MUSIC ON THE BARGE ON CANADA DAY - OH PLEASE, OH PLEASE BE A NICE SUMMER EVENING
WITHOUT A MONSOON
NATURE LOVERS LIKE ME, KNOW THAT THERE IS BEAUTY AND WONDERMENT IN EVERY STORM CLOUD. THERE IS SOMETHING SO POWERFULLY SPIRITUAL ABOUT A THUNDERSTORM, SUCH THAT THEY HAVE INSPIRED WRITERS, ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS THROUGHOUT HISTORY. AS AWE INSPIRING AS THEY MIGHT BE, FOR THE BARGE MANAGER, FRED SCHULZ, THEY ARE THE HARBINGER OF ANOTHER CANCELLED SHOW. SO THIS SUNDAY, HOPEFULLY, NATURE WILL BE SPECTACULAR, IN A SUNNY AND DRY REGARD, BEFORE AND POSSIBLY AFTER…..TO GIVE US ALL SOME WIGGLE ROOM TO GET BACK TO OUR CARS. JUST NO STORMFRONTS FOR THE SET-UP AND RUNNING OF THE SECOND CONCERT OF THE 2012 SUMMER SEASON. AS THERE WAS A RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER LAST SUNDAY, FRED HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO CANCEL THE PROGRAM, IN AGREEMENT WITH MUSKOKA DISTRICT BAND CONDUCTOR, NEIL BARLOW. EVACUATING THE PARK IN THE EVENT OF A SUDDEN STORM WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO EVERYONE. THERE ARE NO RAIN OUT RE-LOCATIONS THIS YEAR, BECAUSE OF INADEQUATE ALTERNATE SITES.
SO ON CANADA DAY, (SUNDAY, JULY 1ST) MR. BARLOW WILL TAKE ANOTHER SHOT AT THE GULL LAKE VENUE, BRINGING WITH HIM THE WELL KNOWN AND RESPECTED "BIFOCALS BAND," AND HOPEFULLY A CALM EVENING. IF THERE'S FURY, LET IT BE IN THE MUSIC, NOT THE ATMOSPHERE. FRED WAS UPSET ABOUT LAST WEEK'S CANCELLATION, AND DOESN'T LIKE THE FACT THERE ISN'T AN ALTERNATE SITE, BUT HE DOES HAVE A TEMPORARY RAIN SHELTER FOR BARGE EQUIPMENT AND PERFORMERS, IF THERE HAPPENED TO BE A SHORT, MODERATE RAIN EVENT. WHAT SPECTATORS NEED TO BRING, IF RAIN IS POTENTIAL, IS ENOUGH WATERPROOF GEAR TO LAST OUT A WEE DRIZZLE. LIKE THEY DID AT WOODSTOCK.
PLEASE COME OUT AND SEE THE NEWLY REFURBISHED BARGE PLATFORM, THANKS TO THE FUNDING BY THE TOWN OF GRAVENHURST, AND THE WORK BY INMATES OF THE BEAVER CREEK CORRECTIONAL FACILITY. THANKS ALSO TO MANY BARGE VOLUNTEERS WHO HAVE HELPED BEHIND THE SCENES. FOR ONE, THE UNOFFICIALLY APPOINTED "BARGE DEBATING SOCIETY." INCLUDED WITH THIS CONCERT ON THE BARGE REMINDER, IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE BIFOCALS BAND. HOPE TO SEE YOU AT GULL LAKE PARK, FOR THE RESUMPTION OF A MUSIC TRADITION DATING BACK TO THE LATE 1940'S. WHAT A GREAT LEGACY FOR OUR TOWN. THANKS TO FRED, IT'S STILL "A GOING CONCERN" ALL THESE YEARS LATER.
TOM THOMSON AND ALBERT ROBINSON - A BOOK CIRCA 1937
"Thomson was a mirror of the wilderness, like one of his own clear northern lakes that reflect with such extraordinary vividness the beauties of the surrounding country and ever-changing skies," notes the small quotation in Albert Robson's 1937 book, simply entitled "Tom Thomson." Following up on the biographical booklets written by Blodwen Davies, art colleague, Albert Robson, adds some additional information to the early study of the Canadian landscape painter…..who had died twenty years before the Ryerson Press, released this small art history.
