WHEN LOOKING FOR IDENTITY - WHERE IS IT - WHAT DOES IT SAY - WHERE HAS IT BEEN HIDING - GRAVENHURST
LOOKING FOR HISTORICAL OVERVIEWS ABOUT GRAVENHURST
MAYBE YOU WON'T BELIEVE ME, WHEN I SAY, GRAVENHURST IS MISSING PART OF ITS HISTORICAL RECORD. YET, EVEN AS THIS PUZZLE IS SPRAWLED OUT IN FRONT, I CAN'T EXPLAIN EXACTLY, WHAT PIECES ARE MISSING…..EXCEPT IN THE MOST GENERAL OF TERMS. HISTORIANS ARE ALL A LITTLE OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE ABOUT MISSING ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY PUZZLE PIECES, THAT CAN AFFECT THE WHOLE APPEARANCE OF WHAT WE THOUGHT WE KNEW ABOUT THE LOCAL "BIG PICTURE."
BACK WHEN I WAS WRITING ACTIVELY FOR THE COMMUNITY PRESS, AND THE MUSKOKA SUN, THE SUMMER SEASON FREE PAPER PRODUCED BY MUSKOKA PUBLICATIONS, EDITOR ROBERT BOYER, ALSO A PROMINENT REGIONAL HISTORIAN, KEPT HIS MAIN STAFF WRITER, (THAT WOULD BE ME) PUMPING OUT FEATURE AND FILL COPY AT A HECTIC PACE. EVEN THOUGH THE MUSKOKA SUN, BACK IN THE 1980'S, WASN'T A HUGE PAPER, IT RAN AT A MUCH LOWER AD PERCENTAGE THAN A LOT OF PUBLICATIONS TODAY. BUSINESS PROSPERING NEWSPAPERS, ESPECIALLY GIVE-AWAYS, MIGHT NOW HIT EIGHTY PERCENT ADS, VERSUS EDITORIAL COPY NEEDED TO FILL THE REMAINING WHITE SPACE. THE HIGHER THE AD COPY, THE LESS EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS ARE REQUIRED. THIS WILL INCLUDE PHOTOGRAPHS. I BELIEVE THE MUSKOKA SUN, UNDER BOB'S DIRECTION, RAN MOST WEEKS, AT ABOUT SIXTY PERCENT AD COPY, AND ON OCCASIONS, THIS MAY HAVE BEEN LOWER. IT'S ENOUGH FOR THE COMPANY TO MAKE MONEY, BUT IT WAS A REAL DRAG FOR US WRITERS, BECAUSE BOB INSISTED ON ORIGINAL EDITORIAL MATERIAL. ALL THE TIME. IN OTHER WORDS, HE HATED TO USE WHAT WE CALLED "CANNED COPY," WHICH WAS ANY PRESS MATERIAL FROM THE GOVERNMENT, THAT WAS "CAMERA READY," AND ALL THAT WAS REQUIRED, WAS IT TO BE CUT TO COLUMN SIZE, WAXED AND SLAPPED ONTO THE FLATS WITH THE REST OF THE TYPESET COPY. BOB PRIDED HIMSELF ON BEING ABLE TO PRESENT A MAY TO OCTOBER PUBLICATION THAT SHOWED-OFF MUSKOKA TALENT, AND PARTICULARLY HERITAGE. SO I WAS BURIED IN BOOKS AND OLD PAPER FOR MOST OF THOSE YEARS AS BOB'S FEATURE EDITOR. I LIKED IT BUT WRITING THE STORIES UP, WAS A HUGE EFFORT AND HARD ON THE EYES AND BODY…….IF YOU CAN IMAGINE BEING HUNCHED OVER AN OLD TYPEWRITER FOR FOUR TO FIVE HOURS A DAY.
