CHRISTMAS IN GRAVENHURST - EARLY SNOW, DOESN'T IT LOOK GREAT

No one would ever accuse me of having a treeless property. It's pretty evident after this morning's snowfall, that the Curries are not only tree-huggers, but they like the seclusion they provide. Even in the summer season, if I move on the deck, while people are passing, they startle and gawk. "Look dear….there's a house back there." You can still see the clutter on the deck but it is wreathed so nicely by native trees…..Muskoka trees. Canadian trees. And the enhancements of a Canadian winter. I am in my element. Except for that pesky cricket, chirping away at the strangest times, somewhere near my collection of old hockey sticks in my office. I know it's trying to tell me something. Maybe this keyboard tapping is disturbing its slumber. I might ask it about trees. A cricket should have an opinion about such things? Don't you think? Here I ago falling into that Disney trapping of my youth…..when crickets were people after all. As for trees, it's like this……

In our neighborhood, as grand and scenic as it is, with the accent of The Bog across the boulevard, we've had a lot of tree haters over the years, who have cut beautiful pines, maples and birches down because they apparently weren't in vogue, at the time, to what property enhancements were most elegantly fashionable…..and I suppose suggestive of great wealth and social standing. I've never had one or the other but I've watched neighbors who weighed gain by the number of trees they reduced. They'd cut a beautiful maple to make way for an exotic shrubbery. Sorry, but I love my maples. They're family around here. To them, we were always the "tree crazies." That's because I told them bluntly, that for every tree you cut down on your property, I'll plant two at Birch Hollow. Of course I sometimes only planted one, but they thought I'd planted more. That was the gossip anyway, and I fanned it like a Norwester on candle flame. While the reckless cutting of trees has slowed down recently, we've also been planting more shrubs (the Monty Python variety) and flowers than trees. Today it looks like a Christmas card…..and I like that about the place. And before you ask, we cut down all dangerous limbs, and make sure power lines are unobstructed, and wouldn't be impacted here even if there was an ice storm.

Yea, I'm hoping folks will be a little more conservation minded-here, because I'm running out of room, and the two for one deal is becoming a little harder to implement. We do love our trees.

I'm a contented, pleasantly coerced victim, you see, of the legendary poems of Robert Frost, and I have stopped many times, in the woods, on snowy evenings. And our favorite trees were the ones Frost like to make comment….and now you know why we call the old bungalow "Birch Hollow."

THE ISSUE OF POVERTY - MUSKOKA - AND DO WE DESERVE IT?

Speaking of vogue, I can't remember a time when issues of poverty in Muskoka, got so much ink. I really should be thankful for the coverage, if it wasn't for the accompanying ignorance about where our economic disparity came from, and where it's going from here. I really can't abide associate writers who don't research their topics thoroughly, and most recently, in a variety of media, the shortfalls of investigation have given cursory, incomplete and unfair coverage of the prevailing economic crisis. And every time I read such less-than-impressive research efforts, I can't understand, as a regional historian, and former editor, how you can pass off these high profile tomes as "well, this is the way we see it…..so it must be true" There are a lot of narrow vision writers out there, who need to smarten up. What happened to the pride of being the best of the best. Being damn proud of a byline, and everything printed below it? Here's a little tip from a veteran of the industry: make sure that when that editorial or article goes to press, that you can say, with honesty, you did as much as you could to validate your story, having examined as many points of view as possible. In the case of economics, and the poor in Muskoka, there is no excuse for not seeking out the opinion of historians. Take you pick. There's quite a few still kicking around.

Here's the problem in a nutshell. As we like to live everything in the present and future tense, many writers, not just in this locale, attempt to generalize the past couple of centuries, and target those readers who fell asleep in high school history class. There is a clear and unsettling avoidance of history, and I really don't know if it's a cumbersome situation, or it's just not in the time-frame of article development, to research through local histories to answer some age-old questions. You see, I don't find much today that doesn't have a link to the past, and therefore, trying to move forward, very much requires an understanding of how we have moved forward in the past. It's pretty much hinged. Take poverty for example.

While today's writer, out of laziness….or disinterest, likes to keep things contemporary…..it gets in the way of the total picture. In the case of poverty in our region, and even in the case of business downturns I frequently read about these days, there is a prevalent opinion that "geez, look what just happened in our neighborhood…..there are poor people." Like there have never been poor before. Shazam, as Gomer Pyle might say. The poor? Well, this can't be good for our region. Now to qualify the importance of research….not to simply validate the relevance of having historians wandering about under-foot, poverty and "the poor" in our region dates back to the first settlers to set foot on the bush trails of South Muskoka. Why? Well, in order to settle the wild regions of Canada, to support the efforts to claim this vast country, so the American states wouldn't move north, and later to justify the construction of the great sea to sea railway, huge numbers of potential settlers were recruited from Europe. With the generous offers of free homestead land grants, and outright lies about the quality of land (for agriculture) in Muskoka, for example, the poorest of the poor sought an escape from their prevailing destitution. The poor of Ireland, Scotland, England, Europe generally, and the Nordic countries. Icelanders, looking for better lives, were offered free grant land in downtown Hekkla, near Rosseau……a place of so many, many trees…. They were promised jobs, provisions, and a close knit community of fellow emigrants. The problem was that their provisions were half what they should have been, winter was setting in when many arrived in the 1870's, there were no jobs, few established citizens who could speak their language, and did I mention the trees. In Iceland, the trees are vastly different than the ones filling out Canadian forests. They weren't all that familiar with logging, as was necessary in Canada, as a condition of the Homesteads Act…….requiring the clearing of so much land, over a set number of years. And the didn't come with a lot of cash. But the Icelanders hung together (some did move on to places like Kinmount, Ontario, and to Gimli, Manitoba), felled the trees (even for the provinces bid to build roads), and made a strong cultural community in Hekkla……humoursly named after one of Iceland's best known volcanoes. Were they poor? Of course they were! Their success was as a community. It was their strength as a home settlement, that fostered a sharing of hardship, and of prosperity.