"Tom Thomson - painter of our north country - 1877-1917. Except to a very limited number of friends, Tom Thomson is a remote and mystical figure that broke into the art firmament with a sudden and dazzling brilliancy, and then disappeared as suddenly into the great unknown. During the last decade his career has been wrapped in mists of mystery and half truths somewhat obscuring a clear vision of the man and his work. These facts remain, that in March, 1913, Thomson exhibited his first canvas, 'A Northern Lake,' at an exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists in Toronto. This picture was immediately purchased by the Ontario Government. In July of 1917, his tragic and unexpected death carried away, at the age of forty, a man who in those short intervening years left a profound and lasting imprint on the arts of Canada. The work which he produced during those four years is sufficient to proclaim him, beyond question, one of the most significant painters in the art history of the Dominion."
Robson writes, "Thomson's truly amazing accomplishment is explainable mainly through the intensely passionate love he had for the lakes, woods and rolling granite-ribbed hills of the country he interpreted so sensitively and so beautifully. He painted the lake country with fiery concentration, rarely traveling farther than his beloved Algonquin Park, where Canoe Lake was his regular headquarters. Other Canadian artists had painted the north country before Thomson; it is both unfair and untrue to say that he discovered it as paintable material. But it is true to say, that he was the first painter really to interpret the north in its various subtleties of mood and feeling, free from influences of European traditions and formulas. His personal knowledge of the country and his inherent honesty, dictated its own technical methods of expression.
"It is not easy to explain in words, the power and magic beauty of Thomson's sketches. There is subtle insight revealed in the fluency of his expression, and intimate understanding that radiates from every brush stroke, lifting his paintings to the highest level of Canadian artistic achievement. He had that rare inner vision that sees beauty in subjects which would not commonly be called beautiful. Through the windows of his own eyes he interpreted intrinsic truths with unerring accuracy. While many of Thomson's sketches are amazingly facile, there was no conscious striving after cleverness, for cleverness is a superficial quality which casts a fog between us and true beauty of expression. In his work he adhered to the broad base of representation, weaving a selective concrete realism into a lyrical pattern glowing with vitality and sparkling with individuality. Thomson did not travel the well-trodden highways of derivative painting but made trails of his own where no man had stepped before. His passion for the woods was so intense that he could paddle the lakes and streams, and camp under the stars by himself, apparently without any sense of loneliness. The feeling of personal kinship, which he thus gained, resulted in numerous sketches of widely varying moods of the north, not usually observed by the more casual visitor."
IMMERSING IN THE ART OF NATURE
I will often pull back in my creaking, nearly destroyed chair, and distance these gnarled old fingers from the familiar comfort, of resting on these keys, and pause for a few moments, to think about mornings just like this, paddling along the shore of Canoe Lake, on a slow, meandering traverse to Tea Lake, and the Tea Lake Dam, where Tom Thomson used to fly fish from the rocks below the small cataract. A place I wish to remain in perpetuity with my muse, contemplating the universe and our place within.
Despite the constant hum of this infernal contraption, that replaced my old manual typewriter, now relegated to a shelf as an ornament, I can easily dream back those soft, tranquilizing sounds of water droplets falling off the tip of an outstretched paddle; the trickle of water at the stern, as the canoe races its reflection to nowhere in particular. The morning mist, on a July morning, is cool and refreshing, as it is haunting and mysterious. A paddler might suddenly come upon the phantom canoeist……Thomson himself, who is said to haunt this Algonquin Lake. There is an enchantment to this scene, I find impossible to explain or translate, such that you might know the same feeling, of being on a parallel traverse, as was once travelled regularly, by one of Canada's best known landscape artists. I could drift dreamily away for an entire day, and feel it was mere moments of time, contemplating the enormity…… the history of this Algonquin paradise, that has inspired a legion of writers, artists and musicians. Its sunrises and sunsets have made poets from non-poets; artists from those who have never sketched a single panel, and created music in the minds of those who have never played an instrument. This is the place where invigoration pours directly into the soul, and great things can happen…..wonderful realities can emerge.
I wish only to have my muse in this canoe of mine, so that I could show her this portal between actuality and spirituality; and show her what Tom Thomson saw of this world and beyond, within the legend of wild places. It is a strange solitude, that can calm and stroke the restless spirit, while at the same time, expanding the universe with such invigoration for adventure. This is the magic released by the paintings of Tom Thomson. That we can all sit comfortably in the bow of his canoe, and feel the pulse of nature surrounding us, and appreciate the full spectrum of freedom that was his recreation……as his paddle pushes with a curious silence, deep into the lake, to push us further along into our daydream.