THE POINT OF TODAY'S BLOG IS NOT TO RE-HASH MY OLD WRITING DAYS, BUT TO MAKE AN OBSERVATION, GARNERED OVER MANY YEARS CRANKING OUT HERITAGE EDITORIAL COPY, AND JUST ABOUT ANY OTHER ORIGINAL MATERIAL BOB WOULD APPROVE FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION. WHAT I DISCOVERED, AFTER A FEW YEARS WORKING ON THE MUSKOKA SUN, WAS JUST HOW LITTLE I COULD WRITE ABOUT MY PRESENT HOMETOWN, OF GRAVENHURST. THIS MAY SEEM PREPOSTEROUS, EVEN TO MY HISTORICAL COLLEAGUES, BUT WHILE I WAS WRITING REIMS OF REGIONAL HISTORY, I FOUND VERY FEW EARLY REFERENCES TO GRAVENHURST, THAT I WAS LOOKING FOR, AS OBSERVATIONAL AND OBJECTIVE OPINIONS, ABOUT WHAT THE COMMUNITY WAS LIKE, DURING THE VARIOUS STAGES OF ITS DEVELOPMENT…..HAMLET TO VILLAGE AND ON TO TOWN INCORPORATION.
I FREQUENTLY USED BOB'S EXTENSIVE LIBRARY, OF MUSKOKA BOOKS, AND THE HUGE ARCHIVES COLLECTION, OF OLD NEWSPAPERS, WE KEPT DOWNSTAIRS AT THE FORMER HERALD-GAZETTE OFFICE, ON DOMINION STREET, IN BRACEBRIDGE. I COULD BE DOWN THERE FOR HOURS AND HOURS, TRYING TO FIND INTERESTING STORIES ABOUT ALL OUR MUSKOKA COMMUNITIES, AND OBSERVATIONAL OVERVIEWS ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO SEE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME……OR WHAT IT HAD BEEN LIKE TO LIVE HERE FOR HALF A CENTURY. IT DIDN'T MATTER. I COLLECTED THESE GENERALIZATIONS, WHICH COULD EVEN GET SPECIFIC, IF IT WAS A STORY OR INTERVIEW GIVEN BY AN OLDTIMER, ABOUT, FOR EXAMPLE, WORKING IN A LOGGING CAMP, OR ON THE RAILWAY. (STEAMSHIPS INCLUDED, LIKE CAPTAIN FRASER'S FAMOUS BOOK OF MUSKOKA HISTORY). AS I AM VERY MUCH A SOCIAL / CULTURAL HISTORIAN, THIS IS WHAT INTERESTED ME MORE, THAN JUST THE HISTORY OF EVENTS, BUILDING, POLITICS, GOVERNANCE, CRIME, NATURAL CATASTROPHES, FIRES, ACCIDENTS ETC. I WANTED TO KNOW HOW THE COMMUNITY REACTED TO THESE EVENTS, THROUGH THE CENTURIES OF COMMUNITY BUILDING, AND HOW THEY CAME TOGETHER AND RECOVERED, REBUILT, AND CARRIED-ON IMPROVING THE LIVES OF ITS RESIDENTS. OVER AT LEAST THIRTY YEARS OF HUSTLING-UP THESE OBSERVATION, FROM THOUSANDS OF DIFFERENT SOURCES, GRAVENHURST, IN MY OPINION, HAS THE FEWEST NUMBER OF EDITORIAL, AND HISTORIC OVERVIEWS, AS COMPARED TO THE OTHER TWO MAJOR MUSKOKA TOWNS. IT PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE BOTHERED EVEN THE MAINSTAY COMMUNITY HISTORIANS, BUT IT DOES AMAZE ME. BUT I THINK I KNOW WHY WE HAVE FEWER ACCOUNTS TO DRAW FROM. IT LIKELY COMES FROM OUR POSITIONING ON THE MUSKOKA LAKES.
