JUNE 2023
CANINE AGILITY
Dedication and Determination
Painting the Ebb and Flow of Life
The many lives of the Muskoka Foundry
A Tale of Two Villages Turtles - Ancients on the Brink
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...telling the Muskoka story
Features
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Heritage Curators – Muskoka Heritage Place
Imagination and Exploration – Author Paige Taylor
Article by J. Patrick Boyer One of Ontario’s most extensive heritage attractions, the aptly named Muskoka Heritage Place in Huntsville, advances education, entertainment and tourism through the services, facilities and programs it provides.
Article by Kelly Goslin Photography by Josianne Masseau At just 15-years-old, Paige Taylor has written, self-published and promoted her debut novel, with enthusiastically positive response from her audience in Muskoka and beyond. Her debut, Secrets Wrought in Blood, is the beginning of a trilogy.
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Dog Agility – Celebrating the Bond
Article by Bronwyn Boyer / Photography by Tomasz Szumski Agility training is an inclusive sport for both canines and humans. The Northern Derby Agility Club brings together members of two local agility training groups to host the Ontario regionals this year.
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Serena West
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Community Science – Ancients on the Brink
Article by John Challis Keeping tabs on the well-being of turtle species at risk in Muskoka is a priority but the wetlands that make up their habitat are vast. Community science engages volunteers to work together with scientists on projects to collect data and answer real-world questions – like how to protect turtles.
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Article by Bronwyn Boyer Photography by Josianne Masseau Artist Serena West has developed a body of work that combines portraits with landscapes, tapping into the common human experience as well as connection to the environment.
Old Building, New Ideas – Muskoka Foundry
Article by Kelly Goslin / Photography by Tomasz Szumski Once known as the Dominion Linen Mill, the Muskoka Foundry in Bracebridge, like many other historic industrial buildings, has lived a multi-faceted life since its construction in 1903. Now, those memories from a bygone era have been born anew.
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A Tale of Two Villages
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Article by J. Patrick Boyer While the Port Carling of today is a reflection of the impact of first contact and the settlement that followed, the importance of Obajewanung, the Ojibwe camp on the shores of the Indian River, ranges far deeper than shared in history books.
Opinion JUNE 2023
Dedication and Determination
The many lives of the Muskoka Foundry
Painting the Ebb and Flow of Life
Our Cover
A Tale of Two Villages Turtles - Ancients on the Brink
Photography by Tomasz Szumski Freyja, canine partner of Cathy Crowder, shows off her agility training skills. Agility is a great recreational and spectator sport for people of all ages, but it’s especially meaningful for dogs.
Douglas McLean
Article by Bronwyn Boyer Photography by Josianne Masseau Douglas McLean is a true Renaissance man. He’s a sensitive soul with a powerful singing voice and the heart of a poet. He’s a business-minded mathematical genius and he’s a prolific radio personality, interviewer and writer.
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By Meghan Taylor
By Don Smith
Muskoka Insights
Muskoka Moments
Departments 54
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Article by Matt Driscoll A location on Muskoka Beach Road is considered the prime candidate for Bracebridge’s new hospital site and Muskoka welcomes its first electric vehicle (EV) show. Spin the Lakes returns, Robinson’s General Store in Dwight is again under new ownership and the Town of Bracebridge tightens up short-term rental rules.
Article by K.M. Wehrstein Photography by Tomasz Szumski A tart, tangy seasonal favourite, rhubarb takes the spotlight in the usual baked goods – pies, crumbles, tarts and danishes. And then there’s cocktails and barbecue sauce.
What’s Happened
CANINE AGILITY
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Cottage Country Cuisine
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June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 5
…telling the Muskoka story Unique Muskoka is published six times per year by Unique Publishing Inc. Meghan Taylor Publisher/Editor Donna Ansley Sales Lisa Brazier Design Susan Smith Administration Bronwyn Boyer J. Patrick Boyer John Challis Matt Driscoll Kelly Goslin Josianne Masseau Don Smith Tomasz Szumski K.M. Wehrstein Andy Zeltkalns Contributors
I N T R O D U C I N G THE K I A
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Muskoka Insights If buildings could share their own stories, Bracebridge’s Muskoka Foundry would certainly have many. New contributor Kelly Goslin recounts the building’s historic importance and influence, as well as its revitalization and rebirth as a shopping centre and event venue. Throughout this season, we’ll also explore the many forms of community science in action across the region. In this issue, John Challis highlights how the protection and conservation of the six species of turtles native to Muskoka are supported by several organizations and their dedicated community science volunteers. Bracebridge artist Serena West shares her focus on capturing feelings and memories in her artwork with regular contributor Bronwyn Boyer. Beginning as an artist who painted murals on buildings in Hamilton, West’s personal experiences and love of nature have shaped the changes in her art and fuelled her desire to give back to the community. At the age of just 15, Paige Taylor has written, self-published and promoted her debut novel, with plans to complete the series as a trilogy. While her novel is a Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, drawing on the environment around her helped shape the world of her book, which also carries a spirit of environmental awareness. From the musical journey of singer/ songwriter Douglas McLean to AAC regional dog agility championships to the many uses of rhubarb, there are features in these pages anyone can enjoy. It’s my pleasure to take on the publishing of Unique Muskoka and continue a family tradition, as well as a Muskoka one. There are so many stories still to share. Happy reading, Photograph: MacKenzie Taylor
Since I was a kid, I’ve heard the Muskoka stories. Stories shared around campfires, stories shared on the dock, stories shared in coffee shops or on restaurant patios, stories shared among family, with friends and, sometimes, with complete strangers. Some of you may not have noticed in my dad’s final column of 2022 that he used the past tense in saying he had “enjoyed” being a part of telling the Muskoka story. As I proofread the piece, I quickly noted what he was implying and since then, I’ve been learning as much as I can about publishing and the honour it is to produce this magazine. After 50 years in publishing, Don may be stepping back from Unique Muskoka, but he is far from finished sharing his own Muskoka stories. The name Muskoka brings recognition across the globe. Those of us who get to call Muskoka home know the privilege it is to do so. With that privilege comes both opportunity and responsibility; to steward the natural and historical aspects of the region while also carefully moving towards a new, inclusive Muskoka. In this issue of Unique Muskoka, local historian and regular contributor Patrick Boyer begins a new series highlighting the important work of Muskoka’s heritage curators. The District of Muskoka is the only municipality in Ontario without a formal archive. Thankfully, there are several organizations which work diligently to maintain the records and artifacts of Muskoka’s days gone by. Muskoka Heritage Place in Huntsville, as you’ll read, is one of those places. Patrick Boyer also shares the historical importance of Obajewanung and Port Carling. While Port Carling is known as the “Hub of the Muskoka Lakes,” it was preceded and, in many ways, sustained by Obajewanung; the permanent and transient home for Ojibwe and other Indigenous Peoples.
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Article by Kelly Goslin Photography by Josianne Masseau
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A young adult herself, Paige Taylor wrote and self-published her Young Adult Fantasy Fiction novel Secrets Wrought in Blood, with plans to complete two more books in the trilogy.
he sound of clashing armour and swords disrupts the peace of an ancient wood. A mystic space so quietly sacred; its balance shattering in the mists of nature as it has amongst the people of Ilya. Intrigue, violence, segregation and the desperate pursuit for stability in a chaotic and mythical realm define the world of Secrets Wrought in Blood, the first of the Blood Blade Trilogy by local author Paige Taylor. At the remarkable age of 15, Taylor has written, self-published and promoted her debut novel, with enthusiastically positive response from her audience in Muskoka and beyond. A brief perusal of her Amazon reviews informs any prospective reader that Secrets Wrought in Blood is “a wonderfully thrilling and imaginative read.” Taylor was born in England and moved to Canada with her parents at the age of one. The idea for her novel first came to Taylor when she was in Grade 6, having been inspired by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and other great fantasy authors. Drawing from themes of conflict and magic found in The Lord of the Rings series, Taylor began slowly writing her own fantasy masterpiece shortly thereafter. “I knew I wanted to write something like Tolkien,” she reflects, “so after two weeks of planning and sketching, I began experimenting with writing and gradually formed the foundation for my novel.”
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Through her art, Taylor has visualized the details of her characters, settings and plot, establishing another layer of depth and vibrancy for her words. Over the course of three years, Taylor worked steadily on refining and completing her novel. It was a lengthy process of drafting, rewriting and expanding through both her writing as well as through visual art-based envisioning that “can describe my ideas better than writing initially.” Taylor reflected on her “self-improvement” as a writer through the process of creating Secrets Wrought in Blood, revealing the novel as a point not only of establishment for herself professionally, but as a means and conduit for creative exploration. Upon completion of the final draft, Taylor embarked on the daunting process of selfpublication with the support of her family, friends, high school teachers and the Muskoka Authors’ Association (MAA), of which she is a member. Through the MAA, she found practical tools and supportive direction for navigating publishing, rendering the process “surprisingly easy” in comparison to the task of creation itself. Young Adult and Fantasy Fiction as genres in Canada have faced challenge and triumph through the last few decades in both popular and academic reception. Fortunately, in recent years these genres have gained greater
The idea for her novel first came to Paige Taylor in Grade 6, though her inspiration for writing was influenced by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series. Over the course of three years Taylor worked steadily on refining and completing her novel. recognition for their communicability and socio-literary significance. Speculative fiction reflects our own understandings of identity and personal development, while also acknowledging ideas for change which can inspire its readers individually and collectively.
Taylor is an advocate for the integrity of her genres and states that through her book, both as a process as well as a statement, she champions the value of creativity. Through creativity, writers and readers alike can explore very real legacies of authoritarianism, inequality, injustice and terror, as well as environmental crises. Fiction provides a tangible avenue by which these issues can be examined and criticized. And in following the story to resolution, one may find application for reality. “Fantasy is vital for teaching imagination,” Taylor thoughtfully argues, “for if you do not have imagination how will you be able to either enjoy your literature or learn from it?” For Taylor, Muskoka has provided a creative wellspring of ideas for her novel’s setting; environmentally and topographically. The great forests of her fictional world carry the same vitality and personal significance as the towering pines of Bracebridge. Drawing inspiration from her home, her book carries
With the support of her family, friends, high school teachers and the Muskoka Authors Association (MAA), of which she is a member, Paige Taylor embarked on the daunting process of self-publishing her first novel, which was released December 1, 2022. June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 13
In addition to drafting and planning her written story, Paige Taylor visualized the details of her characters, settings and plot by sketching out her ideas. She even remarked that the visual art helped to build her story more than writing initially. a spirit of environmental awareness which speaks to the sensitive beauty and magic of nature. Secrets Wrought in Blood harnesses the power our natural world carries, symbolically and spiritually, and in her own life, Taylor
continues to be inspired by all that surrounds her. There are two more books to arrive in the Blood Blade Trilogy, and Taylor has revealed that she will continue exploring fantasy, as
well as historical fiction, for future endeavours. Having debuted with great success, an achievement for an author at any age, Taylor has much to surprise her readers with as she continues to cultivate her craft.
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Photograph: The Land Between
Community science programs vary by organization, but they all rely on engaged volunteers. Monitoring turtle populations, protecting nests and road crossings and recording sightings of rare species are all supportive of protecting turtles across Muskoka.
Article by John Challis
Photograph: Muskoka Conservancy/Lucas McLennan
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he languid, prehistoric personality of turtles endears them to everyone. Turtles, however, may not think much of humans. Loss of wetland habitat, road casualties and
Six of Ontario’s eight species of turtle are native to Muskoka, including the northern map turtle seen here. All are listed as species at risk.