Here is another previously published feature article, on Tom Thomson, based on research I commenced back in the mid to late 1990's, in preparation for several multi-chapter feature articles for the regional press.
Muskoka Winter –
Spending my time this winter with the memory of Tom Thomson
Back in the mid-1990’s, during a brief writing hiatus, I found myself by strange and coincidental circumstance, delving into the mysterious death of Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson. The legendary painter perished in July 1917, the victim of apparent drowning in Algonquin Park’s Canoe Lake. After a CBC documentary in the early 1970's, based on Judge William Little’s theory Thomson had been murdered instead, the arguments were so compelling that I was one of thousands of Canadians who began to see the Thomson misadventure as a cold case instead......some saw it simply as murder most foul with a host of suspects from the cast of characters circa 1917. It was writer and Thomson biographer Blodwen Davies who first raised the suspicion of murder in the late 1920's, while researching his activities in the Canoe Lake community for a future book. She found numerous people who resided around the lake, who also suspected Thomson had run into an adversary somewhere at Mowat (on Canoe Lake) on the night before his over-turned canoe was found floating near shore.
For me, the writer without a project, my interest was sparked (mid 1990's) after I read a biographical column written by well known Algonquin region guide, and trapper, Ralph Bice, published in a Muskoka weekly newspaper. As a long time admirer of Tom Thomson’s art, one column caught my attention moreso than the others in the series. It was a latent rebuttal of a theory put forth many years earlier by Judge William Little, in the text of his then controversial book, "The Tom Thomson Mystery," alleging the artist had been murdered. Mr.Bice, revered for his tales from the bush, contended the artist, who may or may not have been intoxicated at the time, simply fell out of his canoe, possibly while relieving himself mid-lake. He believed it was most likely, as other researchers have similarly concluded that Thomson simply whacked his noggin on the gunnel of the canoe as he fell, being knocked unconscious before actually hitting the water.
It wasn’t just Bice’s column alone that inspired years of preoccupation to find the murderer. It was the collection of strange coincidences that continued to happen during those first two years of research. (Many that still occur today while I continue to delve into reference material about the artist’s life and times) It was one particular coincidence and its spin-off that hooked me early in the Thomson story. It happened shortly after reading Ralph Bice’s column regarding his theory the artist’s death was the result of misadventure. Within a few hours of reading the column, I found an autographed copy of Judge Little’s book, "The Tom Thomson Mystery," on the shelf at the local Salvation Army Thrift Shop, here in Gravenhurst. It could be evidence of serendipity at play but I think in this case it was just plain old coincidence. Or if you believe in the capabilities of the so called "other-side" to communicate with the living, well, maybe Thomson had a plan for this writer without a project! Add to this the fact William Little had only recently passed away. It was from this point that coincidence made up a weighty portion of my work, which has led to numerous feature series in local publications, as well as other papers in Southern Ontario, including online sites. What really generated interest above all else, was that Ralph Bice had written the column about Thomson’s death being finally resolved, at a time when Judge Little could not offer a counter point. After consultation with several members of Judge Little’s family, I let them know that I wanted to defend the "murder" theory put forward by their father, a man I greatly admired, and respectfully re-submit information contained in the Tom Thomson Mystery, to balance, at least locally, what Mr. Bice contended was accidental drowning without the shadow of doubt. I just didn't think it was fair Judge Little couldn't counter these claims being made by Bice. The first short series of articles appeared in Muskoka Today and was well received by the local audience. I began getting all kinds of clippings and stories sent to me over quite a number of weeks, with some insight about the 1917 case I hadn't previously known. Of course it was early in research so this is to be expected.
After the first collection of columns had run as a sort of teaser, and I announced plans for a larger series in the future with more information, I began getting a significant number of letters, envelopes stuffed with old news clippings about Thomson, offers of Canadian art books for reference, and many words of advice both supporting William Little’s murder theory, and just as many on the side of Mr. Bice, convinced Thomson, an unskilled canoeist had simply drowned. There has been considerable debate whether or not Thomson was a skilled paddler. Some maintain he was indeed a proficient canoeist who could handle any serious weather out in the open and there are just as many who claim he was still a green-horn paddler who could easily have made a fatal mistake by being over-confident with his own apparent prowess.