Canadian land agents, with a mandate to help attract new settlers, and steamship representatives, on the hustle, didn't always tell the truth about the inherent dangers of moving to this new land. Free or not, homesteading in the harsh climate of a typical Canadian winter, could be a killer-reality. Settler's guide books, sold for profit, not simply as acts of kindness, were often as misleading, and while some contained fair advice, and warnings about having adequate provisions, many couldn't read the text……they'd never been privileged enough to learn. When they arrived here, they found it anything but welcoming. The relationship with Muskoka began with hardship and economic disadvantage. The agricultural wealth of the land wasn't quite what had been advertised. Agents were so busy meeting their quotas, they neglected to speak honestly about the vast forests and rock……and boglands stretching across the paradise they were selling to the desperate. Did they give a rat's arse that some of these poor bastards were going to die on those same homesteads, the direct result of the lies and mistruths about the good graces of Canadian opportunities. Of course there were survivors. There were industrious, entrepreneurial homesteaders who pulled it off. They remained poor but they didn't wind up as premature casualties of the great bid to populate the Canadian hinterland. As we engage urban sprawl today, into the hinterland, we should also expect to find a lot of unmarked graves from these same homesteaders…..who never made it to the prosperity they were promised.

At almost the same time as the poor were arriving in Muskoka, looking for a better life for their families, the well-off sportsman class, were making forays into the wilderness for recreation. Some settlers got the idea of tapping into these early exploratory visitations, which seemed to be expanding, and offered rooms for rent in their modest abodes. It wasn't too long into the 1870's before investors, who had made similar forays from the city, began thinking about larger accommodations, with more luxurious appointments than the pioneer homestead could offer. As the settlers hacked away the forests, for a wee bit of arable land, the hoteliers found that sportsman would also bring their families along, if the right accommodation could be found. While some believe branding is new to the new century, word of Muskoka's healing, healthy, invigorating environs, was being shot around the world by those who stood to profit from "TOURISM." At a time of serious destitution on our wild frontier, luxurious hotels and resorts were springing up all over the place, and later private sanatoriums for the well-off……which was good for some homesteaders who could get work clearing sites, providing wood for construction, carpentry to build some of the accommodations, and provide some garden produce for the hotel kitchens. It was a mild help to the pioneer economy.

As the steamship industry was thriving in the late 1800's, there was still that characteristic of passenger…….the "eyes-wide-open" homestead class, full of fear yet hopefulness, on the same chugging new Muskoka Lakes' vessel, as the budding tourist class, with their eyes on adventures for a price…….luxury for those with the means to afford it. From the early years of settlement and development of Muskoka, there were rich and poor. Those who could afford to boat and golf, play tennis and eat the finest foods on the menu, and those who were of much less resource and potential to change their fortunes.

When I read these foundation-weak editorials today, the provocative questions about "what we should do about this poverty thing," makes me cringe…..because the only way to deal with the issue effectively, is to understand that it's the way we began…..and have continued in the ongoing reality of a seasonal economy. Although the poverty today doesn't represent the continuation of homestead toils from the 1870's, it is part and parcel of what we have always lived-with in Muskoka. A busy summer season, and a not so busy winter. But let me tell you, as an historian, it's a lot better today than it has been over the centuries. Tourism is stretching more and more into the shoulder season, and as the cities to the south continue to expand outward, Muskoka is going to see more active "retreat" seeking in the future. It won't solve poverty. It won't stop folks from getting into trouble, because they've made risky moves, and bad decisions. We can't always help those who racked up big credit card bills or mortgages, who all of a sudden lose their jobs. That's economics 101. As for anyone who has moved to Muskoka, because of all the opportunities……where did they hearsthat? It's not like Muskoka's history lied to any one. And those who thought the magic beans of big industry would save us here, and diversify the economy, have been disappointed time and again. Heck, I remember all the fuss about Corning Glass coming to Bracebridge in the 1960's. A very short lived relationship, but the building they vacated has gotten some use. Yet the number one industry, in Muskoka, from the late 1800's to the present, is routinely seen as the culprit of our disadvantages……more, it seems, than the realization that it's the kind of industry that responds well to investment……we just haven't made the effort the way we should have thirty years ago.