It’s Wayback Wednesday: Your favourite photos from Huntsville’s past

This 1930s image depicts the Mica Mine Hill ski jump. In Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve,author Susan Pryke notes that the jump opened on January 13, 1934 during Huntsville’s winter carnival. It was billed as the “largest, longest and steepest ski jump in Ontario”, and at “170 feet long, the Mica Mine jump offered a possible speed of 70 miles an hour for any jumper who cared (or dared!) to attempt it… The Mica Mine jump dropped off so abruptly that skiers could not see the bottom when poised at the top of its tower,” writes Pryke.

According to the Canadian Ski Yearbook, 1938, the record jump to that point was set that year by Celius Skaavas of the Toronto Ski Club who marked 138 feet.

Stephen D (@Twooriver) on Twitter pointed us to this re-printed 1965 article by Harold Briggs, who once owned the property, with comment from his daughter Jane Briggs Van Buskirk: The Mica Mine and Me. It’s a good read for anyone interested in learning more.

This is the steamer Gem at the Clyffe House dock ca. 1900. Fishing in the foreground is Clyffe House founder Robert Jenner. Clyffe House is the oldest resort in Muskoka still operated by the same family. It was started shortly after the railway reached Huntsville in 1886. (If you’re interested in more information about the history of Clyffe House, learn about a book by fourth generation owner David Scott here.)

Here’s some history on the Gem, courtesy of The Steamboat Era in the Muskokas, Vol. 1 – The Golden Years, by Richard Tatley:

“Early in 1897, the residents of Port Sydney decided, as a community co-operative venture, to build a cheese factory beside the river. By July it was turning out about 300 lbs. of cheese every day, and providing an important market for the local farmer’s milk. Partly as a result of this development, Sydney-Smith decided to build a new, larger steamboat, whose duties would include gathering cans of milk at all the local landings, as well as towing timber rafts to the various sawmills and running regular market trips to Huntsville. The new steamer was built on skids on the east side of the river, just north of Sydney-Smith’s sawmill, close to the spot where the old Northern was launched twenty years before. She was supposed to be ready by June, but work took much longer than expected. Not until July 15th, did she actually hit the waves. She was christened the Gem, which seemed oddly comical, since she was a stubby little craft with a distinct tendency to roll as she puffed along…

“The Gem was 35 feet in keel by 10 feet in beam, and registered 6.12 tons. Every Saturday she would take householders of Port Sydney to Huntsville to do their weekly shopping, departing about 9:00 a.m. and leaving Huntsville around 4:30. The trip took about one-and-one-half hours, depending on the number of stops she had to make on the way: passing through the locks alone required fifteen to twenty minutes. On weekdays the vessel combined towing logs, slabs and tanbark into Huntsville or Port Sydney, with collecting cans of milk on alternate days. In 1899 the cheese factory consumed 5000,000 lbs. of milk, most of which was transported by the Gem. She was also available to run picnics and pleasure cruises, sometimes by moonlight, and as the tourist industry became better established, she was sometimes chartered by the resorts to tour the lakes or attend regattas.

“On November 20, 1903, the Gem caught fire while docked near the Navigation Company office in Huntsville. The burning boat was pushed away from the wharf, and by the time the Huntsville fire brigade arrived, she was too far away to be helped. The blazing steamer drifted over to the opposite shore, where she grounded and sank. Her patrons were left stranded as a result but the S.S. Joe was engaged to take them back to Port Sydney. The loss was a heavy one for Sydney-Smith, whose insurance on the vessel had just run out. He had the hulk of the Gem pumped out and towed back to Port Sydney, where she was lengthened and rebuilt over the winter. Both her master, Captain Lyle Casselman, and Captain Denton assisted in the work. The new Gem was ready by July of 1904. Now 51 feet in keel and registered anew at 18 tons, she was steadier and far more commodious than before. Norman “Gibby” Keith acquired the Gem from Sydney-Smith about 1921 and then sold it to Captain May in 1924. About 1931 she was dismantled and abandoned on the north shore of Lake Vernon, not far from Huntsville. Her original owner, Albert Sydney-Smith had predeceased her on October 2, 1925.”

3. 1940s Main Street

Purchase and Installation of the Huntsville Town Hall Clock

My paternal grandfather, Edward Hugh John Briggs, emigrated from England in 1908, and was watchmaker and jeweller with the Harry Booth store in Huntsville, until he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1916.

Upon returning to Huntsville in 1919, and being discharged from the army, he opened E.H. Briggs Jewellers (where Muskoka Jewellery Design is now, at 68 Main Street East).

1927 saw the completion of the Municipal Building (Town Hall) on Main Street. During its construction, the question of a clock to go into the tower came up. The Town Council had heard about a clock due to be removed from the old railway station in Toronto, slated for demolition, to be replaced by the new Union Station on Front Street.

My grandfather was asked to go to investigate the clock’s size and suitability for relocation. It would be quite an engineering job to modify the clock to fit the clock tower in Huntsville, but my grandfather decided it would be possible, and Mr. Charles Paget bought the Toronto station’s clock as a gift to the town of Huntsville.

Councillor Tom Millest, and George Ralston, the town’s engineer, accompanied by my grandfather Edward (Ted) Briggs travelled by train to Toronto, where Ted took charge of packing the clocks parts to bring carefully to Huntsville. He carried the more delicate parts home with him.

It was indeed quite an engineering job to install the clock in the new Town Hall tower. New dials, hands, connections, and mainly the motive power weights had to be done, and Ted used special tools for those purposes, with the help of his sons Harold (my father) and my Uncle Ted.

What is really interesting to me is that in getting the correct weight, assorted pieces from old car crankshafts etc, were used.

The clock was officially started at 11 a.m.on October 11, 1927, where the Briggs family maintained it and made sure it kept as close a time as it was possible to get in a tower clock at that time.

Mr. P.W. Ellis, the dean of jewellers, pronounced the work of installing this clock “A magnificent job!”

(This piece of writing is taken from various written accounts by my Uncle Rixon (younger brother of Harold and Ted Briggs, as well as my Uncle Ted’s wife, Hattie Briggs, and also my memories of the story told to me by my father Harold).

My Memories of the Town Hall Clock

Although I always knew the story of the purchase and installation of the clock, I regret that I didn’t question my dad more about the thoughts and feelings of the mayor, H. E. Rice, the town councillors, my grandfather, the Briggs family…as well as ALL the other people of the town, and the excitement that must have been in the air!!!(For that reason, I have written and continue to write MY memories and thought s and feelings about my experiences…so that some day, when they are interested, my sons can read this kind of stuff and not have the regrets that I do!!)

My Uncle Ted, watchmaker par excellence, made sure that the Town Hall clock kept meticulous time. For that reason, he walked from Briggs Jewellers, at 68 Main Street East, to the train station in the west end, to set his pocket watch at the official time. He in fact did this at the same time every day, so people en route would indeed set their clocks according to my Uncle Ted’s passing their shops or homes!

He and my Dad took turns changing the clock’s time from EST to EDT and back…the official time to do that is 2 a.m., and so that is when the Town Hall clock’s time was changed. On occasion, my dad would wake my up to take me with him. It was just magical for me to be able to climb the iron staircase up to the tower to see all the wheels, the pendulum, the weights, and all those metal bits and pieces tick-tocking away (especially in the middle of the night!).

Every time I look at that clock now, I am so grateful that it continues to run, second by second, and to Terry Smith, who maintains the clock now, as well as the Town of Huntsville for refurbishing the tower.

If that clock could only talk, and not just tock!

If you want to see more Wayback Wednesday photos, click here.