Over a two and a half year span of time, I spent hours each week reading and re-visiting editorial material submitted, and other documents I found on my scrounging missions to libraries and old book shops. I can’t remember the final tally of articles I had published but it added up, by the pound and the hours spent, to be the most I had ever researched or written continuously on one subject. As an editor-columnist for the local press for many years, I was pretty much set on short pieces and summary histories, versus lengthy, over-written and ink burdened chapters "beating about the bush" to get to the bottom line. The Thomson story didn’t have the satisfying feeling I had anticipated, at the conclusion of each one of the specially prepared series; the sense of successful completion a writer normally experiences when the paper, as they say, is "hot off the press," and finally hitting the public domain. It has haunted me in the same way ever since. The job isn’t done yet! I told my wife Suzanne, in an historian’s typical frustrated rant and resignation, (while one day staring over the pile of Thomson clippings and research notes), that "it’s as if Thomson himself is asking me to carry-on and resolve the circumstances leading up to his death." Admittedly there have been moments of frustration when I have sworn-off having anything to do with the story ever again. A period of blunt, honest resignation that I have been defeated by the story......a hiatus which usually lasts about a week before I'm open to possibility again......that somewhere out there the truth exists.....in the grave, in the water, in the copious notes written by someone at some time.
If there’s one over-riding reason I haven’t abandoned the project, in nearly a decade of on-again off-again research, it is in the troubling reality Thomson’s death was a clear instance of "justice denied." While there was evidence he was murdered, a poorly run coroner’s inquest, (without the body…. which had already been buried) hastily ruled the artist had drowned accidentally. His tragic death is entrenched in the history of Canadian art, whether critics care to believe this or not; a mystery, a legend that in many ways, has and will continue to influence impressions of his art work. I would challenge my critics with this question……is there anyone, any art buyer since Thomson’s death, who hasn’t been influenced even to the smallest degree, by what has long been considered a mystery and tragedy rolled into one biographical overview. An exceptional painting, a death unresolved. Even days after the discovery of Thomson’s body in Canoe Lake, those close to the artist made claims about foul play, so the hearsay of murder is, as his death, at a 92 year anniversary.
One of the nation’s best known artists, his work having influenced so much of the national art consciousness of the past century, remains the shade of unresolved, nagging mystery. I have always be perturbed by the fact so little has been done, with the exception of research by William Little and before him, Blodwen Davies, (the first Thomson biographer), to properly address the inconsistencies surrounding his death that were covered-up and ignored by so many authorities and historians ever since. Maybe as some mediums claim of unresolved, discontent spirits, it’s the case Thomson can’t rest in peace until the exact cause of death is determined. I’ve certainly felt like a conduit over this past decade. I feel it’s critically important to keep, in front-line consideration, the important findings of both Davies and Little, both revered for their attention to detail and their characteristic reliability to treat fact reverently, and use the critical approach to prove or disprove a theory. I'm tired of generalizations that are the result of untutored and sloppy opinion that have little if anything to do with hard fact.
As Tom Thomson’s art work continues to attract higher prices at auction, with more record prices anticipated in the future, I’m of the stubborn belief Thomson’s memory deserves as much respect, and as a researcher I believe Canadian art history would be shaken to the core, if it was finally, and totally accepted our most revered artist was murdered, and not the victim of death by peeing (overboard) misadventure,...... as it prevails as accepted fact today in most of the authoritarian biographical texts.
The point of this lengthy little preamble, is to let readers know that I will be spending most of the frigid Muskoka winter, holed-up here at Birch Hollow (our Gravenhurst home), preparing editorial copy for a lengthy series of blogs to recognize the 92nd anniversary of Tom Thomson’s death 1917-2009. It will be the most thorough investigation into the artist’s death to date, and hopefully it will enlighten readers about the inconsistencies of the "accidental drowning" theory, and clearly prove there is enough evidence in the public domain today to finally sink the coroner's report of July 1917.....as unfounded speculation and nothing more.
From the snowy woodlands of Muskoka, farewell for now! More on Thomson yet to come.
Accidental drowning or a case of murder?
The Tom Thomson mystery officially began on July 8th, 1917
By Ted Currie
The water on Canoe Lake this morning mirrors the August sky. There is a deep and limitless blue over silver, wavering in the reflection of paradise on earth. A canoe and paddler silhouettes against the rising sun, as its route crosses a thick background of lush evergreens. It is a haunted lakeland. It’s no wonder Canadian landscape artist Tom Thomson adored this place.
