of garlic, halved
For the spice blend: ¼ tsp each of Dill seed Cumin seed Coriander seed Fennel Black peppercorns ½ tsp dried parsley
Method
• Soak the asparagus overnight in just enough cold spring water with 2 Tbsp of coarse salt dissolved in it to cover the spears, refrigerated. Drain just before pickling. • Sterilize six 1-litre wide-mouthed jars. Warm lids in a bath of hot water. Add enough water to a wide pot to cover ¾ of jars when placed in after bottling.
• Combine 2½ litres of spring water, vinegar, sugar and 4 Tbsp salt, cover and bring to boil. (Stir to keep sugar from sticking to bottom.) Cover to reduce evaporation. • Place ¼ tsp of spice blend and half a clove of garlic in each jar. • Place asparagus spears, carrot strips and onion pieces in the jars: carrot and onion go on the outside for colour; spears go in tip up except the last four or five, which go in tip down for extra tightness (or the asparagus will float). • Once water mixture is boiling, pour into jars. Use a butter knife to slide between spears and shift them, to remove air. Add additional water mixture if needed to ensure all asparagus is covered (fill to mid-neck/mouth of bottle). • After making sure that the edge of each jar opening is entirely clean, screw lid on loosely. • Cook jars in boiling water bath on stove, until spices start to float up or bubbles start forming (5-7 minutes don’t overcook or asparagus will shrivel). Remove and screw lid on as tight as possible. • It is best to wait about two weeks before eating asparagus, to let the flavours permeate it.
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which has “fat large succulent spears with a sweet, nutty flavour similar to sweet peas.” Asparagus is nutritious as well as yummy. Being 93 percent water, it’s good for hydration. It’s also high in fibre, antioxidants and many vitamins and minerals, while being low in calories and carbohydrates. However, asparagus is not the longest-lasting vegetable. “If it’s fresh-cut you can keep it in the fridge for up to 10 days,” says Katya. “It freezes very well, but when you cook after defrosting, it’s best in soups and stews. You lose the crunch.” To freeze asparagus, blanch it beforehand for best results. Another way to preserve asparagus is to pickle it. Here we turn to Michelle Shabatura, owner of Farmer’s Daughter Gourmet Market and Groceries in Huntsville. Yes, she really is the daughter of a farmer, having grown up near Waterford.
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After much trial and error, Michelle Shabatura and her mother perfected the art of pickling asparagus. Her tip? Follow the instructions very carefully to avoid mushy asparagus.
Matthew Hodgman, lead cook at the Muskoka North Good Food Co-op and its eatery, Uproot, in Huntsville, shares a specially created spring carbonara, featuring crisp asparagus. “After I quit my corporate job, I went back to my family’s farm,” says Shabatura. “That year I grew five acres of pesticide-free produce, certified the kitchen (as commercial), created a little eating area in the barn and did four farmer’s markets from London to Toronto.” After sales at one of the markets in Toronto burgeoned, she found retail space near the Beaches and opened the first Farmer’s Daughter. Then when the business was outgrowing the space, she was visiting her brother at his cottage on Lake of Bays when she drove past the building that was to become her current location on Hwy 60. Once inside she was gobsmacked to find a box from Shabatura Produce, showing that the previous owners had
known her family. She took this as an omen and in 2007, Farmer’s Daughter Huntsville opened. It sells all manner of fresh local produce, baked goods, cheese, charcuterie boards, gourmet meals (to go or frozen), and other goodies. She founded her Wild Daughter brand last year, leading wilderness walks, teaching about foraging, and selling only foods harvested from Muskoka
wilderness. Shabatura’s precise pickling method was developed by her mother and herself on the farm through much trial, error and bad asparagus. “There’d be a table outside and we’d pickle,” she reminisces. “You only want to make what you want to eat this year,” Shabatura advises. “Other pickles, like salsa, you can leave on the shelf for a couple of years. Asparagus, because it’s so delicate, gets mushy.” Be creative with ingredients: use apple cider vinegar for health reasons, more zingy taste and different colour. Include rhubarb for tanginess (goes well with apple cider). Add chili seeds for more spice. For a more striking presentation, add pansies, nasturtiums, daisies or other flowers, or garlic scapes for flavour. “Embrace the opportunity and
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 67
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make it your own,” Shabatura encourages. And then, there’s cooking asparagus. “Our favourite way is to steam the spears for about three minutes and savour them smothered with sour cream or butter,” says Katya Riley. Or try the same quick steaming but then grind black pepper on top; the flavour of the asparagus still comes through. Whatever the seasoning, the key rule here is: cook asparagus fast. When it becomes a darker more vivid green, it’s done. Much longer and it will turn into yellow-greyish mush that tastes like it came out of a can, and
Bring in Spring Carbonara
Matthew Hodgman, Kelli Ebbs and Jemma Schrauwen, Muskoka North Good Food Co-operative
Ingredients
1½ cup heavy Sheldon Creek cream 2 whole fresh farm eggs and 1 or more egg yolks 1/3 cup grated Thornloe hard cheese, such as Parmesan and/or Pecorino 1 lb. local fresh spring asparagus ¼ lb. Fisherfolk cooked shrimp 1 lemon 350g uncooked fresh pasta, such as fettuccine or linguine 2 local garlic cloves, sliced or 1 onion, halved (optional) 100g local bacon lardons (small strips) Freshly cracked black pepper
Method
• This dish is best prepared with most ingredients at room temperature, so begin by pulling out and portioning the eggs, cream, and grated cheese(s). • To prepare the asparagus: chop all but four fronds (spears) into bite-sized pieces. Blanche both full and chopped asparagus on high in a wide sauté pan containing very little water, which will evaporate quickly. Continue to sauté your asparagus on high until they are dark green but still have crunch – don’t overcook. Add a little olive oil if needed. Remove from heat and finish with salt and fresh-squeezed lemon. • To prepare the shrimp: defrost and sauté lightly in a little butter, finish with a squeeze of lemon juice, and set aside.