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landscaped yards allow predators to dig up eggs. All the above have resulted in a serious decline in turtle populations. Six of Ontario’s eight species of turtle are native to Muskoka – midland painted turtle, snapping turtle, map turtle,
Blanding’s turtle, spotted turtle and musk turtle. They are all listed as species at risk, and Blanding’s and spotted turtles are listed as threatened and endangered, respectively. Keeping tabs on their well-being is a priority but the wetlands, which make up turtle habitat in Muskoka, are vast. There are only so many people with the science background to do the monitoring. We all can help, though, and that’s
Photograph: The Land Between
where community science, also known as citizen science, comes in. National Geographic defines community science as “participating in projects in which volunteers and scientists work together to answer real-world questions.” Volunteers are recruited and trained to collect data which then helps clear up the puzzle the scientists are trying to work through. The more people providing observations, the greater the value of the information. Community scientists are the cogs and gears of some of the largest research efforts around. Muskoka Conservancy relies heavily on community science observations. Each of the conservancy’s 37 nature reserves and 15 conservation easements has a group of volunteers who conduct regular review of their plant and animal inventories. On properties that contain wetlands, monitoring focuses on reptiles and amphibians, says conservation co-ordinator Amanda Porter. “It is really important for us to find out which of those species are using our protected lands, and ensure we are maintaining that habitat for them so that they can continue to thrive for years to come,” Porter says. Saving Turtles At Risk Today (START) needs community science for its work, too. START is a partnership created in 2013 between Scales Nature Park, Georgian Bay Turtle Hospital, Laurentian University, Trent University and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. The program first began in Muskoka and central Ontario, with volunteers and professionals touring wetlands to collect estimates of turtle populations. Training is offered for community scientists, either through a half-day training workshop or a more technical two-week Turtle Bootcamp. START’s current focus is on recording sightings of rare species, egg laying activity and road mortality. Their office takes calls to report injured turtles, rare sightings and egg laying activities, and can respond with trained staff and volunteers. The Land Between is another organization relying on community scientists to support its turtle programs. The Land Between is a partnership designed to preserve the unique ecological zone linking the Canadian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands.
Community scientists are the cogs and gears of some of the largest research efforts around. The more people providing observations, the greater the value of the information. The protection and conservation of Muskoka’s turtles is supported by dedicated community science volunteers. To date, it has recruited more than 800 community scientists in a range of programs. Four of its projects focus on turtles. Road researchers patrol area roads where turtles are most active and report turtle activities or injuries. Crossing guards are stationed at known zones of high turtle activities, to ensure turtles cross the road safely and report details of all turtle activity. Wetland watchers are assigned to wetlands to collect data on turtle species and activity from June to September. Finally, where turtles are reported nesting on roadsides, nest sitters are called in.
“With our nest sitters program, community science volunteers sit beside nesting mothers and wait there, guarding her while she nests and watching the nest until a member of the turtle guardians staff can come to excavate the eggs,” explains Kate Dickson, outreach lead for The Land Between. Eggs retrieved from those roadside nests are handled and incubated under strict government permits. Dickson estimates the survival rate is improved by a factor of 19 with the monitored incubation.
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Nest sitters are volunteers who wait and guard roadside turtle nests until The Land Between staff can come to excavate the eggs. Turtle eggs retrieved from roadside nests are handled and incubated under strict government permits. Throughout this series, iNaturalist will be mentioned as another outlet of community science. iNaturalist is a free, photo-based app. Post a photo of a plant, bird or insect, and species identification will be confirmed by experts who monitor the site. The platform is used by many scientists who can collect massive amounts of data that are easily downloaded to analytical software. There’s value for the volunteer, too, as an interactive wildlife guide. The District of Muskoka’s Integrated Watershed Management plan uses iNaturalist to record plant, animal, fungus or insect species within the Muskoka River watershed. Jenna Kentel led recent research on preventing turtles from nesting on roadsides in the Township of the Archipelago for her master of science degree. While community science wasn’t included in her work, the Laurentian University student summed up its value for wildlife preservation. “Community science data are incredibly important for conservation projects,” Kentel said. “Observations that are reported through apps such as iNaturalist can help develop our understanding of species distributions. This is especially important for road mortality observations because they can help us to identify priority areas for conservation.” Conservation and protection of turtles can be supported by everyone – community science at work.
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Huntsville’s preservation of Muskoka’s built heritage began decades ago by relocating pioneer structures from around the district into an authentic “pioneer village.”
Article by J. Patrick Boyer
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ouch the Past, Embrace the Future. Huntsville, Muskoka’s largest town, displays its motto boldly on roadside entrance signs. A notion circulated a decade ago that it was time to “rebrand,” but the potency of Huntsville’s existing message prevailed. Touching the past while embracing the future is a spirit that has infused Huntsville since inception. The twinned impetus of building upon heritage toward a better future is still Huntsville’s primary catalyst today. It accounts for retaining the downtown core’s
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vitality, seeing heritage buildings designated and marked by public plaques, the housing of the public library’s extensive Muskoka Collection of heritage materials, and pairing Tom Thomson’s bronze statue outside the Algonquin Theatre with contemporary arts. Above all, Huntsville lives its slogan by advancing education, entertainment and tourism through the services, facilities and programs of Muskoka Heritage Place, located near the town centre, off Brunel Road. For decades, Harmon Rice, publisher of the Huntsville Forester newspaper and Huntsville’s mayor, focused his efforts on
preserving the past and persevering in new projects for community betterment. Huntsville’s documented accounts for the years 1875 to 1894 – including all back copies of the Huntsville Forester, the public library’s books and local documents and municipal records – turned to ash in a fire that wiped out the town centre. For the 1926 Old Home Week, Rice wrote and published a brochure recapping what he knew about Huntsville’s history from his memory and extensive involvement in local life. For years, his account of events was one of the few records of the town’s past.
collection’s future could be a year-round attraction for education and tourism. In 1957, a committee of Rotarians shouldered the task and acquired the property. By summer 1958, Mayor Don Lough officially opened the Muskoka Museum. By this time, so many articles had been donated that both rooms on the building’s main floor were needed to display them.
Photograph: Muskoka Heritage Place Photo
Photograph: Muskoka Heritage Place Photo
In the 1930s, the Women’s Institute began documenting information about pioneers, early families and the beginnings of schools, churches, steamboats, industries, hotels, resorts and businesses, in response to Lady Tweedsmuir’s wise suggestion. Wife of Canada’s governor general, she saw how the progressive and companionable organization for women active in communities across Canada could render unique service by recording local history. After World War II, the Women’s Institute expanded their work by displaying at Huntsville’s Fall Fair artifacts owned by Women’s Institute and Agricultural Society members. Hundreds of attendees were delighted to be reminded of times past, sharing with children what such tools and equipment has been used for. Pioneer families began donating more items the Women’s Institute could save to help educate rising generations. In 1956, Bertha Sinclair of the Women’s Institute spotted a surplus public building she envisaged as ideal for displaying heritage items. Instead of once a year at the fair, the
Visitors arriving at Muskoka Heritage Place on Brunel Road in Huntsville are welcomed with directions to the Museum’s exhibits, Steam Era train, and Pioneer Village. The diverse buildings in Pioneer Village include an indispensable blacksmith shop. Skilled blacksmiths like DJ Brown (above) fashioned horse-shoes, tools, and metalwork for dozens of farm and household uses on Muskoka homesteads.
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Volunteers staffed the admission desk while Rotarians, avid about local heritage, chatted with tourists about North Muskoka’s historic foundations. By 1960, keen to make Huntsville’s past an even bigger part of its future, council officially recognized the Muskoka Museum and designated the Rotarians to operate it, with educator John Laycock as chair. Because the Rotary Club could not receive provincial grants, responsibility for the museum was vested in the municipality, which could. Edith Warner became the museum’s first curator during summer operation. The Royal Ontario Museum offered advice and lent wall and table-top display cases, in addition to displays of Indigenous artifacts and pioneerera photographs. When a new location was warranted, John Laycock and Ken Johnson discussed creating a pioneer village by gathering scattered heritage buildings on a common site before they disappeared. The Rotarians asked Laycock and Norman Kissock to find and buy
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the best site. Charles Watson and his wife reduced by half the price for their land in town beside a park because they saw its best future use in safeguarding North Muskoka’s heritage assets. Pioneer Village became a dream fulfilled. A visitor time-travelling into the replicated community first passes a wigwam and next, a trapper’s cabin. There is a working blacksmith shop and a dozen other representative buildings. In time, establishing the Portage Flyer train as a working example from Muskoka’s steam era offered a rare treat for young passengers. The museum building itself, built with financial help from Cardwell, Chaffey and Franklin Townships, is a fireproof permanent repository for Huntsville’s extensive archives and venue for major displays under the devoted direction of collections coordinator Sara White. THE RIOBEL MOMENTI™ COLLECTION Now one of Ontario’s most extensive AVAILABLE AT KNOWLES PLUMBING! heritage attractions on extensive grounds beside the Muskoka River, the aptly renamed Muskoka Heritage Place can bond past and Huntsville lives its slogan “Touch the Past, Embrace the Future” by advancing education, future because such an ideal infused entertainment and tourism through the services, facilities and programs of Muskoka Heritage Place. The extensive Huntsville’s themselves. BAT Hcitizens & KI TC H E N SH OW R O Oarchives M and displays cover decades of history. DESI GN. INSTALLATION. REPAIR
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DOG AGILITY Celebrating the Bond
Agility training is an inclusive sport for both humans and canines. No matter an individual’s age or ability, there are ways for people to enjoy the sport. For dogs, there are many different challenges that play to the strengths of the animal, such as scent detection, for those who like to follow their nose, or dock diving, for the water-loving pooch.