"Mark Robinson (Algonquin Park Ranger) stated that as soon as he heard of the discovery of Tom’s (Thomson) canoe from Charlie Scrim, he began searching the shores of Canoe Lake from Tea Lake dam in the south, up through log-jammed Bonito Lake, a connecting water link between Canoe and Tea Lakes," wrote Judge William Little, in his controversial but well received book, "The Tom Thomson Mystery," published in 1970 by McGraw-Hill.
"The search began the morning of July 11th, and continued during the next four days without the discovery of a single clue. A number of local citizens took part in this time-consuming and intense investigation of every bay, inlet, and portage on Canoe Lake. Mark (Robinson), accompanied by his twelve year old son, Jack, traveled miles through the bush as well as back and forth on the portage to Gill Lake, a few miles to the west of Canoe Lake’s southern shoreline," Little notes of the full scale search for Tom Thomson. There was still some hope Thomson had just gone further afield and would soon make an appearance at possibly the Gil Lake Portage looking for his canoe. There were others who knew it wasn’t like Thomson to abandon his canoe.
"On July 12th George Thomson arrived at Canoe Lake on the evening train. After discussing his brother’s disappearance with Mark (Robinson), who met him at the station, George examined his brother’s canoe and talked with guides and residents of the area. He came to share the general view that it was hardly likely that Tom had come to any grief while on the water, and thought his brother might have left his canoe at a portage while he went to the other side to fish or paint. The mystery was why he would have stayed for so long a period unless he had been hurt or otherwise incapacitated while in the bush."
Judge Little, who had long suspected foul play leading to Thomson’s disappearance, paid attention to the following important details of the failed search: "The guides, particularly George Rowe and Charlie Scrim, were quick to note that Tom’s own working paddle was missing when his canoe was found, and the spare or portaging paddle had been found lashed in a position to portage but had been knotted in a most unorthodox way, as if a much less experienced canoeist than Thomson had tied it. When the guides searched the shoreline they were looking for the working paddle, as well as the artist himself. The paddle was never found which in itself is unusual in view of the concentrated efforts made by the many people working over specific areas. Paddles float."
In the words of Mark Robinson, regarding the failings of the search, "I traveled every day that week in the woods down to the south of us and west of the lake. I covered all that country along with my eldest boy and found no trace of him. I couldn’t find any track or sign of his having crossed Gill Lake. I returned each night and reported to Mr. Bartlett (Park Superintendent). He sent three or four rangers over to help and they traveled the east side of the lake here and the south side, as well as Tea Lake and Tea Lake dam areas. They found no trace of him. Saturday night I’d return late and he (Mr. Bartlett) said; ‘Look Mark, you must be tired traveling so much.’ I said I am but I can still travel more; I’d like to find Thomson. He must have broken a leg or a limb, maybe fallen and injured himself. I have walked all over the bush, I’ve fired shots and I’ve blown my whistle, and he knows my signal with the whistle as well as anyone does, and I have not been able to find him."
In the July 13th issue of the Toronto Globe the headline read, "Toronto Artist Missing In North – Tom Thomson missing from Canoe Lake since Sunday – A Talented Landscapist." The article read as follows: "Toronto art circles were shocked yesterday at the news received from Algonquin Park that Tom Thomson, one of the most talented of the younger artists in the city, had been missing since Sunday and was thought to have been drowned or the victim of foul play. Mr. Thomson was last seen at Canoe Lake at noon on Sunday (July 8th), and at 3:30 in the afternoon his canoe was found adrift in the lake, upside down. There was no storm, only a light wind prevailing, and the fact that both paddles were in place in the canoe as if for a portage, adds to the mystery… Mr. Thomson carried a light fishing rod and this and his dunnage bag were missing." This contradicts earlier evidence that only one paddle was found awkwardly lashed to the thwart of the canoe.
