Good bye White Fang Motel (my hot shower and my own bathroom😄) and Hello Lake Superior Provincial Park. Of course, getting here was more than half the adventure. Every bend in the road takes you to another sandy cove and every backroad seems to take you to another waterfall.
We were able to visit the exact cove (allegedly or nearly) where A.Y. Jackson took inspiration to paint Shoreline, but finding an exact waterfall location was a little harder. We thought we’d try for Agawa Falls, but everything we read said you needed a vehicle capable of off-roading. That is definitely not our CRV. And the train isn’t running to Agawa Canyon this year. So, Ray found directions to a fall that was supposed to be mighty similar just west of highway 17. Did I say West? Well, of course we ended up heading east by mistake and a wee bit of semi-off-roading occurred. By the time we turned ourselves around we had seen some beautiful fall colours and discovered the Scott Falls Hydro Facility. It creates enough electricity that it could power all of Listowel. We eventually did find Magpie High Falls and it was worth it. You had to pass through a wild blueberry farm to get there. That concept took me by surprise. I guess I always thought someone went out into the “wild”...found blueberries...and sold them. Nope, there are actually wild blueberry farms. The season is past but we bought some jam to try on our toast. There is supposedly a thunder storm tonight so we have tarped up the tent again. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
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A travelling day today. I absolutely love it when they have cute giant animal statues beside the road, do you? Today we passed Winnie the Pooh & the Wawa Goose.
Well, it is true that Winnie the Pooh was named after the city of Winnipeg.... and it is true that Winnie was in the zoo in London, England when he inspired the author A.A. Milne...but few people know that Winnie started as a six month old bear cub rescued in White River, Ontario. So, of course they have a giant Winnie statue. Ray looks a little jealous of that big pot of honey! I saw the plaster Wawa Goose for the first time in 1967, which was just a few years after it made its first appearance. That goose has been replaced with a new metal goose which stands 8.5 metres high and cost $300 000. Wow! Well, WAWA must really, really, really love their goose. The Wawa Goose even has its own children's book: Wawa Goose Meeting at Fort Friendship These days when we pass a giant bear or goose we love to take a selfie with our friends for social media. Back in the day there was no social media but, Arthur Lismer enjoyed drawing cartoons of himself and his friends. Fortunately, many of these were saved. I love this one I snapped at the McMichael Collection. If you were to draw a cartoon of you and your best friend I wonder what it would be? We are staying at the White Fang Inn in WAWA before we head to Lake Superior Provincial Park—we really needed a shower! You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Legend has it that when Lawren Harris came to Coldwell Bay for the first time in 1921 he rolled off the train while it was still in motion. Today, we have great road access, and Coldwell Bay is a ghost town. We wrote the nearby town of Marathon asking if this bay, which the Group of Seven painted, could still be accessed. They told us where to park, but when we arrived there was a giant No Trespassing sign and a CP Rail truck was at the crossing. However, they were super nice and said it was OK to cross the tracks safely and to make sure we stuck to the road allowance. We passed by the old Coldwell cemetery and then down the hill to the exact spot that is shown in the Carmichael painting—but now there is nothing except a few tracks leading into the water. It was interesting to imagine what it once was.