Article by Bronwyn Boyer / Photography by Tomasz Szumski
D
ogs just want to have fun, burn energy and please their owners. Agility training is the best way to achieve all of that, especially if a dog has too much energy to succeed in obedience school. And, if a dog excels at agility training, it has a chance of becoming a world class athlete. From June 16 to 18, there will be 237 dogs competing in the Agility Association of Canada (AAC) Regionals. The event is being held at the Oro-
Medonte Fairgrounds and is being hosted by the Northern Derby Agility Club. Northern Derby Agility Club is the result of two training clubs joining together under one umbrella – Animoosh Agility in Severn Bridge and Four Paws Ready Inn in Huntsville. The 2023 Regionals will be their first event co-ordinated together, and they’ve been approved to host the 2024 Regionals as well. “We have been long time friends with Animoosh Agility and are excited to be partners in this,” says Bryce Longtin of Four Paws Ready Inn. “We look forward to hosting
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 25
The Northern Derby Agility Club is a partnership between Animoosh Agility in Severn Bridge and Four Paws Ready Inn in Huntsville. The two clubs have partnered to host the 2023 Agility Association of Canada (AAC) Regionals from June 16 to 18. They’ve also been approved to host in 2024 as well. more events in the future to contribute to the agility community, which is very supportive and close in our area.” Four Paws Ready Inn Boarding and Athletics is a family business owned by
Darren and Pattie Page and their daughter and son-in-law, Bryce and Neil Longtin. They emphasize agility training as an inclusive sport for all ages and walks of life. “We’re really excited to provide classes and
host our own competitions,” Longtin explains. “We want to make all newcomers feel welcome.” Agility is a great way for newcomers to make friends in the community. Even if they
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do not own a dog, those interested can get involved in other ways, as large events require about 300 volunteers. Pamela Ford, owner of the Animoosh Agility club, was seeking a community when she was transferred to Muskoka for her job. When she started agility training with her German shepherd, it did not take long before she earned friendship, notoriety and success in the sport. She completed the process with the AAC to become a judge, and the rest is history. “Being a judge is a lot of fun,” Ford explains. “And it’s exciting because you get to see your friends perform and compete, and just try to be their best. And sometimes being their best doesn’t mean winning – sometimes it’s just completing a sequence that they always struggled with before. Not everyone is there to be number one.” Northern Derby also contributes to the larger community through charity events. Following the regionals, there will be a round-robin agility tournament to raise money for hospice care. “We need to keep our competitors and
Cathy Crowder (left) with Freyja and Bonnie Bews with Sadie are familiar with the dedication and discipline necessary to advance in the sport. Agility training is equally challenging for dogs and their handlers.
spectators entertained while we’re scoring,” Ford explains. “And I honestly don’t know anyone in our agility community that hasn’t been touched by someone who’s been in hospice care. We also had a couple of judges pass away recently that received hospice care, so it’s important for us to give back.” Any club registered with the AAC can host events and trials. Once a handler or a junior handler and their dog are registered, they can train at clubs across Canada and compete in their category at the regionals. Any dog who scores 350 points at the regionals then qualifies to compete at the nationals. Whoever comes out as top dog at the nationals represents Canada at the Agility World Championships - just like the Olympics. This year, they’re being held in the Czech Republic. Bonnie Bews of Bracebridge is a wellknown artist in Muskoka. Something a lot of people may not know is she and her pug, Sadie, are a champion agility team, having placed first at the 2021 Ontario Regionals. For Bews, the two hats wear well together. “I paint during the day and then I spend
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Bracebridge resident and artist Bonnie Bews and her pug, Sadie, placed first at the Ontario Regionals in 2021. As a champion agility team, they’re excited to participate again this year, especially since its being hosted by the local partnership of the Northern Derby Agility Club. evenings and weekends training and doing trials with my dog,” explains Bews. “It’s a good balance to my profession. It’s just so much fun.” Agility is a great recreational and spectator sport for people of all ages, but it’s especially meaningful for dogs. “It gives them a purpose,” Bews says. “There are many different types of challenges that play to different strengths. So, if your dog doesn’t show signs of wanting to chase a ball, they might love to jump off the dock into the water. So ‘dock diving’ is a sport they can get into. ‘Scent detection’ is another one, as well as ‘lure training’, where they chase an artificial rabbit. Each dog will show signs of what it loves to do, and the handler follows those cues.” Agility training is equally challenging for dogs and handlers. There’s a lot to learn, so dedication and discipline are necessary to develop and advance. Building a language of sophisticated verbal and non-verbal cues strengthens the bond between dog and
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handler. “You and your dog work together to learn a combination of hand positioning, feet positioning and verbal commands,” explains Bews. “And different breeds learn and respond differently.” Dogs are categorized by height, age and experience level. There is a “veteran” category for senior dogs. As Pamela Ford puts it, “it is possible to teach old dogs new tricks.” As for teaching new dogs new tricks, puppies have to be at least 18 months old to compete, but training can start around one year old. Muskokans interested in agility training are encouraged to reach out to the three clubs in the area. In addition to Northern Derby Agility, there is also Muskoka Agility Dogs in Huntsville, operated by Dan and Lynda Yielding. “It’s a huge sport,” says Bews. “And it’s quite the community to belong to. We’re all just having fun, and we help and support each other, rather than compete.”
Agility training can give dogs a purpose, according to Bonnie Bews. Building a language of sophisticated verbal and non-verbal cues strengthens the bond between dog and handler. Each dog responds to training and learns differently based on their breed.
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Article by Bronwyn Boyer / Photography by Josianne Masseau
T
he sound of birds singing, the fresh scent of pine trees, the invigorating embrace of a calm lake and the warm glow of sun on skin are the language Serena West speaks with her paintings. The natural world has always been West’s biggest source of inspiration. As a child, she spent most of her time outdoors riding her bike, searching for frogs and making friends with the trees. Even in the cold winters, she found ways to enjoy the great outdoors. West was born in St. Marys and spent her childhood years in London. When she was 14, her family moved to Hamilton. During these formative years, she was drawn to visual art, but it took her a while to develop the confidence to pursue it. “I started drawing a little bit when I was a child, but I didn’t think I had a great artistic ability,” West recalls. “It wasn’t until I took some classes and learned
some techniques that I started to believe in myself. Eventually I realized I could draw, and then I got excited about it.” West’s artistic talent bloomed, and she began her career by painting murals for homes and businesses in Hamilton. After her mural business started growing, she enrolled in formal studies at the Dundas Valley School of Art through McMaster University. “The courses blended painting techniques and just telling us to paint without any direction,” West explains. “It was a challenge, but in hindsight it forced me to think outside the box. They encouraged us to figure out our own style so we wouldn’t become cookie-cutter artists.” West’s artistic training gave her the confidence to express her own vision rather than just painting for others. Her love of nature and solitude pushed her
Serena West’s paintings have evolved from elaborate murals on buildings to capturing the natural beauty of her subject matter – people, places and animals. The expression of emotion and feeling is apparent in her paintings.
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away from city life and drew her to Muskoka. Having spent significant time camping up north through the years, the move made sense. “I just fell in love with the area,” West explains. “I always loved how pristine and quiet it is. I loved being able to just jump in the lake in the summer and go cross-country skiing in the winter. I just wanted to be immersed in nature. That’s what has always stayed with me and continues to fuel me.” Muskoka’s varied landscapes, with rivers, lakes, forests and fields, provide endless inspiration, not to mention the variety of the seasons. While not new, her love of nature and enjoyment of all the outdoors has to offer is evident in all of her artwork. “When I look back, I see how much the outdoors has always been a theme for me, and it’s coming out in my art more and more,” she says. As West became a mother, her focus shifted to raising her children. Even when she was too busy to paint, art was still a prominent part of her life. “I was always taking pictures wherever we went, so I could draw from those memories and pull them into my art,” she explains. “I also did art with my kids, giving them tips and tricks to help them with school projects. I knew I would eventually get back into it – it was always on my mind.” Once her kids were in school, West returned to painting. However, continuing her new work on canvas was a departure from her murals in Hamilton. “I started painting on canvas and expressing more of my
Regardless of subject matter or medium, Serena West strives to create something that will resonate with people. To her, its less important if viewers pick up on the specific feelings she paints, as long as they get something out of it.
own emotions to rediscover that outlet,” she recalls. “It was a new exploration of subject matter more than what I did for a living. I was free to explore compositions, colours and landscapes that felt more natural to me.” This new journey as an artist led West to painting portraits and landscapes as a form of art therapy. The expression of emotion and feeling is apparent in her paintings. “I wanted to express what I saw in people’s faces,” she says. “We’ve all gone through hard times, and these experiences connect us. I want to tell their stories, and I also want to invoke the therapeutic elements of nature into my work. Now the two worlds are coming together.” Clearly, nature is important for West. Not only in joyful times but experiencing Muskoka’s natural beauty is a powerful form of therapy for her in challenging times as well. “I always find myself out in nature when I go through difficult times,” she explains. “The birds are singing, the light is coming through the trees, and it brings me a feeling of peace. So that’s what I try to capture in my paintings. I’m hoping to awaken memories in my viewer that connects them to nature. Maybe a lake scene will remind them of fishing with their dad or camping trips with their friends. I’m hoping to spark that feeling.” By developing a body of work that combines portraits with landscapes, West is tapping into the common human experience as well as the connection to the environment. “I’ve always loved people’s stories,” explains West. “I wonder what has happened in a person’s life that shapes who they are. So, the result is a kind of a duality of stories and settings, wanting to capture human emotion and our connection to nature.” It is often said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. West’s portraits certainly reinforce this statement, as she studies her subjects to capture their sense of depth and intrigue. “Whether I’m painting people or animals, my favourite part to paint are the eyes,” says West. “I spend a lot of time trying to capture the expression. If I’m doing a commission for someone, I ask about that person’s character, their favourite colour, anything to
34 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
Muskoka’s varied seasons and landscapes, with rivers, lakes, forests and fields, provide endless inspiration for Serena West. While not new, her love of nature and enjoyment of all the outdoors has to offer is evident in all of her artwork. help get to know them a bit. If it’s a pet, I ask about their quirks, because it informs the colours, the brush strokes, and the mood. If a dog is mischievous, for example, I’ll try to put a certain spark in the eye that speaks to that.”
West’s show Passages at the Chapel Gallery in Bracebridge conveyed the experiences and emotions that connect people. Even when West is expressing pain in her work, there’s still beauty to be found. Female figures arranged to look poised and put together
When Serena West became a mother, her focus shifted from art to raising her children. But even when she was too busy to paint, she recalls taking pictures so she could draw from those memories and pull them into her art. combined with raw emotion in the eyes creates an evocative juxtaposition. While the forms and colours are floral and
feminine, the subject’s eyes and body language tell a different story. “I wanted to co-ordinate a body of work that would look beautiful while expressing feelings that resonate with everyone,” says West. “We’ve all experienced loss and pain,
and we want to find our way to the other side. Art can create a space to be open and vulnerable – that it’s okay to not be okay. I think when we honour those feelings without fighting them, we can move on to the happier times.” Regardless of subject matter or medium, West strives to create something that will resonate with people. It matters less to her if viewers pick up on the specific feelings she paints, as long as they get something out of it. “It’s like singing along to a song,” West explains. “Maybe the artist meant something
Serena West has developed a body of work that combines portraits with landscapes, tapping into the common human experience as well as the connection to the environment. Even when West is expressing pain in her work, there's still beauty to be found. June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 35
Serena West believes art is inclusive and accessible to all. In addition to her own art, she has found value in sharing what she has learned about art by teaching drawing classes, first to friends and now at The Annex in Bracebridge. totally different than what the listener interprets. I never know what someone else might see when they look a painting. If they feel something special, even if it’s just because I used a shade of yellow that reminds them of their mom’s curtains growing up, that’s beautiful to me.” West has also found value in sharing what she has learned about art by teaching drawing classes at The Annex in Bracebridge. West believes art is inclusive and accessible to all. “I think everyone is an artist. It’s just a matter of bringing it out,” she explains. “I think teaching helps me to be a better artist, and I consider it a piece of my own artistic journey. It’s rewarding if I can inspire others and help them find their voice. It’s amazing how everyone’s style is so different. I love the way people’s voices come through their pieces, and how their individuality comes alive.” An introvert by nature, teaching wasn’t something West thought she would be doing. She started by teaching friends, which was
36 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
easier because she knew them. From there, she did some teaching online during the pandemic. “I got my feet wet with the online courses, and then I decided to try it out in person,” West says. “I quite enjoy it now, just sharing different techniques I picked up along the way. There are millions of techniques and all of them are valid. If I can share what I’ve learned, I can encourage people to tap into their own unique form of creativity.” In addition to displaying her work and teaching classes at The Annex, West is also on the board of directors of the Muskoka Arts & Crafts collective. “I want to connect to the community and help where I can,” she says. “It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s what I have, so it’s important to give.”
It is often said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Serena West’s portraits certainly reinforce this statement, as she studies her subjects to capture their sense of depth and intrigue.