"On July 14th, George Thomson, in preparation for departure on the evening train, gathered up a number of Tom’s sketches that were among his few belongings," noted Judge Little of the elder brother’s decision to leave before the search had concluded. George Thomson’s departure and removal of some of his brother’s art work continued to be a curiosity to writers such as William Little. It didn’t seem right that he had left Canoe Lake without absolute news regarding the disappearance. George Thomson was fully aware that if his brother had drowned, the body would surface sooner or later, considering the water temperature and conditions of the key waterways. It was one day later in fact, that Dr. Howland, on Little Wapomeo Island, in Canoe Lake, had snagged something or other while fishing, which was most likely Thomson’s submerged body. The next day Dr. Howland spotted something floating in the water in the same general location as his snagged fishing line the evening before. Two local guides passing in a canoe at the time, George Rowe and Lowrie Dickson, were asked by the doctor to check out the object floating in a direct line with Hayhurst Point. It turned out to be the bloated body of Tom Thomson.
What would follow is an impromptu medical examination which determined that Thomson had been bleeding after falling in the water, meaning it was most likely he had sustained a severe blow to the head but still had a heart beat when he hit the water. There was no water found in the lungs. Yet by Dr. Howland’s impromtu autopsy report, the artist had without doubt perished by drowning......no serious concerns being raised about the obvious bump on the side of Thomson’s head......and whether it could have been the result of an altercation leading up to his positioning in the watery grave. While it may have been suspected there was more to the story of Thomson’s demise, and some suspicion about foul play, there is no record of murder being suggested at this point, and in fact, it never did arise even at the eventual coroner’s inquiry. What is known, as Blodwen Davies found out more than a decade later, is that a goodly amount of innuendo about murder had surfaced and was still simmering in the Canoe Lake community. Not everyone had bought into the accidental death scenario. What is obvious over the decades however, is that there was a refusal to publicly debate the issue within that community. The mystery broadens.
What would be a pivotal decision in the case, was Mark Robinson’s chagrin about leaving Thomson’s badly decomposing body tied to the Canoe Lake shore awaiting the coroner. He paddled to see his superior, Bartlett, and it was agreed an examination and burial that same day, July 17th, should be conducted in respect for the dead. What this did was deny the official coroner, who would come later, the opportunity to examine the body, rather than accepting the autopsy report from Dr. Howland, who had determined the cause of death as accidental drowning. By time the coroner, Dr. Ranney did arrive that same day, July 17, 1917, Thomson had already been buried in the Canoe Lake Cemetery.
Instead of ordering the body be exhumed which he had ever right to insist, he accepted the report by Dr. Howland, and the observations of witnesses at an inquest.
It will long be my own contention, that when those in attendance refused to speak up, after the coroner invited anyone who had suspicions about other factors that could have led to the artist’s demise,.. the seed of mystery was deeply planted in the Canoe Lake community. Many in attendance knew that Thomson was a capable canoeist and the weather of the day had offered no challenge out of the ordinary for such an experienced paddler. They also knew there had been heated words exchanged with cottager Martin Bletcher Jr., the night before his disappearance, at a mutual friend’s cabin; Bletcher suggesting that Thomson should stay out of his way if he knew what was good for him. In fact, the inquest was held in the Bletcher cottager. And no one raised even one concern Thomson could have been the victim of foul play,...... even though there is evidence some participants at the inquest talked freely of murder, and potential suspects once the official part of the meeting had concluded.
If they had truly been friends of Thomson as many were quick to claim, it might seem their bond of friendship, that would have prevailed upon their honesty at the inquest, had its weakness in the face of an unspecified retribution for speaking their minds. Did they know the killer then and simply refuse to reveal it to the coroner? Or possibly they weren’t Thomson’s friends at all!
The 95th Anniversary of Tom Thomson’s death-
Where is his final resting spot?
"Dr. Ranney had not returned to his home in North Bay to complete his official report of the inquest (regarding the death of Tom Thomson), before Shannon Fraser (Mowat hotelier) received a telegram from a Huntsville undertaker, Mr. H.W. Churchill, saying that he was coming to Canoe Lake (in Algonquin Park), to exhume the body of Tom Thomson. Shannon told Mark (Robinson – a park ranger) of the telegram and both men were puzzled about when this exhumation was to take place, and who ordered it to be done," reported William Little, in his book, "The Tom Thomson Mystery," published in 1970 by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. The up and coming Canadian artist had reportedly drowned on July 8th, and when his body was discovered floating in Canoe Lake, it was hurriedly buried due to its advanced state of decomposition. Or at least that was the reason given. The decision to bury Thomson before the Coroner could examine the body has become one of the pivotal points of conflict that has given the murder theory so much momentum over the years. Not only is it true that "Dead men tell no tales....." "Buried men conceal evidence." While there has been the suggestion that the war-time stresses on the medical community at home, which created manpower shortages in every community, represented at least part of the constraints on Dr. Ranney, (somewhat justifying his refusal to order an exhumation of the Thomson plot), it is still the lingering question in this new century, as it was in the last, that never gets a satisfactory answer. Today this would not have been allowed. In Dr. Ranney’s day it wasn’t allowed either but somehow the Thomson inquiry just kept getting more muddled as time and people came and then left.....with a heck of a mystery spiralling in the wake.
