It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Pharmasave Huntsville!
Remember the days when we could gather in crowds? We hope to get back to fun events soon. In the meantime, do you know what’s happening here? Or when? (Photo courtesy of the Baker Collection at Muskoka Heritage Place)
Here are two additional photos provided by Doppler readers:
Former fire chief Ross Payne rolls the log (courtesy of Courtney Payne)
Percy Wagg (standing) watches an unknown man roll the log (courtesy of Jean Wagg)
Last week we shared this photo:
The first car appeared on the streets of Huntsville in 1910, owned by Dr. Hart. A year later, R.J. Hutcheson bought the second. Here, the Lorenzo Howell family is pictured in Hutcheson’s car in about 1912. To gas up, cars drove to the Huntsville Hardware store (later Hern Hardware), which kept fuel primarily for motorboats. “We dashed outside and unlocked the door to the gasoline house,” Sam Forsythe later recalled. “The barrel was set up like a vinegar barrel you have seen in the corner grocers. We filled a gallon measure, grabbed a funnel and a chamois cloth and strained the gasoline into the car through the chamois cloth. I suppose we could put five gallons into the doctor’s car in from 20 minutes to half an hour.” Hern Hardware received council’s permission to put up the town’s first gasoline “hydrant” on March 3, 1914, assuming all liability for damage or accident. (Details from Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve; photo courtesy of Janet and David Fisher.)
Reader David Johns shared these details about the car: “The car is a 1911 E.M.F. The initials are the builders: Everitt, Metzger and Flanders. R.J. Hutcheson was the owner.” Thanks, David!
And Franklin Newhart shared this tidbit about R.J. Hutcheson: “Back in the 1980s I did some calligraphy for R.J. Hutcheson. He was in his very senior years and he had a Geneology book that he was keeping. Everything in it was in Calligraphic writing. He needed new entries done. I felt very privileged to do the work.” That would be so interesting book to read, Franklin!
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Seems to me that photo must be the ’70s or later. Doesn’t feel like that long ago but the the one fiberglass hull looks like that era and the aluminum hull in the photo is still common today. The big pointer work boat, with forward mounted engine and the rear tow stanchion is a bit older.
‘Log rolling’ is somewhat romanticized in this area, because our mills harvested a lot of hardwood logs and unless they are prepared, they barely float let alone allow a man stand on them. Mills like Bethune Pulp and Lumber and Muskoka Wood employed men to peel the hardwood logs, allowing them to dry a bit and even then they would have to go back for ‘sinkers’ when the spring flood subsided and the drive ended.
Softwood logs such as pine and cedar would float and the log in the photo might be cedar.
Rivermen wore ‘corked boots’ (boots with metal studs in them like a snow tire) to allow them to work on rafted and boomed logs. On big rivers like the Chaudiere and the Ottawa there were log rafts large enough for raft crews to live on.
But I’m sure that if you tried riding a half ton of peeled maple log over any rapids on our Big East River, you will quickly be able to drink standing up.