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To satisfy the intense fire protocols and building codes, a total of 280 linear feet of fire separation was added during renovations to the Foundry to separate almost 9,000 square feet of retail space from the 21,000 square feet of other use space.
Article by Kelly Goslin / Photography by Tomasz Szumski
H
istoric buildings are at the core of every town, city and nation, carrying legacies of struggle, perseverance, loss and triumph. Through their restoration and use, the memories and ideals of a community’s forebears are communicated through patina. The past itself is revitalized, and the innovation and creativity that defined the buildings’ inception become once more a beacon for excitement and hope. Once known as the Dominion Linen Mill, the Muskoka Foundry in Bracebridge, like
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many other historic industrial buildings, has lived a multi-faceted life since its construction in 1903. Beginning as a trail-blazing linen mill, then transitioning into a fabrication factory under various owners, its soaring ceilings have overlooked many decades of life and ideas. Now, under the creative direction of Scott Harkness, its current owner, those memories from a bygone era have been born anew; its complex history preserved lovingly through modern rehabilitation. The
process has not been without its challenges, but like every great pioneering venture, perseverance and imagination have once again brought the Foundry to life. Prior to the construction of the Dominion Linen Mill, industry in the 1880s and 1890s throughout Muskoka was largely dominated by lumbering. According to labour historian Gregory S. Kealing in his book Dreaming of what might be: the Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900, both Muskoka and the Ottawa-Hull regions had “secured hegemony over the production of wood products” by the late Victorian era. In the year 1881, “over 800 adults and 64 children worked in Muskoka’s seventy-four mills.” That lumbercentricity did not, however, impede new manufacturing ventures entering Muskoka during the 1870s and 1880s. In Bracebridge, Henry J. Bird established his once Glen Allen-based woolen mill in 1872. The popularity of his operation necessitated expansion in 1888, and by 1911, there were three different buildings comprising the Bird Mill compound. Wool and fine yarns were imported to sustain increased demand, and the mill thrived in an ever-developing commercial landscape in Muskoka. Bird’s success is indicative of the growing diversification of Muskoka industry that arose with an equally
In 2015, Scott Harkness and his late wife, Audrey van Petegem, purchased the Muskoka Foundry property, setting off on a path of remarkable heritage restoration and entrepreneurial ingenuity. With its revitalization, Muskoka Foundry is now alive with music, weddings, food tastings, wine samplings, and soon to be opened – an indoor Foundry Market. diversified consumer populace. The appetite to purchase goods in Muskoka was accelerating at a rapid pace, further compelling innovative businesspeople and merchants alike to rush in on the Northern opportunity. The combination of consumer appeal and natural amenities in Muskoka created ideal conditions for the establishment of Canada’s only Dominion Linen Mill location. According to the original published investment proposal from 1903, now on display in the Muskoka Foundry, it aimed to produce fine linens and woven goods using Waterloo-based flax, a crop greatly encouraged by colonial governments seeking to expand their oil and fibre industries. Selecting North Falls (now Bracebridge) as a strategic location to establish a mill site, Dominion Linen Mills proposed
a $250,000 building plan siding the Northern Railway tracks and in ideal proximity to the Muskoka River. In today’s money, the project would cost roughly $6.5 million dollars. It was an ambitious development aimed at capitalizing on a corner of Ontario never before incorporated into the flax industry. The mill employed around 50 workers, primarily women from Ireland or of Irish descent, who were renowned for their skilled weaving craftsmanship. A list of passengers arriving to Canada to settle during the first decade of the 20th century, on display at the Muskoka Foundry, lists several Irish women bound for Bracebridge to work at the Dominion Linen Mill. For a time, the linen mill flourished, with 25 looms bustling as Bracebridge grew around it into a commercial epicentre for Muskoka. However, there were inherent challenges to the flax industry in Ontario. Flax production and refinement had started excelling in Western Canada and Ontario’s position was waning. World War I brought
In purchasing the Foundry building, Harkness has endeavoured to preserve the many different iterations of its life since 1903. Cloth and linen antiques, foundry moulds and other items have been added to create a unique event space. June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 39
The original foundry moulds have been lovingly assembled into two different wall installations, one covering a large area of fire separation, the other providing a backdrop for a refined wine bar. rejuvenation to the flax industry in Canada as Europe’s fields were decimated, but the Bracebridge mill could not withstand the financial hardships long enough to see that stimulus. A funding incentive was offered to Dominion Linen Mills by the Town of Waterloo, and the mill in Bracebridge closed in 1912. The building remained vacant for five years after this closure. However, in 1917, Mungo Park McKay purchased the property and moved his Bracebridge Bay Foundry facility into the mill. The newly minted Muskoka Foundry advertised as “Engineers, Machinists, Iron and Brass Founders.” The McKay family produced cast metal components and signs throughout the 1910s to 1950s, along with other necessary industrial metalworks. There are vestiges of the foundry’s workmanship throughout Muskoka and beyond; manhole covers dotting the streets of Bracebridge, sawmill equipment at Saw Lake, and bridge and dam components in Fenelon Falls. Following World War II, Mungo Park McKay’s son Ron McKay took over the foundry. He continued its operation into the late 1950s. By 1961, the foundry was vacant, but in November of 1964 negotiations concluded between the McKay family and George W. Wilson, and the foundry became home to Bracebridge Manufacturing.
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Under the direction of Ron Wilson, the chief engineer, production lead and president of the reincarnated foundry, the building witnessed a major transformation, installing monumental steel beams and reinforcements, as well as the construction of towering new roofs. The Bracebridge Manufacturing and Steel Fabricating Company continued to produce large custom equipment, such as allterrain vehicles and the now-famous swan tour boat for Santa’s Village. Selling to Northern Ontario Casting in 1974, the foundry went through several more decades under various owners as a metal fabrication plant. Between 2008 and 2010, the foundry was purchased by Jerry McNabb from Cross Tech Industries. It remained partially vacant at that point. The warehouse’s future was uncertain. In 2015, Audrey van Petegem and Scott Harkness purchased the property, setting off on a path of remarkable heritage restoration and entrepreneurial ingenuity. According to Scott Harkness, the building’s “rock-solid” construction, including a foundation “that is two feet thick with five feet below the surface” has ensured its stability despite its lengthy history. With steel beams from the 1960s that, according to Harkness’ engineer, rendered the structure “overbuilt,” it has stood relatively unscathed despite continued
lapses of vacancy and minimal maintenance. The structural integrity has been vital for the Foundry’s restoration project. Many heritage buildings are at risk of demolition when left vacant for several years or more as disuse quickly undermines their structural reliability. Unfortunately, without champions to willingly embark on a challenging journey, there is little incentive for developers and entrepreneurs to revitalize heritage structures from local governments. Bracebridge, and the progress of the Muskoka Foundry, stand out as bastions of hope against this dreary backdrop of abandonment, according to Harkness. “The Town of Bracebridge was, and still is, incredibly supportive of this project,” shares Harkness. When he and his late wife Audrey went to the planning department in 2015 to propose their ideas for restoring the Foundry, they were met with what he describes as an “ecstatic” response. “They’d been wondering for years what could possibly get done with the old Foundry property as it is right in the middle of a residential area,” he says. With the support of the Town as well as the District of Muskoka, and the enthusiasm of the community, the Foundry project commenced in 2016. While the bones of the structure were in exceptional
A heritage wall of photographs is situated near the restrooms, showcasing a timeline of the Foundry and its restoration.
condition upon purchase, it has been no small feat to bring the Muskoka Foundry back to life. There were several major issues requiring immediate attention in order to secure the building’s safety, accessibility, and heritage integrity. “When we first started with this project, we had to deal with rezoning the property,” stated Harkness, “and this took several years to get through.” The physical work of the structure commenced with the next significant issue to address – fire separation. Harkness explains that with “almost 9,000 square feet of retail space toward the front of the building, and about 21,000 square feet of other use space, we had to create a two-hour fire separation between those two entities.” To satisfy the intense fire protocols and building codes, there is a total of 280 linear feet of fire separation, its implementation a lengthy task with a hefty expense. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. The interior of the Foundry needed significant gutting, the removal of waste materials and miscellaneous obstructions to the historic framework, “stuff that simply did not belong in this building,” according to
Under the creative direction of Scott Harkness, memories from a bygone era have been born anew with the rehabilitation of Muskoka Foundry. Perseverance and imagination have once again brought the Foundry to life.
A mid-century style diner has been hand-constructed in the centre of the event space, a vibrant nod to the liveliness of the foundry during its time as Muskoka Foundry and Bracebridge Manufacturing. Harkness. Wiring had to be completely overhauled, and the windows needed thorough restoration. To accommodate 18 bathrooms and two accessible restrooms, new plumbing had to be brought in through the floor, necessitating the trenching and removal of 400,000 lb. of concrete. Outside the building, soil remediation was needed to reduce a slightly higher heavy metal presence in the property, costing $88,000. It is one thing to renovate a heritage structure to possess the necessary modern amenities. However, how can one do so while still sensitively marrying contemporary demands with historic preservation? As an answer, Harkness referred to the quote he hand-inscribed across the fire separation wall, taken from his hero Albert Einstein, whose face accompanies it – “Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will take you everywhere.” In purchasing the Foundry building, Harkness has endeavoured to preserve, the many different iterations of its life since 1903. Cloth and linen-related antiques are situated throughout the building, paying homage to its Dominion Mill past. The original bricks have been carefully preserved, with any alterations completed
using traditional methods. The original foundry moulds have been lovingly assembled into two different wall installations, one covering a large area of fire separation, the other providing a backdrop for a refined wine bar. A heritage wall of photographs is situated near the restrooms, showcasing a timeline of the Foundry and its restoration. A mid-century style diner has been hand-constructed in the centre of the event space, a vibrant nod to the liveliness of the foundry under both McKay’s and Wilson’s ownership. Urban theorist Jane Jacobs argued “new ideas need old buildings.” The Muskoka Foundry building is now alive with music, weddings, food tastings, wine samplings, and soon to be opened – an indoor Foundry Market. The bustle of excited attendees to events and concerts, and soon customers for many local food businesses selling their fresh produce, bring footsteps and chatter back into the once silent structure. Not only has the Foundry been historically resurrected, but new opportunities and dreams for Bracebridge have arrived with its salvation. From a past of innovation and perseverance, the Muskoka Foundry is surging ahead to a future equally full of promise.
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 41
Pine Marten can be found in Muskoka’s mixed forests, hunting voles. A single male requires a territory up to eight square kilometers. Conservation is essential if we want Muskoka to remain true to nature.
Photo credit: Jane Spencer Photography
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Photograph: Atlas of Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts
After Canada’s Indian Affairs department removed Ojibwe villagers from Obajewanung in 1860, a Euro-Canadian village replaced it. Seymour Penson’s 1879 sketch shows, at left, Port Carling’s Steam Age sawmill, and at right, the lock and swing bridge.