Shannon Fraser’s horse-drawn stagecoach, which had been used to transport Tom’s body to the gravesite (Canoe Lake Cemetery), made regular runs to Canoe Lake Station to meet incoming guests, and also to transport those returning home to trains leaving for the southern parts of the province. Shannon visited the station shortly before 8 p.m. to meet the eastbound train. He made the trip to the station with the coach empty save for a trunk that was to go out on the morning train. He was surprised to be met by a tall dark man dressed in undertaker’s garb complete with bowler hat and long dark coat."
As I stand here now on the shore of beautiful Canoe Lake, the autumn scene this morning is at a stunningly beautiful maturity. The water surface is still and reflective mirroring the tranquility of both heaven and earth. One can easily imagine the lone canoeist in a silent traverse of this autumn paradise, the wake a thin ripple disappearing into the quivering silver of an enchanted lake. Maybe it was the ghost of Tom Thomson paddling that spirit canoe toward a favorite fishing spot. Maybe it was just the mind playing tricks. The natural splendor of this place does it to me all the time. I inadvertently get lulled into complacency at a time when we’re supposed to be investigating a 90 year old cold case. Was Tom Thomson murdered in July of 1917? Some say it was death due to drowning. Others believe it was a whack on the head which led to his death. Murder? Disposal of the body! And so many other mysterious goings on, to this point in our story......but the confluence of interesting details continues.
"Introducing himself, the undertaker announced, ‘I’m Churchill from Huntsville; you received my telegram I expect? I have the metal casket here on the station baggage wagon. If you’ll give me a hand with it we can put it on your coach.’ Shannon eyed the plain metal box and took the lower end in his strong arms and lifted it with considerably more ease than the undertaker. Mr. Churchill’s black valise was placed in the passenger section, while the undertaker himself climbed up beside Shannon on the driver’s seat. ‘You’ll be doing your work tomorrow I expect,’ Shannon averred. ‘Tonight,’ was the terse answer. ‘Tonight?’ exclaimed Shannon. ‘I can’t get you any help at this time of day.’ ‘I don’t need any help, just get me a good digging shovel, a lantern and a crow bar and I’ll do the rest. I want to get out on the morning train and get this coffin off to Owen Sound by tomorrow.’ ‘You’ve got your work cut out for you, and I don’t envy you,’ boomed Shannon, keeping his eyes on the curving road ahead." This passage appears on page 84 of Judge Little’s "The Tom Thomson Mystery."
This is an integral point in understanding the Tom Thomson mystery. The Thomson family wanted a proper burial in their own community cemetery in Leith, Ontario, near Owen Sound. It was an understandable request seeing as they had not been given time to attend the impromptu Canoe Lake burial. What was more than a little unusual was that Churchill planned to exhume Thomson’s body during the night by himself. When Shannon Fraser arrived the next morning the metal shipping container was ready to go, according to the undertaker’s word the night before, although it appeared only a small amount of the grave site had been disturbed by the shovel. It seemed to Fraser an impossible task, for him to have raised a hardwood coffin in a cedar rough box without having made a much larger hole. Mark Robinson, who inspected the site later, also had difficulty appreciating the handiwork of the Huntsville undertaker. When Fraser helped lift box with Thomson’s body onto the cart it didn’t seem much heavier than when he had unloaded it at the cemetery.
It is reported that Park Ranger, Mark Robinson, accosted Mr. Churchill at the train station, according to a chronicle of the events presented in a CBC film documentary circa 1970, asking by what authority he had to remove Thomson’s body from Algonquin Park. Churchill said he had approval from the Thomson family and that was all he needed. The body was loaded onto the morning train and shipped on schedule to Owen Sound and then on to Leith, as it is understood for re-burial. It is believed the casket was never opened by family or the undertaker in charge of funeral preparation. Reportedly comments were made that there was a musty odor permeating from the box, whether that meant its contact with the Algonquin soil or a scent from the body within. There is another story told by a reliable source that Tom’s father had requested the lid be removed from the box so that he could see his son one last time......and the artist had indeed arrived home to Leith.
