From Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Work party facing east at Pitman’s Bay Boy Scout Camp, Mary Lake, Huntsville, Ontario in June 1953.
Pictured from left, Wally Johns, Frank Booth, Charles Booth, Rev. Frank Milligan. According to Muskoka Digital Archives, directly behind the workers are a Muskoka Construction bulldozer and a Chevrolet pick-up. Thanks to Don Lough and his employees, the campgrounds were levelled out and the roadway was smoothed and widened free of charge. The workers in the photo are digging by hand the post holes for a new dining lodge. The original owner of the property was Richard H. Stewart.
Pitman’s Bay (often described as a jewel in Muskoka) was originally named after Robert Pitman who owned the southernmost parcel of land, adjacent to Mary Lake, from 1886 to 1927.
The original owner of the property was Richard H. Stewart dating as far back as 1871. In 1941, Huntsville leaders were interested in buying the land. In 1945 three Huntsville businessmen, Claude Wardell, Sid Avery and George Hutcheson, purchased the land from Mrs. Elizabeth Bain.
The sale of the land in 1945 was completed, transferring ownership to churches on the condition that the lands remain for use by church youth groups.
In 1951, the Boy Scouts of Huntsville raised the money to purchase the 63-acre property.
The Town of Huntsville entered into an agreement with the then Huntsville Boy Scouts Association on December 7, 1951. The agreement between the Town and the Huntsville Boy Scouts Association names the Town of Huntsville as trustee of the Pitman’s Bay property. That agreement is currently being analyzed by staff, following a public meeting, to determine the future use of the property.
(Compiled by information from the Muskoka Digital Archives and Huntsville municipal staff).
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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Thank you for showing this photo of my father Wally Johns and what I consider one of the most wonderful places on Earth, Pitman’s Bay. He devoted a good portion of his life to develop this facility, for the Youth of Huntsville.
The construction company doing this “free of charge”. Can you imagine this happening now! We were so lucky to have civic minded people “back in the day”. Thank you to them.