Article by J. Patrick Boyer
Port Carling librarian Leila Cope’s 1956 account of village history began with the arrival of settlers and has only a brief passing mention of Obajewanung, without using the Ojibwe village’s name. James Bartleman’s 2002 memoir documents the realities of life in both Indian River villages.
and German people, with others from Asia and Africa, appeared on the Western Hemisphere’s Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. News of alien intruders and their activities spread among Indigenous people. “Contact” is today’s word for the longrunning
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included their well-worn portage at the rapids. Obajewanung was part of a vast and diverse network of Indigenous societies across North, Central and South America. Despite variations in appearance, languages, and culture, these First Nations interacted and communicated in many well-honed ways. Then, over many centuries, Norse, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, British
Photograph: Boyer
T
he road sign says only Port Carling, but ahead lie two villages. Over thousands of years, Muskoka became familiar territory to people living in physical and spiritual relationship with it. Along the splashing Baisong Rapids on the swift-flowing river draining Lake Rosseau into Lake Muskoka, Ojibwe families created a village stretching across to Silver Lake, describing it, to assist way finders, as Obajewanung (narrows with a current.) The community had over 20 well-built log homes. Living off the land and relying on themselves, Obajewanung people planted, cultivated, then harvested potatoes, corn, beans, squash and other vegetables. Game was plentiful in nearby woods while fish awaited in the waters. They built canoes to carry them into the lakes upstream and down, and to destinations beyond. An extensive network of woodland paths
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 43
Photograph: Muskoka Lakes Museum
A 1920s view of the “Indian Camp,” remnant of the Ojibwe village Obajewanung that once extended over to Silver Lake. Both the Ojibwe and Wahta Mohawks called this area a “camp” while for non-Indigenous folk it was a "village," a nuanced difference reflecting a great deal of history. mash-up between Indigenous Peoples and foreigners of distinctly different, mostly European, cultures. Yet whenever occurring, contact was never abstract. It had to happen in specific places and impact real peoples’ lives. In addition to Obajewanung being beautiful and bountiful, the strategic Ojibwe people chose this location for its centrality in Muskoka’s perplexing labyrinth of waterways. When a native guide paddled strangers to Obajewanung and asked the chief ’s permission to come ashore, everyone from attentive elders to curious children silently observed the newcomers. Aware of what happened elsewhere, First Nations were now wary of white men with strange languages, clothing, tools and ideas about their territory. In the opening phase of contact, the newcomers depended on Indigenous men to guide them, interpret languages and weather, help with paddling and carrying, and living from nature’s resources. After the explorers and fur traders, the next phases arrived with surveyors, road builders and settlers. Stumbling over Ojibwe words, the Englishspeakers called Obajewanung simply “Indian Village.” In 1852, members of the settlers’ legislative assembly in the southern part of the province voted to “open up” wilderness lands north of the Severn River. Contact entered its next stage as logging crews felled forests northward from the river, government contractors developed colonization roads and
44 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
homesteaders cleared more forest to farm Muskoka’s southern sections. By 1868, thinking settlement too slow, legislators added the enticement of free land for homesteaders. Government surveyors imposed a gridwork of rectangular lots on Obajewanung’s vacant terrain for Crown Land Agents to grant free land to qualifying homesteaders. The earlier trickle of settlers coming to farm Muskoka became a flood. As part of the land clearance understanding, surveyors also measured off a ribbon of Obajewanung land beside the river for the Crown to hold as a token reserve for the Ojibwe. In 1866, Gravenhurst’s A.P. Cockburn introduced the Steam Age to the district by launching Wenonah (First-born daughter) on Lake Muskoka. Initially, he improvised getting steamers onto upper lakes Rosseau and Joseph. Then, as Muskoka’s Liberal MPP in opposition, he parlayed his voting power in the legislature to support Ontario’s Conservative government for agreement to build a navigation lock at Baisong Rapids and dredge a navigable channel between Lake Rosseau and higher Lake Joseph to bring both to the same level. Cockburn specifically befriended Public Works Minister John Carling, MPP for London, whose family owned a brewery. Cockburn brought Carling to Muskoka, touring him through scenic lakes aboard Cockburn’s steamers, and convincing him of
the urgent need for both the locks and channel. Back at the legislature, the two overcame strenuous opposition from MPPs ridiculing the “extravagant waste of public funds in unpopulated backwoods to connect a few remote beaver swamps.” In 1869, public works began lock construction and minister Carling consented when his friend Cockburn proposed naming the land beside them at Baisong Rapids in the beer scion’s honour. By 1871, steamships seamlessly moved settlers and cargoes through locks where Ojibwe once portaged canoes. Yet people of emerging Port Carling also used canoes, and their village at the river narrows perpetuated Obajewanung’s role as a hub of lakeland activity. By the 1880s, in a sort of reverse assimilation, settler society slipped into another First Nations pattern. The Ojibwe long had a mixture of full-time and seasonal residents in the district, which settlers now emulated. The stability and skills of permanent residents attuned to local conditions could mesh with more mobile people whose perspectives and resources were broader, to the mutual benefit of both. In Muskoka’s industrializing stage of contact, steam transformed transport, farming, construction and manufacturing. Energy from waterfalls was no longer the sole form of power; logs became lumber in Port Carling’s steam-powered sawmill. Increasing steamships and workboats expanded the village’s importance as a transportation hub, intensified commerce and underpinned its hospitality services. Where Ojibwe artisans had crafted canoes, local settlers now built larger, heavier, sleeker boats. Construction of a highway gave Port Carling land access and a second main street; their intersection fitted out with a swing bridge. The dual system allowed large vessels to function in an integrated water-land transport system. Villagers and visitors alike benefitted, enjoying the best of two worlds with scenic travel on both water and land. Adopting the slogan “Hub of Muskoka,” Port Carling’s shops, bank, schools, library, churches, community hall, hotels, livery stables and motor vehicle garages, boat factories, marinas, golf clubs, playhouses,
Isaiah Sahanatien (whose Mohawk name was Sahwentanon in place of Isaiah) stands in front of handmade baskets he brought from Wahta to sell at a streetside shop. Sahwentanon donned a feather headdress and fringed buckskins to appear to tourists as “a real Indian.” The forested sloping riverbank had wooden buildings, tents and, up by the sidewalk along Port Carling’s main road, wooden shops where both Ojibwe and
Photograph: Frank Micklethwaite Photograph
white men obtained the canoes or who guided them to the hub of the lakes. This much was recorded for posterity: “When the first white man came about 1865, there were still a few Indians encamped on the shore of Silver Lake. By 1878, those of the hunting and fishing way of life gave place to more aggressive settlers. Roads were being built where there had been trails; a small bridge replaced the log over the stream where the locks are now; log houses superseded huts; dugouts took the place of birchbark canoes.” It was a skimpy sketch. Yet by narrowly focusing on substance and progress as her settler society saw it, Cope failed to disclose the past that remained equally present. In 1940, Maureen Benson Simcoe, a member of the Rama community who had married Scots-Canadian Percy Bartleman, tucked her infant son into the bow of her canoe. James “Jim” Bartleman heard waves lapping against the canoe’s sides as his mother paddled from Lake Couchiching to the remnant of Obajewanung reserved for Ojibwe beside a big curve in the now named Indian River.
Photograph: Wahta Mohawk Community Archives
nightclubs, restaurants and vacationer facilities secured the evolving village’s place as a lively, popular and special part of the Muskoka experience – a story for the history books. In 1940, Leila M. Cope became Port Carling’s librarian. By 1956, Cope had developed her account of village history, based on her immersion in village life, shared reminiscences of Port Carling’s charter families with her husband, John Cope, cultural osmosis and research at the library. That year, A History of the Village of Port Carling, the Hub of the Muskoka Lakes by Leila M. Cope was published. In 1972, the Herald-Gazette Press in Bracebridge reissued the popular book in a large second printing. Like many accounts from the time-period, Cope’s book begins with arrival of Europeans: “The first white men paddled from McCabe’s Bay (Gravenhurst) in birchbark canoes.” Replete with facts and photos of the settler families, their businesses and community organizations, Cope’s account of village history does not mention Obajewanung or Ojibwe people, nor even where those first
With the locks at Port Carling enabling steam-powered vessels of all sorts to easily move between the major lakes of Muskoka after 1872, a frontier mixture of ruggedness and elegance typified the experience of seasonal vacationers and year-round Muskokans. June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 45
Photograph: Frank Micklethwaite Photograph
Mohawk crafters sold tourists hand-woven baskets incorporating quill designs and the sensuous aroma of sweetgrass, wood-carved souvenirs, toy birchbark canoes, and sometimes paddles and snowshoes. With Muskoka now passing through its “Indian Tourism” phase of contact, men often wore fringed buckskin clothing and feather headdresses to appear more authentic in the eyes of visitors from the cities. Summering Indigenous People also came, ironically, like vacationing visitors themselves, from permanent homes. They had never stopped “returning home” from Ojibwe reserves at Rama and Parry Island. Indeed, on the principle of strength in numbers, they invited Mohawks from Wahta to join them. Mixing was limited, but they shared the joy: people marginalized by settler society had their own piece of Muskoka, in the very heart of Port Carling. Coming in numbers every summer, their lives wove intimately into village life. Jim Bartleman grew up with his family, living full-time in Port Carling, visiting relatives at the Indian Village, learning every dimension of village life. When they lived in a tent near the dump, he found and read discarded comic books. Witnessing this,
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Percy Bartleman showed Jim serious books in the village library. The bright lad never again returned to comics. In time, after a foreign service career at top levels, being advisor on foreign affairs to Canada’s prime minister, and representing the Crown as Ontario’s first Indigenous lieutenantgovernor, Bartleman wrote award-winning
Percy Bartleman took this sunny photograph of his wife Maureen holding their daughter Mary, with Jim, Janet, and Bob in front, swimming at the Indian River near their house. The family lived year-round in Port Carling.
Photograph: Bartleman Family Collection
The village on the Indian River, in both its incarnations, was a hub of activity and reliable place for food and other necessities. In the settler village of Port Carling, the businesses of William Hanna and his descendants included in the 1920s this main street general store and post office.
books about “a different Muskoka” from his perspective of life in a village that had been his home, too. “Within a block of a few square miles, Port Carling’s winners and losers squeezed into a small village of no more than 500 permanent residents and several thousand summer dwellers,” recalls Bartleman. “In my youth, I imagined the village was like every other place. Only later did I realize it would be hard to find another place in Canada where the contrasts were so pronounced between rich and poor, sophisticated and rude, city and country, Gentile and Jew, American and Canadian, descendants of original settlers and newcomers. We Indians were the invisible brown minority at the bottom of the heap, which at least gave me an ideal observation deck.” With one village inside another like a Russian doll, each community is curiously shadow and substance of the other. The reality of the interconnectedness of the two communities is something to ponder, whether on a Port Carling bench in what is now officially James Bartleman Island Park or while boating through the locks on either side of this island. While the Port Carling of today is a reflection of the impact of first contact and the settlement that followed, the importance of Obajewanung ranges far deeper than shared in history books.
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hether it’s a song, a deep question, a problem or a new skill, Douglas McLean is determined to conquer it. McLean is a true Renaissance man. He’s a sensitive soul with a powerful singing voice and the heart of a poet. He’s a businessminded mathematical genius who turned a small start-up company into a monolith.
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And he’s a prolific radio personality, interviewer and writer. McLean was an academically gifted child but his teachers weren’t sure how to guide him. He was only 12 when he entered high school, and he was different than the other kids. His relentless curiosity was seen as troublesome rather than a sign of intelligence. As a youth grappling with the weight of his
own busy mind, he was often misunderstood. But no matter how many times he got lost, his ingenuity and determination always led him back to his true north. And that true north, it seems, is music. It started with summer camp through the YMCA, singing old gospel songs around the campfire. Combined with his early love for nature, it was his summer camp experience
that first sparked his soul. “Those gospel songs got deep under my skin,” McLean says. “And then the Beatles came along, and I really started aching to play an instrument. I would drive my mother crazy using her knitting needles as drumsticks, banging on everything in the house. So, my parents got me a drum kit.” McLean grew up in Lively, a small mining community, now a part of Sudbury. He was the oldest of three children. His father was a minister, and it caused a lot of issues between them. McLean’s burning desire to understand the meaning of life led to him to explore philosophies outside of his religious upbringing. He dove head-first into the work of Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood and TS Elliot. But his father didn’t approve of these interests. “Around age 13, I decided that I wanted to be a poet, and my father was furious,” says McLean. “The cultural climate at that time was quite different, and poets were seen in a certain negative light.” The conflict with his father often led to McLean being cast out of his family home. But it didn’t stop him from living life on his own terms.