So why is this integral to the Thomson mystery? In 1956 William Little and three companions, acting on information from a variety of sources who steadfastly believed Thomson’s body had never been moved by Churchill that July night in 1917, decided to seek out the artist’s burial spot in the small Canoe Lake Cemetery. They eventually found the plot and dug up the coffin that had supposedly been removed by Churchill. It was identical to Thomson’s, including the name plate that had been left blank in the rush to get the body buried. There was a skeleton inside, the skull having a hole in the left temple area, consistent with a blow to the head visible on Thomson’s body when examined by Dr, Howland. Had Churchill lied about moving the body to Owen Sound? What was in that metal traveling coffin? Algonquin soil?
Here’s the problem. When the skull was examined by several forensic authorities, relating it to photographs taken of Thomson, it was ruled the body in the coffin wasn’t the deceased artist circa 1917. Who was it then? The Thomson family did not agree at that time, or any time since, to have Tom’s grave in Leith exhumed to prove beyond doubt the artist had arrived home in the summer of 1917….such that it still remains in the minds of many, a controversial delivery from Algonquin Park’s Canoe Lake. William Little, to the end of his life, believed the skeleton found in the Canoe Lake plot was without question, Tom Thomson, which certainly begs the question, "so who is buried in his grave in Leith, Ontario?" Why would Churchill have left the body in the original grave when he could have been exposed by the family in Leith, if they had demanded the coffin be opened…..only to find good old Algonquin soil and nothing else. There is nothing to suggest Churchill was dishonest in any way so it does seem unlikely he would have made this attempt to shortchange the Thomsons of their son, risking certain financial ruination. He probably did know that Thomson was a rising Canadian artist, by news carried in the local Huntsville press after he had been reported missing. Either it is true that the elder Thomson had been satisfied with a viewing of the open coffin or that it had not been opened at all. There was nothing to suggest Churchill hadn’t fulfilled all his obligations. My own opinion of Churchill has changed substantially from my first foray into the story when I believed his actions were less than savory. I do admit believing Thomson’s body was transported to Leith and that Shannon Fraser’s account may have been tainted because, as it turns out, he was one of the prime murder suspects.....possibly having reason to dump on Churchill when questions of Thomson’s body surfaced much later in the ongoing investigation. When Churchill was approached decades later about the transfer of the body, it was apparent his age and prevailing illness contributed to his confusion about the case yet he would not agree to the two grave scenario. He had indeed transported Thomson to Leith. So why is there a skeleton in Thomson’s plot in Algonquin Park? Could it be Judge Little and companions that day had simply dug up the wrong plot and the remains were not Thomson’s? It did take them numerous attempts to find an occupied plot. Was it another man instead? Afterall forensic studies in the 1950's revealed the bones had belonged to a native person, ruling out Thomson. This point was refuted by Little but as far as scientific testing, the case was closed,..... the skull returned to the grave at Mowat.
A number of years ago an undertaker from the Owen Sound area had allegedly offered the Thomson family a free exhumation and reburial in a new coffin, if they would agree to resolve this ages old puzzler.
For many years, during the summer months, cut flowers regularly appeared on his former plot at the Canoe Lake Cemetery, with nary an explanation yet plenty of speculation. In more than ten years working on this story, I have had at least ten times more testimonials that Thomson is still in Algonquin Park, as compared to those believing he had been re-located to Owen Sound by the good Mr. Churchill.
The wind has begun to caress this rock and evergreen shoreline, and the reflective solace of only moments ago, has been diminished in the preamble of an autumn storm. Yet in storm and seasonal change, comes a new, even more profound experience, standing on this Canoe Lake shore, watching the last leaves being ripped from the hardwoods, being dashed onto this now cauldron surface, to traverse in the waves like Thomson, to another place and another time.
Take an autumn visit to Ontario’s enchanting Algonquin Park, and be sure to see the museum and art gallery display at the Visitor’s Centre not far from the east gate. You’ll enjoy a magnificent drive through Algonquin’s painted forests. But watch out for the deer and moose.
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