OBSERVATIONS WERE MADE BY VISITORS AND NEW SETTLERS - SOME CONTAINED IN JOURNALS, AND ACCOUNTS OF VACATIONS
We know a lot about Orillia, because Stephen Leacock had a summer home on Brewery Bay of Lake Couchiching. He wrote "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town," using Orillia loosely, as a literary template for the stories about its early life and times. While I realize it's not the best overview, to follow the work of the fiction writer, to get an historical perspective on any place, at any time, taken with other historical information, it can certainly infill…..particularly something like the description and characters of Leacock's fictional "Mariposa." Gravenhurst has had fictional pieces written about it, including a book back in the 1980's, by former Gravenhurst resident, Martin Avery, entitled "Cottage Gothic." Another book, of juvenile fiction, written by internationally known author, John Ibbitson, also used Gravenhurst as a backdrop for the story, which by the way won the Governor General's award. The book was entitled "The Landing." But for an historical scrounger like me, who writes about Muskoka and its towns, on an ongoing basis, there isn't too much I can extract from either book, that fits the measure, when I begin patching together feature stories for a variety of non-fiction publications, including this blog. Both books are well written by highly competent and acclaimed writers, that Gravenhurst should be proud of, but I haven't written anything to date, about our mutual hometown, where anything they penned, could be simply quoted, to fit the theme I'm working on at the time. I do have it planned out, that I want to do this in the future, but it has to be something devoted to fiction, and hometown influences. My work deals mostly with non-fiction, except of course, when referencing historic poetry, for example, as I did last evening, when referring to work by pioneer Muskoka historian, Thomas McMurray, in his 1871 settlers; guidebook.
As a book collector myself, with a huge passion for rare Muskoka books, I have possessed or viewed most of them in the past, and this is where I have gathered my objective overviews, of what it was like in our community, ranging from the earliest days of settlement, in the late 1850's, as a hamlet, through the village years, on to the present. They are, as a collection, "slim pickings." Unless there are pioneer journals yet to come to light, some of the most important observations we could have, as historical record of our social / cultural past, are of only a minor consideration. It may be that some of these journals have been locked away for conservation's sake; but what editorials of the past, helped explain who we were, and how we developed as a South Muskoka community, are not in the kind of abundance, to afford us a significant dimension of historical understanding. Our heritage isn't just about buildings, boats, railways, politics and current events. I want to know what visitors and residents thought about Gravenhurst throughout its history…..not just about when fires occurred, or fire engines were purchased, bells erected, bells withdrawn, and all the other cornerstone histories, that have been preserved and published in highly regarded local books……which have served the purpose of basic historical coverage. We need them. But if we want to know about our social / cultural heritage, we really need to do more research, and reading between the lines won't help too much. In a contemporary sense, there is much more available to satisfy the curious historian, because of newspaper columns and opinion pieces, particularly community news from country correspondents. If you have a shortfall in these personal observations of the prevailing day, week, month and year, (or actuality), a lot of important history becomes diffused and watered-down by the counter-measure of those hard realities of historical record. In other words, hard historical fact out performs everything else.
One of my theories, based on years of rummaging through archives material, is that because Gravenhurst was a well known "jumping off place," where the roads, and then railway line, led to the steamship fleet, there wasn't the same necessity of making notes for posterity, on what our town looked and sounded like; and what interesting scenes and characters were encountered. There are hundreds of accounts of visitors to Muskoka, writing about the difficult passage north, from Washago to Gravenhurst, and then the stories usually shift, to what it was like steaming on Muskoka Bay, to the larger Lake Muskoka, with lots of notes about the trip up the Muskoka River to take passengers to Bracebridge. It's awfully frustrating to find a competent writer, who details so much of the trip north, and then abruptly stops at the words, "arrived at Gravenhurst where we met the steamship, to continue the trip." Now the truth is, Gravenhurst was an abundantly interesting locale, and I have come across quite a few overviews that suggest as much……and in some cases, how rough it was, when the loggers left the camps in the spring, and had lots of money to spend, in villages like our town. I believe there is a description in the book, "From the Logging Camp to the Ministry," that points out just how badly behaved these loggers were, when visiting the local hotels in Gravenhurst. There are many other examples, including some great and insightful observations, but they are one to ten line passages, that always leave one begging for more. I will take what I can get, of course, and even from some obscure books, many other historians have never heard about; but still not enough to satisfy my interests. As for the "jumping off," reality, I think there's a lot of truth to the situation, that many journal writers were either too exhausted to write anything more about the trip, or because of conditions and time restraints, just made capturing the local actuality a lesser concern……than cleaning up from one trip, and making the connection to the other mode of transportation.