McLean’s home life also came under a lot of strain when his younger sister was diagnosed with cancer at age 13. “It really shaped the dynamic of our household,” McLean says. “Everything was changing so rapidly. I left home for good at age 16, but thanks to my summer camp experience, I didn’t have any trouble taking care of myself in the woods. I was just a kid on my own, drifting around in the world.” But drifting around in the world is what gave McLean the freedom to start singing and playing drums with his next-door neighbour, who played bass. “We started playing gigs and eventually we got pretty professional,” McLean recalls. “But I had trouble controlling my foot and singing at the same time. Our manager decided to find another drummer and I just sang.” When his bass player taught him basic guitar chords, McLean wrote his first song the same day. Soon after, he had enough to record his first album. Despite having a good following from playing music, his fascination with non-traditional inquiry pulled him in a different direction. Investigating esoteric knowledge and the quest for meaning became the centre of his existence. “I think what created that drive had a lot to do with my sister’s illness,” McLean explains. “And the over-arching question plaguing our family was, how could this happen?” In 1975, McLean tried to break into the music industry in Los Angeles. By then, he was married and had a child. “It changed my life, just being exposed to that culture,” McLean says. “I was just a kid from a small town. I didn’t know how to write about what I was experiencing. I was overwhelmed.” McLean returned home when his younger brother got into a serious motorcycle
Throughout his life, music has been a true north for Douglas McLean. Despite the unlikely connection, including his musical background on his application to the University of Toronto masters of business program set him apart.
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 49
When Douglas McLean turned 60, he wrote his second album, Cold Black Moon. When his father passed, McLean felt as though the floodgates opened. He penned songs about the love he had for those he had lost and those songs resonated with people. accident. His family was growing and he struggled to find work in Sudbury, so they moved to Toronto, where McLean got a job at a luggage company. “My boss was a master engineer, and I begged him to teach me what he knew,”
McLean recalls. “He finally agreed, and I’d go home every night and study my brains out.” The engineering knowledge McLean was able to absorb opened the door to another job where he applied his knowledge of line balancing and production scheduling. “I was
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really good at math, so I just fell in love with it,” says McLean. “There’s a rhythm to it for me that’s a lot like music.” McLean then took some university courses in logistics. “I was hungry to get moving forward,” he explains. “The goal was to have a nice home in the country to raise my kids.” By this time, McLean had three children, so his priorities had shifted. “I wrote out a map for myself of how to achieve my goal in five years. I told my boss that if he didn’t help me achieve that goal, I was going to quit. They gave me a promotion.” That promotion landed McLean the role of manager of Beckers Milk, where he oversaw 100 people. “I figured out that success is achieved by empowering people,” he explains. “I talked to my staff one by one about their dreams and aspirations, so they would feel heard and valued. After that, everything took off – absenteeism went down, and production went up.” At that time, the inventory system was written on cards. It was very difficult to organize a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse full of
convenience store items. Ever the problem solver, McLean started hanging around the computer centre for answers. “A computer guy said I could write the codes myself,” says McLean. “I started staying after work with a book from the library trying to learn how to code. I eventually figured out how to write a program that ran an inventory system. I got promoted, but it cost me my marriage, because I was never home.” Next, McLean worked for a start-up company making specialty meats for pizza toppings. By then, he was the single dad of three boys. When McLean met his current wife and fiddle player, Arlene, his life turned around. “We’ve been married almost 30 years, and she’s pretty much the best thing that ever happened to me,” McLean says. “When I met her, I felt like I’d known her my whole life.” The couple bought property in Sundridge in 1990 and built their home there. McLean got accepted into the University of Toronto masters of business program, Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Douglas McLean hosted Behind the Drive on Hunter’s Bay Radio. He thanks to the fact that he included conducted over 200 interviews, among those the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Shirley King, and Blue Rodeo. songwriting on his application.
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“I couldn’t believe that my music background, that seemingly foolish thing I pursued in my teens, could bear such incredible fruit,” recalls McLean. “They wanted a fresh element to the old way of thinking. It set me apart from the other applicants.” McLean started writing songs and performing again when he was hired by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture teaching meat formulation science. “I actually got hired because I had songwriting on my resume,” McLean says. “My boss wanted me to prove it, so he had me write him a song. It got me thinking about songwriting in a mechanical way, and I got something from that. They wanted me to write a song for every event, and that became the basis for getting back into music.” When McLean turned 60, he wrote his second album, Cold Black Moon. “My father was really sick then, and I had to rush to him and be by his side,” says McLean. “And as he passed away, it was like he gave me a blessing, a mystical gift that would allow me to write songs. That’s when the floodgates opened up. Love ‘Em Today and Rawley were songs that really touched people. I was writing about my love for those who passed on, and my brother who was in the wind, homeless for most of his life.” When McLean wrote his next album, After All This Time, he felt he finally realized what songwriting is. “I had to write songs from a different place in myself,”
he explains. “Trusting something I never had to trust before – that art can find you, instead of the other way around.” Like everything else McLean does, his fourth album, Land of My Fathers, was a challenge he gladly accepted. “I like what happens creatively when you force yourself to be on the high wire,” he says. “That’s where the real art exists.” McLean’s fifth album Born to Fly was a warning about the political turmoil in the United States and the dangers of nuclear war. Like Bruce Cockburn and Bob Dylan, McLean felt the need to use music to speak about the injustices in the world. “Our society has so much blood on our hands, and it’s seeping up through the cracks,” he explains. “It was really bothering me, and I felt the need to say something.” McLean’s next musical projects were producing two charity albums to raise money for Community Living, called Helping Hands. “We got a few local artists involved and put on a concert at the Algonquin Theatre,” he says. “Everyone got a CD with their ticket price. I’d love to do more of that. I think it’s important to use music to help those in need.” Since retiring in 2016, McLean has been busy producing radio shows, writing album reviews and articles, interviewing prominent musicians, playing in a local rock band, and performing with Arlene. McLean’s foray into radio began when Hunter’s Bay Radio (HBR) in Huntsville was looking for someone to take over their Live Drive series and
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The release of multiple albums is just one of many achievements for Douglas McLean. His quest for the meaning of life may not be complete, but he has a wealth of gratitude for the places it has taken him.
he answered the call. From there, he also ended up with his own blues show that aired Monday nights, called Blue Monday. But things changed with HBR when the pandemic hit. “When COVID-19 happened, I had acts booked six months in advance for Live Drive,” McLean explains. “And I was determined to come up with a way of recording those shows remotely rather than canceling them altogether. That’s how I came up with Behind the Drive.” Somehow, the musicians and interviews McLean featured on Behind the Drive caught the attention of B.B. King’s daughter, Shirley. “All of a sudden I got a call from a guy in Las Vegas, asking if I wanted to interview Shirley King,” McLean recalls. “That’s when I started getting a lot of calls to do interviews.” Before long, McLean had 200 interviews under his belt. Getting to interview his hero Bruce Cockburn was a landmark moment. Others were Blue Rodeo, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Martin Sexton, Murray McLaughlin, Ian Tamblyn and Martin Barre from Jethro Tull. He connected with Blues & Roots Radio and did interviews for their series, The Sound Café. He also launched a new show on Canoe FM in Haliburton called Night Train and began writing album reviews for Great Dark Wonder. He also got a job at Huntsville Doppler writing articles to spotlight local artists and musicians. “I needed to keep my intellect sharp,” McLean explains. “And since I wasn’t really writing music, I wanted to write about music. My goal was to try to figure out why artists keep going in what seems to be a ridiculous pursuit. I’m fascinated by that drive, that spark, and where it comes it from.” McLean’s quest for the meaning of life may not be complete, but he has a wealth of gratitude for the places it has taken him. By staying curious, humble and generous, he keeps that creative spark alive. “I just want people to follow their soul’s true purpose,” he says. “To keep learning, use their gifts, and never give up. I think my old friend Ian Tamblyn said it best: ‘If it’s in you, it’ll never let you go.’” McLean’s message, in all he does, is to stay inspired at all costs.
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Muskoka Beach Road eyed for new Bracebridge hospital The forecast for the future of healthcare in Muskoka became a little clearer recently. Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) revealed a preferred new site for a hospital in Bracebridge and the construction dates for the new hospital as well as the new Huntsville hospital. During a public meeting at the Rotary Centre for Youth in Bracebridge on April 22, it was revealed the preferred site of the new Bracebridge hospital is 1975 Muskoka Beach Road. MAHC recently hosted a series of open houses across the region wherein they also discussed their plans to have shovels in the ground at both sites by 2029. The new Huntsville hospital will be built on the site of the current hospital. The site of the existing South Muskoka Memorial Hospital is too small to accommodate a new hospital, according to MAHC. The existing site on Ann Street is roughly 11 acres, while Huntsville Hospital sits on some 46 acres. MAHC started out with 20 potential sites in south Muskoka before narrowing them down to just three - Highway 118 West, 300 Pine Street, and the preferred site on Muskoka Beach Road. During the public meeting in
54 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
Bracebridge, a consultant hired by MAHC pointed out that the terrain on Muskoka Beach Road is more suitable for the construction of a hospital, already serviced, free of major environmental concerns, easily accessible and close to the highway. In addition, there is available land nearby suitable for further development. The development of the two new hospitals is expected to cost amlost $1 billion dollars. It’s expected that Muskoka will need to come up with roughly $225 million, as the local share contribution. The two hospital foundations will be responsible for raising the money, as well as Muskoka’s six area municipalities, and the District of Parry Sound. Part of the funding will come from the sale of the current site of the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital and Fairvern Long-Term Care facility in Huntsville, which is also moving. MAHC representatives pointed out that the site on Muskoka Beach Road has not been selected definitively and they will continue discussions with the Town of Bracebridge. Representatives also said that time is of the essence as the current government still supports the proposed two-site model for Muskoka and they must carry the momentum forward to ensure the process continues.
Muskoka welcomes first EV show The future is on its way to Bracebridge and it’s electric. On May 27, Muskoka Conservancy and Climate Action Muskoka will co-host the first ever Muskoka Electric Vehicle (EV) Show at the Bracebridge Fairgrounds. Organizers say the event will include an electric vehicle show, presentations, question and answer sessions and even the opportunity to test drive an EV. “The future is electric, and the faster we can get there the better,” said Peter Love, an energy consultant and Muskoka Conservancy board member who instigated the idea. “Muskoka is well-positioned to be a leader in this revolution.” According to Leslie Hastie, the lead event organizer with Climate Action Muskoka, private vehicles are responsible for almost 70 per cent of all community greenhouse gas emissions in Muskoka. “Switching to electric promises to make a huge difference here,” says Hastie. “People
Photograph: Unsplash Images
In April, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) revealed a preferred new site for a hospital in Bracebridge and the construction dates for the new hospital as well as the new Huntsville hospital.