that’s a crime against asparagus. Matthew Hodgman, the lead cook at the Muskoka North Good Food Co-op and its eatery, Uproot, in Huntsville, landed in Muskoka by happenstance. Born in Caledon, he didn’t start cooking until about 10 years ago, aged 25. His move from bartending and restaurant management into cooking happened gradually at numerous different establishments including Hopgoods Foodliner in Toronto, known as one of the best restaurants in Canada,
• Set a pot of salted water to boil for the pasta, ensuring there is a generous amount of water and several handfuls of salt; it should taste like the ocean. Boil until pasta is al dente or “to the tooth”, meaning it still has some bite to it – do not overcook. (Save a cup or so of pasta water in case you need to adjust your sauce consistency.) • Coat a stainless steel pot with a splash of water then add cream and gently bring up the temperature. This dish rarely calls for onions or garlic, but we find the best way to incorporate these alliums is by scalding them with the cream. Allow to simmer, not boil, until you’ve yielded a sweet piquant flavour. • Bacon crisps up nicely from cold, so cube or slice it and immediately sauté in a large skillet until you have a crispy, chewy consistency. Adding a tablespoon of water will assist in rendering more fat from the meat, so feel free to pull some from the boiling pasta pot and sauté until it has evaporated. Alternatively, you can add some olive oil to stretch your fat if your pork is lean. • Remove and discard the alliums or pour cream through a sieve into the pan with the bacon and reduce the cream gently for a few minutes until it thickens slightly. • While the cream is reducing, beat egg and grated cheese together to a consistent mixture. • Add warm pasta to the pan with cream and bacon. • Add egg and cheese mixture. • Add chopped asparagus and shrimp, folding pasta over itself consistently on low heat until the eggs begin to
and the Hearth & Garden in Toronto’s historic Campbell House, owned by TV personality David Vallee. Feeling a pull to return to his roots – “I got the bug for farm-style cooking” – Hodgman left the big city for Grey-Bruce County, where he began learning to make bread and cheese. “I tried to move to Germany to learn more breadmaking when the pandemic hit,” he says, “then met a girl.” Homeless, he followed her to Muskoka and began working for a restaurateur we’ve featured here more than once before: David Friesen. It was another young lady Hodgman
thicken and the cheese begins to melt. Finish doing so off the heat so as not to overcook or break your sauce (transform it into liquid plus solid bits). Add a splash of pasta water if you desire a looser consistency. • Finish with parsley and fresh cracked pepper (essential!) • Twist the pasta to a high profile on the plate, and artistically arrange the full asparagus fronds on the pasta tower. Enjoy! Serves two. Wine pairing: “something sharp and steely and bright to cut the fat,” Hodgman recommends, e.g. a Pinot Gris, Viognier or Chablis.
Lead Cook’s Tips:
• A splash of cold water can reconstitute a broken sauce. • Vegetarian version: substitute butter for bacon. • On the art of food as visual art: “There’s colour theory involved in cooking.”