As well as Coldwell Bay the Group of Seven painted many pictures around the nearby town of Marathon.The first thing we noticed as we headed to the look-out for more Group of Seven views was a tug boat grounded on the shore. The 111-foot tugboat, Peninsula, was built for the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. It rescued disabled ships in the North Atlantic Ocean. After the war it was bought by the Marathon Paper company. For twenty years it pulled large rafts of pulp wood up and down the north shore of Lake Superior. In 2018 it finally retired to Marathon where it sits on the shore enjoying the view. We’ve been managing to stay dry. Yes, there is a tent under that big tarp. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. From 1941 to 1946 the area that is now Ney’s provincial park was a WWII prisoner of war camp. Canada built the camp to help the British mainly hold high-ranking German prisoners of war. It was very remote back then and the Germans were dropped off at the nearby rail line. Even now you can still hear the train pass by the camp. Even though the prisoners worked hard in the area’s logging industry, Canada was recognized internationally for treating them very well. They even had a pet black bear. They brought Nellie as a mascot to camp sports competitions. She walked on a leash and only responded to German commands. Although there is very little of Camp 100 left we were able to find some remains of what Ray thinks were the corners of a guard tower in a nearby mossy field. The Visitor’s Centre is closed for the season, but a HUGE thank you to the camp staff that let us in to sneak a peek at the model of the camp. Of course, we can’t go a day without mentioning what our Group of Seven friends were doing during WWII. Many of the Group of Seven painters were gifted commercial artists before becoming well known painters (which they were by then). For example, here is an advertisement encouraging Canadians to buy Victory Bonds that A.J. Casson created in 1941. Just tarped up the tent because rain is predicted. Hoping it isn’t snow because it was -4 C when we got up this morning. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. It is definitely a bit chilly north of Lake Superior. When we stepped out of our tent this morning it was -3 C—the water in our jug had ice on it! We are right on the beach and the views and sunsets make it more than worth it. Our hike to Pic Island Overlook warmed us up.
Lawren Harris first travelled to the north shore of Lake Superior in 1921, but he returned many times bringing Jackson, Lismer, Casson and Carmichael. Although Harris is probably the most well know for his painting of Pic Island many of his fellow Group of Seven also painted it. Which do you like better...Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, or A.Y. Jackson? Does the name Harris sound familiar? Lawren was heir to the Massey-Harris farm implement company. Do you know anyone in North Perth that has an antique Massey-Harris tractor? I would love a picture for the website. Staying warm. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Note: the Lismer & Jackson photos are taken from the Lookout sign and they are showing damage. On November 9, 1975 the SS Edmund Fitzgerald headed out loaded with Iron Ore. The beautiful Sunday afternoon turned cruel. The last words heard from the ship’s captain were “We are holding our own”. The wreck of the ship lies about 8 km off shore of the Edmund Fitzgerald lookout. Although Ray has recently qualified as an open water scuba diver; it is much, much deeper than a recreational diver could manage to see. But as we stood at the lookout Ray played Gordon Lightfoot’s song, the Edmund Fitzgerald, and we tried to imagine what is still at the bottom of the narrows.
If you haven’t heard the song before—check it out. Well before Beiber, or Buble, we hummed along to the Canadian singer/songwriter legend that is Gordon Lightfoot. Here are a couple of verses: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed When the gales of November came early... Does any one know where the love of God goes When the waves turn the minutes to hours? The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay If they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er They might have split up or they might have capsized They may have broke deep and took water And all that remains is the faces and the names Of the wives and the sons and the daughters We are moving from our cozy beach yurt to tenting tonight at Ney’s. You are always in my Prayers. Love Mom Note: ship photos were taken from the information board & Lightfoot’s song can be found on Spotify and YouTube Today was a driving day as we headed further north into the Algoma region. However, we did fit in a couple of Group of Seven sites.