Photograph: Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC)
Whats Happened
On May 27 Muskoka Conservancy and Climate Action Muskoka will co-host the first ever Muskoka Electric Vehicle (EV) Show at the Bracebridge Fairgrounds.
are excited to see and test drive and learn about electric vehicles. The Muskoka EV Show will help them make that move.” Organizers say they expect to see new EVs from Cavalcade Ford, Tesla, Muskoka Nissan and Hyundai of Muskoka, as well as new electric bikes from the 171 Electric Bike Company. Local boat builder Stan Hunter will be on hand to discuss his conversion of a launch to electric power. There will be park and display areas with electric cars and bikes being shown by their owners who will be on hand to answer any questions and potentially take visitors along for a test drive. There will be presentations from the Electric Vehicle Society, enVigo, Lakeland, Plug Drive and reThinkgreen. Keynote speaker Steve Lapp will share his expertise on EVs and low-carbon energy technology system design and education.
Spin the Lakes returns on May 27 The always-popular Spin the Lakes fundraiser for mental health services in Muskoka and Parry Sound will be returning to local roadways on May 27. Participants will set out from Hidden Valley Resort in Huntsville before tackling distances of 175 km, 102 km, 57 km or 20 km. Routes vary but the longest distance will take cyclists over moderate rolling hills through Baysville, Port Sydney, Windermere and Brackenrig before returning to Hidden Valley. The event is not a race and riders of all skill levels are encouraged to participate. Water stations for athletes will be set up along the route and afterwards there will be swag bags, prizes and a buffet at Hidden Valley Resort with live music. Spin The Lakes has donated proceeds to a number of causes since the event began in 2015. Over the years recipients have included Sears Cancer for Kids and active living initiatives within Muskoka. Organizer Jim Brendish decided the main beneficiary should be the Canadian Mental Health Association shortly after reading the book Open Heart, Open Mind by Canadian Olympic cyclist and speed
skater Clara Hughes, in which she discusses her own mental health struggles.
Huntsville Festival of the Arts announces summer line-up Summer is just around the corner and the Huntsville Festival of the Arts (HFA) has a full slate of events to keep you entertained. The HFA recently unveiled their summer lineup with events and artists that run the artistic gamut. “The theme of our summer season is Arts with Taste,” says Dan Watson, executive director of Huntsville Festival of the Arts. “We aim to present a diverse menu of tasty artistic dishes that entertain, enrich, delight and showcase our beautiful region. We also strive to keep our programming financially accessible by offering free or low-cost events, discounted seniors pricing and $20 youth programming to all our shows.” Fifteen-time Juno award winner Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo fame will be one of the headliners of this year’s event when he visits the Algonquin Theatre on August 9. Some of the other big names set to grace the stage this summer include Canada’s Celtic ambassadors the Barra MacNeils, legendary musicians Lighthouse celebrating 50 years in music, and jazz virtuoso Holly Cole. This year’s edition of the festival will also boast an eclectic blend of programming that includes the Grammy-winning Alex Cuba showcasing his unique mixture of Latin rhythms and pop. Internationallyrenowned soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee returns with a program of pop, show tunes, and spirituals, and rising indigenous folk artist Aysanabee shares his powerful voice and storytelling. Indie Rockers Lowest of the Low return and Grammy-nominated country artist Steven Lee Olsen, whose music has been recorded by Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, Rascal Flatts and more, makes his Huntsville debut. Summer will also mark the return of the always popular Nuit Blanche North, a one-night multi-art street festival that takes over downtown Huntsville. Considered a signature event, Nuit Blanche North
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features artistic events, exhibits and activities in unconventional places in and around Huntsville’s downtown core. Movies on the Docks offer a boat-in or walk-in movie experience with a double-sided screen displaying films for the The Dreamboats are just one of many acts in Huntsville Festival of audience both on land and the Arts summer lineup this year. Events and artists run the artistic in the water. The Tom Thomson canoe gamut, while the theme of the season is “Arts with Taste.” murals, En Plein Air Art Market and the ran into financial difficulties. Huntsville Art Crawl also have something Following a significant outcry from the for lovers of the visual arts. Dorset community, the Robinson family There are many acts and events taking once again became involved in efforts to find place throughout HFA’s season so visit a new owner. Those efforts proved successful hunstvillefestival.ca for more information. when, in March, Joanne Robinson announced on behalf of the Robinson family via social media that new owners had been found. The new owners are brothers Ven Komina and Satya Jyesta and by early April, the store After serving as a cornerstone of the had once again reopened. Dorset community for more than a century, “We look forward to the community Robinson’s General Store has seen a welcoming the new people and giving them considerable amount of change in the past all the support they need to allow the store few years. to thrive again,” said Joanne Robinson. Robinson’s opened in 1921 and grew steadily over the years into a sprawling 14,000 sq. ft. location offering all manner of goods, including a Food Town supermarket and a Home Hardware location. The Robinson family sold the store The contentious subject of short-term in 2021 to a family from Orangeville. rental accommodations (STRAs) has once However, in January of this year the store again been centre stage at Bracebridge was abruptly shuttered after the new owners council this year.
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Photograph: Robinson's General Store
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New owners of Robinson’s General Store in Dorset, brothers Ven Komina and Satya Jyesta, reopened in early April 2023 after the store’s previous owners shuttered operations briefly in January.
Photograph: Tegan Mierle
Earlier this year councillors by nine respondents. Two calls decided to tighten regulations for service were identified as on STRAs following several repeat offences, which received debates on the best path an offence notice or order. The forward. majority of the calls were for STRAs have been an noise violations, open-air increasingly controversial issue burning and illegal operation. throughout Muskoka over the For 2022, from when the past several years. As their bylaw was passed until the end of Bracebridge town council recently heard from consultants, WSP Canada Inc., the year, 47 applications were numbers have proliferated with recommendations for regulating short-term rental accommodations across the region, so have the submitted and 38 were approved. (STRAs) including setting a maximum number of STRA licenses, laying out number of complaints ranging A major issue of debate was clear eligibility criteria and undertaking a study to determine the feasibility from issues of excessive noise that while some councillors said of a Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT). and rowdy parties to parking they had been inundated with feasibility of a Municipal Accommodation problems and unresponsive property complaints, others said they had heard Tax (MAT). owners. nothing at all. Town staff initially recommended council Last year, the Town of Bracebridge hired In the end, council decided to vote not proceed with the changes outlined by consultants to take a closer look at the issue against staff’s advice and moved forward and in April they came back to council with the consultants, saying the existing rules with the consultant's recommendations. were sufficient to address the issue. the results of their study and Implementation of the recommendations Data collected from March 2022 to recommendations. includes further investigation of an MAT March 2023 shows that Bracebridge bylaw The consultants, WSP Canada Inc., put which would be applicable to STRAs, as enforcement received 11 calls for service to forward several recommendations including well as hotels, motels and bed and STRAs, representing three per cent of the setting a maximum number of STRA breakfasts. The tax would be reinvested in total calls for service during that time. licenses, laying out clear eligibility criteria tourism promotion. Immediate voluntary compliance was met Feature by Matt Driscoll and undertaking a study to determine the
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Rhubarb: Tangy, tart, seasonal favourite Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography by Tomasz Szumski
Dan and Grace Willow, owners of Windmill Bakery in Huntsville, mix up a delicious strawberry-rhubarb filling which they use for pies, tarts and danishes, including some gluten-free options. Each spring, it could have been your mom, or your father, or your grandmother, depending on who was the family baker, they had a tradition. Step outside to the garden, harvest some thick, satiny red stalks from a sprawling plant (with wrinkly leaves you were warned not to eat), chopped them up, liberally coated them with sugar in a pie shell and baked it in the oven – rhubarb pie. Rhubarb originated in Asia, came to Europe via the Silk Road and was then brought to North America by pioneers, to
58 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
become a classic Canadian ingredient. It is so hardy that at Arrowhead Park’s pioneer homestead, where everything else resembling a crop was long ago supplanted by nature, the untended rhubarb patch still thrives. At Brooklands Farm, near Bracebridge, there are rows of rhubarb expanded from a patch planted in 1876. That same year, Charles Riley, his wife Emma and their children moved into a log cabin on the property and the painstaking work of clearing the land began. Since then,
it has been passed down over five generations to Ken Riley, his wife Katya and the sixth generation, their sons Nikhil and Rohan. Over the decades, the farm has transformed from a dairy operation into an organic market gardening site and maple syrup sugarbush. It is now also an event venue, hosting weddings and other celebrations in
At Brooklands Farm, near Bracebridge, there are rows of rhubarb expanded from a patch planted in 1876. Brooklands has been passed down through the Riley family over five generations to Ken Riley, his wife Katya and the sixth generation, their sons Nikhil and Rohan.
Rhubarb-Maple Crumble
Brooklands Rhubarb Maple Gin Sling
Ingredients
Ingredients
4 cups rhubarb, chopped into inch-long pieces 1 ½ cups Brooklands Farm dark maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rhubarb, chopped into inch-long pieces 1 cup Brooklands Farm dark maple syrup 1 Tbsp orange zest
Method
Method
– Katya Riley
• Put in a pot over medium heat, cook until the rhubarb softens, about seven minutes. Pour into an oven-proof dish. Note: when cooked, rhubarb produces its own liquid as it softens.
To make the crumb topping: 2 large eggs ¼ pound butter (salted) 2 cups flour ¼ cup Brooklands Farm dark maple syrup ½ tsp baking powder
• Mix these ingredients well and sprinkle on top of rhubarb maple mix. • Bake at 350° F (180° C) until golden-brown, about 20 minutes. • Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Yields dessert for four.
– Katya Riley
• Combine all ingredients in a pot over medium heat, simmer until rhubarb is soft. • Place 1 or 2 Tbsp (as desired) of this mixture in a cocktail glass. • Add 1 ounce gin or vodka (as desired). • Complete the mix with soda water or tonic water. • Stir with a stick of fresh rhubarb stalk and leave in glass as a garnish.
Farmer/Bartender’s Tips
• To add colour, stir in ½ tsp of organic beetroot powder. “It makes it a nice pink and goes well with the rhubarb as it has an earthy flavour.”
its idyllic heritage setting. Katya expects Brooklands Farm rhubarb to become available for sale around the Victoria Day weekend, depending, like everything agricultural, on the weather. Growing this magnificent vegetable, she shares, is not all that hard. “It needs a location in full sun – meaning sun dawn to dusk, no shade at all – and extremely rich soil,” Riley says. “Plant a bed in full sun, with plenty of compost and plenty of manure. Dig deep, two feet, because the roots go quite deep.” The Rileys spread lime on their soil to offset its natural granite-country acidity for all their other vegetables but the rhubarb does fine without it. Its own natural acidity is the source of its signature tartness. Start a patch not with seeds but with rootstock acquired from a friend or family member’s garden or a local nursery. “Plant so that the shoots are above the ground, as soon as you can work the soil,” Katya instructs. “It’s pretty hardy; it can handle frost.” She recommends not harvesting the plants for two years to let them get well-established. After that, with a little watering, weeding and a dose of manure every few years, the patch will generally do well. Take caution with the leaves, particularly if they’ve flowered. The leaves contain oxalic acid, enough that eating them can kill a child. To harvest, don’t pick more than 15 to 25 per cent of the stalks per year, depending on how prolific and strong the plant is. Cutting the stalk free isn’t required. Holding the bottom and pop off the stalk with a firm pull, Katya advises. Katya’s first recipe is a simple crumble she’s been making as long as she’s been on the farm, in which the sweetness used to offset the rhubarb’s tartness is truly Canadian. “They juxtapose each other in flavour,” Riley says. “Rhubarb is tart and sour, maple syrup is sweet and rich.” Her second recipe is offered in response to my question, “How about a rhubarb
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 59
Start a patch of rhubarb with rootstock acquired from a friend or family member’s garden or a local nursery. “Plant so that the shoots are above the ground, as soon as you can work the soil,” Katya Riley instructs. daiquiri?” Not quite, but still a cocktail; the recipe was tweaked from one provided by a friend. Another sourness-foiling tactic for rhubarb desserts is combining it with
strawberries, as we explored in depth with four mouth-watering recipes in a previous Cottage Country Cuisine (June 2018 – what, you haven’t kept all your old copies of Unique Muskoka? That’s okay, they’re all on
Strawberry-Rhubarb Filling
pour into rhubarb mixture while stirring. Add strawberries, turn off heat and stir until strawberries soften. • Fills approximately 12 3-inch tarts, four danishes and two 8-inch pies. (Yes, that’s “and” not “or”; it’s a large batch of filling. You might want to freeze portions.)