When you consider the great writers of this country, and artists, who travelled through our community, from the earliest years of inhabitation, it's not possible, for this historian, to ignore the slight possibility some of these folks penned a little note or two that has remained obscure or unpublished; that may be contained in private papers stuffed into a national or provincial archives. Consider all the amazing talents who passed through Gravenhurst, even in the 1920's and 30's, to attend the Muskoka Assembly, on Tobin's Island, part of the annual writer's colony near Windermere, Lake Rosseau. Writer's like Charles G.D. Roberts, Wilson MacDonald, Bliss Carmen, and Sir Gilbert Parker, who may have arrived here by train, to take steamship passage to the island. Consider the fact the Group of Seven artists and legendary landscape painter, Tom Thomson, spent time in Gravenhurst…….not enough time possibly to write a book, but long enough to make a note on a piece of paper for posterity. Boy oh boy would that be a great thing then, to possess and exploit. A.Y. Jackson, of the Group of Seven, wrote about a canoe misadventure in the Moon River, and having to buy more provisions in Bala. A.J. Casson sketched a rural Gravenhurst school building, which is still standing on the Doe Lake Road. (Different use today, of course) There have been thousands upon thousands of situations, where writers and artists found themselves anchored for a period in our town, but there is so little gleaned from their visits. Even Norman Bethune, while at the Calydor Sanatorium, (later to become the Calydor Prisoner of War Camp), actually wrote material in his journal while a patient…..before being transferred to an American sanatorium.
We have been more than competent in this town, recording and preserving our historical records and photographs. And while you must have this material to make sense of it all, about where we have grown from, and the stages of development, it can have a hollow ring to it, without the true human side, as offered by first person observers of history in the making. When looking at Gravenhurst's identity, we rely on all the books that have been written here, and all the historic site markers, and look up with casual interest, at the old buildings that tell us something of our founding values and fortitude. When looking for the social / cultural identity of the community, it isn't quite as defined and basic, as one would judge historic architecture, or feel about steamships and railway tracks, that played such an important role in our advancement, from those few log shanties, once occupying the bailiwick of McCabe's Landing.
THE 1970'S ART, FOR US, BY ARTIST FRANK JOHNSTON
I have just recently come upon a well preserved copy of a 1970's Gravenhurst Board of Trade tourism brochure, entirely illustrated by one of Canada's finest watercolorists, and print-makers……Frank Johnston. Even without the accompanying editorial copy, Johnston makes this town appear fabulously appointed by nature and architecture…..an exceptional place to visit and a finer place to reside. Frank was a commercial artist, who had a printing press in his Gravenhurst house, but these art pieces, I've got tell you, are the result of an artist who took pride in his place of residence. Like the many paintings he had on loan, at the former Sloans Restaurant, on Muskoka Road, depicting the heritage scenes at the old Muskoka Wharf, the paintings he did for the Board of Trade were not just art pieces for profit. He put heart and soul into his work, and if you study them closely, you'll realize, what a considerable talent we had….and lost in this town……somewhat the result of neglect, and a failure to repay loyalty. Frank left the town, disenchanted, after his paintings weren't acquired by the town, for display in the municipal offices, which according to a handshake agreement, was supposed to happen. Point is, and with much water under the bridge, his work on our behalf, speaks volumes about the social / cultural / recreational / historical character of Gravenhurst…..that he so kindly gave us……..as one of these important overviews of our community.
I will offer up some of the editorial information included on the historic brochure, in my next blog. In addition, I will introduce you to one of our earliest painters, most residents in our community have never heard of…., but should come to know, for history's sake. In the meantime, if you know of any pioneer (or later period) personal journals, that might contain insightful and historically significant observations about Gravenhurst…….please, please let me know. I would love to be the one to make these observations public, as it is long overdue as historical record.
Thanks again for visiting, and sharing this local heritage. You are always welcome. It's nice to have company on these cold pre-storm winter evenings. Are you ready for the coming storm. Better throw another log on the fire. It could be a long and blustery night.
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