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 69
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stuck around for, however: Jemma Schrauwen, who, as you might recall from last year’s article on pickling, works at the Co-op. Hodgman joined the Co-op in December 2020. “It seemed like the best and most logical place for me to be,” he says. “It was honest, earnest, roots, the type of cooking which I think is most important.” Now, he also cooks discounted meals for local seniors as part of the Co-op’s “Nourishing Seniors” program. He served up 800 such servings in April. “I love cooking because it’s a perfect blend of art and science,” Hodgman grins. “It lets me flex both of those muscles.” Created specially for Cottage Country Cuisine by Hodgman, Co-op general manager Kelli Ebbs and Schrauwen, the Co-op’s offering for this issue builds from the traditional simple Italian dish Carbonara, which combines pasta, pork fat, coddled eggs, pecorino or another hard cheese, and black pepper. The acceptability of adding cream is hotly disputed, since, as Hodgman notes: “the carbonari -- charcoal men – whose work in the mountains of Italy necessitated this dish likely wouldn’t have been lugging much dairy with them.” This version includes a rich, high-fat cream the Co-op regularly has in stock, and also departs from the tradition in including not only egg yolks but some whites for consistency purposes, and other interesting ingredients including asparagus. “We wanted to showcase some of our local fresh ingredients,” Hodgman says. “Good pasta, good eggs, good cream.” The asparagus comes from a source north of Huntsville; the shrimp hails from Nova Scotia. The bacon is smoked in-house, which gives the whole dish a delicious smokiness that blends brilliantly with the cheese. In Hodgman’s version, the pasta used is linguine and the cheese, parmesan. The asparagus is crispy and has a lovely lemony tang, foiling the shrimp nicely. Over-salting a carbonara is easy but that doesn’t happen at all here, nor is it too sweet. Texture is crucial in this dish: it could all end up homogenous mush, but Hodgman’s touch for al dente makes each ingredient stand up and be counted with its particular mouthfeel helping distinguish its taste.
June 2022 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 71
Muskoka Moments
The good fortune of being Muskokan Article by George Young
72 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2022
me an increased appreciation for the lifestyle we had in Muskoka. We didn’t necessarily have much but we never wanted for anything. We enjoyed our friends and family and the many outdoor activities. We were rich in our own way and always felt safe. After 15 years of living in the Toronto area, there was a sense of anticipation as we made the decision to return to Huntsville. We had made many visits over the years but this time we were coming back to live once again. I thought back to the time when we used to swim at the locks or at my grandparents’ cottage on Peninsula Lake. I remembered how, as a teenager, I was able to rent a motorboat at Blackburn’s Marine, cross Fairy Lake, pass through the canal and then the better part of Penn Lake to get to the cottage for the day. Now, we have retraced those adventures with our own boat. The cottage still stands and the memories remain. Muskoka is changing with time. Change is not necessarily a bad thing. Huntsville and the other towns are growing, and new people are coming to make Muskoka their home. They come for a variety of reasons, but most of all to enjoy what Muskoka has to offer. For those of us who also grew up here, it’s a great place to come back to. It’s a great place to retire. It’s a place to make new memories and those too will have a special place for those of us fortunate enough to call this place home. Photograph: Kelly Hollinshead
Was it luck, or just plain good fortune? Many years ago, I was born in a home at the locks near Huntsville. There wasn’t a hospital yet and I came into this world where the view out the window was the North Muskoka River. I don’t remember anything about that day, but I had lucked out. My relationship with a beautiful area called Muskoka had begun. It would help to shape my personality and values. It would give me a lifestyle that so many in the rest of the world could only wish they had. It would offer a great quality of life in the most beautiful of natural settings in Canada. Family life on North Mary Lake Road was traditional. We made a lot of our own fun. I can still remember my first bike and a fort we made way back in the bush. We went to a two-room school which is now the Montessori School. Recess in the winter meant time to toboggan on the gullies across the road, or softball in the yard in the spring and fall. A lot has transpired since those days in the 1950s. I am still enjoying my Muskoka good fortune, but now as a mostly retired radio and TV sports reporter, politician and entrepreneur. One gets a special appreciation for what we have here when you go away, pursue your career and then come back. For me the plan was always to return. That happened in 1998 after retiring from the CBC and marrying my wife, Pat, who was also from the area. We spent about 20
years enjoying that same North Muskoka River view, just above the locks. Ironically, directly across from the house where I was born in 1944. There is a special appreciation for what we have here in Muskoka when one goes away and lives in other parts of the world. In my case, that feeling was further enhanced by considerable travel covering many international sports events. Stories told by Olympic athletes reminded me of the fun we had growing up in Huntsville, playing hockey in the winter and lacrosse in the summer. Living in Halifax, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Ottawa and Toronto, as well as some other smaller centres, while nice in their own way, didn’t measure up to what I called home. The mountains in B.C. are beautiful, but there wasn’t the abundance of lakes we have. The politics of the World Soccer Championship in Argentina in 1978 wasn’t like anything we knew. The poverty in Haiti and other Central American countries gave
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