– Grace Willow
Ingredients 1,300 g rhubarb (fresh or frozen), chopped into ¾ inch pieces 700 g strawberries (fresh or frozen), cored 160 g white sugar 160 g brown sugar 40 g cornstarch 50 ml water 15 ml lemon juice 15 g unsalted butter or coconut oil (for dairy-free version) 2 g salt
Method • Heat cooking pot and melt butter or coconut oil over medium heat. Add rhubarb. • Mix sugars, salt and lemon juice together, and add to rhubarb. • Break apart rhubarb (if frozen), bring mixture to a boil and let simmer, stirring regularly until rhubarb starts to soften and liquid forms. • Whisk together cornstarch and water,
60 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
Baker’s Tips Why does this recipe call for weights instead of volumes? “More accuracy,” Dan explains. “Also, when you’re baking on a larger scale, it’s so much easier mathematically to manage millilitres and grams for scaling up and down; it’s a better communication system.” The bakery tries for accuracy within five grams, and for truly sensitive products, they use a weigh-scale that is sensitive to one gram. Accuracy is particularly important to control the subtle flavours of breads and, of course, for measuring spices. Why both white and brown sugar? “The brown brings in a little bit more flavour,” says Dan. “And you have to have enough sugar, but you don’t want too much molasses.”
our website archive.) Dan and Grace Willow, owners of Windmill Bakery in Huntsville, mix up a delicious strawberry-rhubarb filling which they use for pies, tarts and danishes, all for sale there year-round. This fruity filling started with a recipe from the bakery’s previous owner, Tjeerd Wouda, and was (as all recipes are) tweaked. “Those days we experimented,” Grace, who handles the sales and marketing end of the business explains. “We had a rhubarb and custard danish. There’s a reason people want rhubarb. They want the tartness, but typically in contrast with sweetness.” Dan Willow’s first trade was carpentry, but he now manages the production end as head baker. “It’s very fibrous, stringy, and obviously very bitter,” he says of rhubarb. “You have to find the balance of baking too much or too little, which varies with larger or smaller pieces.” The Windmill Bakery strawberry-rhubarb filling was originally used for pie only, which was one of its top-selling products. But one day about a year ago, Grace recalls, the baking crew found themselves with some extra tart shells left over from an order. “We said ‘Let’s fill them with strawberryrhubarb filling.’ And it was a big hit. Customers were asking ‘When are you going to have more of these?’ They kept selling, flying off the shelves. So, it’s now become a staple, a new standard product, available
Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce – Glenn Kitchen
Ingredients 2 cups rhubarb (fresh or frozen), chopped 1 cup water ½ cup chopped white onion 2 Tbsp canola oil 1 Tbsp chopped garlic 1 ½ cups ketchup 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar 1 cup pomegranate syrup 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar 1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce 2 Tbsp mustard powder 1-2 tsp Tabasco Sauce (depending on spiciness desired) Salt to taste
Method • In saucepan, place water and rhubarb and simmer until tender (about 15 minutes). • In another pot, put garlic, onion and oil. Sauté two minutes, then add remaining ingredients including rhubarb. • Simmer for 20 minutes. • Puree until smooth, and check seasoning, adding more salt or pepper as needed. Yield: ¾ litre.
year-round.” Gluten-free eaters, take note: these tarts – Glenn Kitchen — which were in high demand during a Ingredients recent visit to the bakery — are available in 2 Tbsp softened chopped rhubarb gluten-free form only. But they seem to taste (set aside from main batch used for too good to be gluten-free. the sauce) How to describe the tanginess of rhubarb? 2 Tbsp butter (salted) It combines well with strawberries due to the Salt and pepper to taste sweet/sour foiling we are already familiar with, but also the sub-flavours. The nuances Method that defy description but give each ingredient • Mix together and serve with its recognizable flavour, and combine Brussels sprouts or other wellbeautifully, making rhubarb rhubarb and matched vegetable. strawberries strawberries. Wine Pairing The filling is not too sweet, letting the • Depends on whether your protein tongue take on the rhubarb challenge with is white or red meat, of course; both the flaky-shelled pie and the delightfully should be full-bodied to stand up to crunchy tart. The danish is more decadently the intense flavours of the sauce and sweet due to its copious drizzled icing, but the brussels sprouts. the filling still gives it a gentle rhubarb bite. • Or you can just keep things simple Purchase the gluten-free version of the pie and make it a Brooklands Rhubarb frozen to bake at home, or have it baked at Maple Gin Sling. the bakery by ordering ahead of time. The bakery also sells a strawberry-rhubarb preserve “with half the sugar of regular jam,” Chef Glenn Kitchen, proprietor of Cottage Dan says. Country Catering in Bracebridge, rose to the Incidentally, in case you’re wondering challenge of creating a savoury rhubarb dish with what’s going on with all the construction at braised beef short ribs with rhubarb barbecue Windmill: their long-planned addition is sauce, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts being built now with rhubarb butter. that construction permits were obtained.
Rhubarb Butter
Chef ’s Tips
• This sauce works not only on braised short ribs but with chicken or other meats. • To make pomegranate syrup: purchase pomegranate juice at the supermarket and reduce it down to syrup, similar as you would balsamic vinegar.
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 61
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Work started in January and the Willows hope it will be complete sometime in the summer. “It will be extra production space, which will provide for more space for customers,” says Grace. “We’ll have a larger indoor seating space to add to the patio.” The patio, notes Dan, is also being renovated, expanded to about 30 seats and closed in with a proper roof and transparent walls. He is hoping to have it open by fall. Strawberry-rhubarb pie will last for a week refrigerated, tarts a little less, and danishes should be eaten within two days to enjoy the freshness of the pastry, Grace says. Now we present the challenge of rhubarb in a savoury dish to Chef Glenn Kitchen, proprietor of the very-well-named Cottage Country Catering in Bracebridge. Kitchen, who also co-owns Kitchen’s Buttertarts in downtown Bracebridge with his wife Diane, has an exclusive catering arrangement with the Bracebridge Legion and uses its kitchen as his base of operations. He began catering full time in March of this year, and says, “It’s starting to build.” Kitchen rises to the challenge with braised beef short ribs with rhubarb barbecue sauce, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts with rhubarb butter. He has shared with us recipes for the two rhubarb components. Are you ready for this? “It’s not entirely unique,” Kitchen says. “Everybody’s heard of peach barbecue sauces. But this just seemed like a natural fit for Muskoka, something people would actually do in Muskoka.” And so, you should. The dish is scrumptious. The mashed potatoes pair well with the tender ribs, which can be generously slathered with sauce and so complemented with its sweetness. The rhubarb flavour is so delicate you might not discern it’s there if you don’t know it is, but just experience it as a factor in the sauce’s delightful complexity of flavour. If you want a more blatant display of rhubarb’s inimitable brand of tartness, just up the amount in the recipe, Kitchen suggests. The rhubarb-buttered brussels sprouts really jumped out at my taste buds, because the flavours of rhubarb and brussels sprouts are one of these rare culinary matches made in heaven, and of course you can’t go wrong with butter to marry them.
June 2023 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 63
Muskoka Moments
A heartfelt “thank you!” Many of Unique Muskoka’s readers, along with long-time friends, assume I am a “local” – a born and raised Muskokan. And, after over 55 years of calling Muskoka home, it seems hard to imagine there was a time when Muskoka wasn’t my primary residence. The truth, however, is my Muskoka moments began as a child enjoying summer vacations at a variety of local rental cottages. While the memory of our youth becomes somewhat blurred with age, I can clearly recall exploring an early ice shed, situated on the same Three Mile Lake farm where our family stayed. There was childhood excitement at learning the sawdust-covered ice was what would keep our perishables cold in the cottage’s icebox. It was at that same location I had my first experience of “driving” a car while perched on my uncle’s lap. Much to my mother’s chagrin I got to steer the vehicle while my uncle “safely” operated the foot pedals. Despite the acclimatization my vacations had provided, that didn’t take away the trepidation I felt when I learned my father had decided the “big city” was encroaching too close to our peaceful home in the east Toronto community of West Hill and we’d be moving to Muskoka. “It was great to be here in the heat of the summer,” I thought, “but what was there for a teenager to do in the winter?” As time would tell, there was lots to do. Boredom, I learned, was not part of my vocabulary. By the time school started, I had already spent part of a summer working for Henry Fudge at the Glen Orchard Store and getting introduced to life in my new community. Henry was a Muskoka character who loved clacking his dentures to entertain young customers visiting the store he operated with his wife, Connie. Working for the Fudges, three years
64 UNIQUE MUSKOKA June 2023
Photograph: Susan Smith
Article by Don Smith
embracing life at high school in Bracebridge and several great summers waiting tables at the small but upscale Sherwood Inn convinced me Muskoka was my home. When it came time to head to university, I decided I needed to take a year off to determine my future. It was a year well spent that resulted in no turning back. A chance interview with Bracebridge Herald-Gazette publisher Bob Boyer set the course for a most fulfilling career. Bob, at the time recently retired as Muskoka’s longtime MPP, believed my experience as editor of the high school yearbook and my enthusiasm were a good fit for the weekly newspaper’s newsroom. However, Bob became much more than an employer – he was a mentor who shaped my future in journalism, nurtured my interest in politics and provided me with a desire to be totally engaged in the community. And, the rest, as the saying goes, is history. Now, nearly 52 years later, thanks to Bob’s guidance and the opportunities he provided, I have been a reporter and photographer, an editor and a publisher. When, at the rather green age of 20, I presumptuously decided I could do as good or better a job as the councillors I was
covering at the Township of Muskoka Lakes, I had his blessing to throw my hat in the ring. My victory allowed me to lay claim to the unofficial title of being the youngest councillor elected in the history of Muskoka. The following year, he appointed me editor of one of his publications and just three years later, he was making it possible for me to buy that newspaper. Since then, publishing, politics and community engagement have continually intersected in my life. The decision of my parents to pull up stakes and move me and my brother to Muskoka was a good one. But most importantly, throughout that run, I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to share all my experiences with my wife Susan, our three children and our grandchildren. Now that I’ve decided to step back from publishing, it is indeed exciting to know our daughter, Meghan, has decided to utilize her lifelong internship in publishing to become the next publisher of Unique Muskoka. I know my Muskoka moments have been shaped by the countless encounters I’ve had with Muskokans in every corner of the District. To all of you, I offer a heartfelt “thank you!”
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