Tom Thomson first came to Algoma in 1912. His two month canoe trip ended up a disaster. Both the canoe and most of his paintings sunk to the bottom of the Mississagi River. Without his canoe , along with his fellow traveller, he hitched a ride on a hay wagon to Bruce Mines. There they waited for a steamer to take them to Owen Sound. While in Bruce Mines Tom painted this dreary picture View Over a Lake with Houses. It was a perfect match for today because this morning our weather was a bit dreary too— as you can see. I wonder why Tom had to take a boat back to Owen Sound? On the other side of Sault Ste. Marie we stopped at Chippewa Falls. Although A.Y. Jackson and Tom Thomson were very good friends, his painting Streambed, Superior Country was painted much later (1955). By that time there was a road through the area. It must have been a bit up river from where we stopped, but the falls were still really beautiful. The Chippewa sign called A.Y. “The grand old -man of Canadian art”. It fits as he painted our Canadian landscape for over seventy years—so we will be visiting a lot more Jackson sites. Some of the highlights of the day were finding an open shower at the Bruce Mines Marina (I really needed one) and ice cream at Holy Cow in the Soo. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Shortly after The Group of Seven’s first exhibit Frank Johnson decided he would head out on his own. A.J. Casson was then asked to join the group turning the Group of Six back into the Group of Seven. Yesterday evening we arrived in LaCloche country for our stay at Widgawa Lodge. According to our host, Joshua Willoughby, with the exception of Lawren Harris every member painted in the area. A.J. Casson often stayed at the Lodge and his favourite cabin was number nine. Well, you can guess which cabin we are staying in! Franklin Carmichael also owned a cabin on Cranberry Lake where some of his family members still stay. This morning Joshua loaded us up in his water taxi, along with his dog Lily, and we headed over to the trail-head to hike to Grace Lake where we picked up our canoe. This beautiful lake was painted hundreds of times by the Group of Seven. While we were paddling around we took a break to hike up to the ridge where Carmichael used to paint. Ray enjoyed sitting on the exact rock—Carmichael’s Rock. The view was spectacular. But, since we are staying in Casson’s cabin we had better share a Casson painting with you. The White Pine is probably his best known work. He painted it from the nearby Dreamer’s Rock. Due to Covid they are currently not allowing visitors on the rock. However, we were able to climb Willisville Mountain to catch a similar view. Kind of close, but not the same.
A beautiful day—cool but sunny. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Credits: The Carmichael photo is from our Jim and Sue Waddington book In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven. They have devoted a lifetime to finding the exact locations the artists painted in. Before the Group of Seven or Tom Thomson there was Horatio Walker. In the Hay room of the North Perth Public Library you can find a plaque honouring Horatio. He was born in 1858 in Listowel, Ontario. In fact, his family home was what we now know as the Hardwood Inn. Although he later moved to Quebec, we can still claim him as ours—and he was a very successful, internationally known,“traditional” painter.
The North Perth Library owns three copies of Horatio Walker’s work. They have kindly lent them to us; so we will be able to show them to you when we get back. The black & white is a picture I took in my garden of our copy of The First Gleam at Dawn 1900. The original is in a book of photographs at the musee National des beaux-arts du Quebec. What I really want you to have a look at though is Horatio Walker’s coloured version of the B&W print (I had to take that one off of the web😄). Now, compare it to J.E.H. MacDonald’s Harvest Evening Moon 1917 (which I saw at the McMichael Gallery). I think I can see how the Group of Seven was already changing Canadian Art—can you? You are Always in My Prayers. Love Mom. ...I'll stick to painting as long as I can. Tom Thomson....... Unfortunately, Tom Thomson was never formally part of the Group of Seven. Tom drowned at Canoe Lake, in the Algonquin wilderness he loved, almost three years before the group’s first exhibition. However, he was pals with the others in the group and for a time he occasionally lived in a shack behind their studio building in Toronto. If Tom had been around in May of 1920 perhaps we would be celebrating the Group of Eight! Tom grew up in a farming family in the small town of Leith (even smaller than North Perth) just outside of Owen Sound. With the encouragement of his family Tom found two things he loved—painting and the Canadian Wilderness. These loves created landscapes that had a huge influence on Canadian painters. In Leith we visited Tom’s final resting place. Even today, in 2020, fans leave small gifts at his grave. It is often something like brushes, paints, or small paintings to remember that his work touched their hearts. Well, we love Tom Thomson too; so as we explore The Group of Seven we are going to make him part of our journey. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom Local News Article displayed in the Tom Thomson Gallery, Owen Sound
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Ray & Diane HomewoodSharing the Blessing of Travel Archives
August 2022
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