Summer in Muskoka: Memoir of the Potts Family Cottage from 1962-1992

By Maureen Potts

A Memoir of the Potts Family Cottage 19611998

Summer in Muskoka describes the maturing of a familys response to the rugged wilderness of Muskoka, a summer vacationland just north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as they summer there over a period of thirty years. It also describes the evolution of Muskoka from a cottage semiwilderness to a high-class resort. Finally, the book explores this familys growing relationships with each other as they cope with the isolation of this most beautiful of Canadian summer vacationlands.

John and Madeleine Potts married in 1939 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

John Michael

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479745845

Maureen Potts

DR. Potts was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1941, the second child of five. She attended parochial schools in Toronto, then high school at Loretto Abbey, a private girls’ convent school also in Toronto, graduating in 1960. She then attended the University of Toronto where she earned her honors BA, an MA, and an M. Phil. 20 (master of philosophy) degree, all in English literature. She also earned partial credit for a PhD at the University of Toronto which she then finished at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, in rhetoric and discourse theory. She earned her PhD in 1980. She taught in the English Department at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1970 to 1998, specializing in Shakespeare. She also taught English literature survey courses, Western cultural heritage, freshman English (she was director of freshman composition for five years), and courses in the graduate program in rhetoric and discourse theory and professional writing. Dr. Potts retired early, in 1998, and currently resides in Clearwater, Florida.

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Copyright © 2013 by Maureen Potts, Ph.D.

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Rev. date: 6/05/2013

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Family Tree

1      Beginnings

2      Badgerow/White Wave

3      Muskoka Kids

4      The Cabin

5      Dangers in Muskoka

6      Work and Play

7      Amah and Papa

8      Final Years

Appendix

To Our Mother

MADELEINE JELLICO ROBERTS POTTS

1918 – 2003

With Love

FOREWORD

The stylized pine tree that makes its appearance throughout this book is a tribute to my mother and her eye for the obvious. The tree was situated on the tip of our island and was permanently bent into an arch by the prevailing winds. The wayward pine seed that found its way to the rocks of Badgerow somehow germinated in the scant soil between the rocks that marked the end of land and the beginning of water. Had we let nature take its course, the tree would have grown to a minimal height and then died a natural death. But my mother saw the beauty in this stunted pine tree and its graceful arch. She called it the dancing tree and nourished it to health over the years. She would cover the roots with soil from the back of the cottage, fertilize it and water it with great care. The dancing tree grew to an undeserved height, its roots snaking across the rocks in an attempt to find nourishment in the crevasses. The tree is a wonderful representation of the life that went on at Badgerow Island, indeed it encapsulates all of Muskoka in one graceful brush stroke. Every once in a while, the poet hits a stunning metaphor that strikes at the very essence of what he wants to say. The dancing tree is such a metaphor.

FAMILY TREE

CHAPTER ONE

BEGINNINGS

T he District Municipality of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada is located just two hours north of the city of Toronto, Canada’s financial center, and encompasses some 2,500 square miles of rugged natural beauty. It is really only a small portion of that once deeply forested land that stretches from the NE United States into Ontario and Quebec, Canada. From the windswept shores of Georgian Bay in the west to the wilderness of Algonquin Park far to the east, Muskoka’s beauty is unmatched anywhere in the world.

Known for its hundreds of crystal blue lakes, Muskoka has become, over the years, a wonderland for the summer vacationer. In addition to its attractions as a playground, its natural landscaping of pine, birch and maple trees is a thing of beauty and wonder.

The current district of Muskoka is comprised of six municipalities: Georgian Bay, The Muskoka Lakes, and the towns of Huntsville, Gravenhurst, Beaumaris and Haliburton. Of the over 1,000 lakes that dot the area, the three largest are Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau and Lake Joseph. The lakes were named after their surveyor, a man by the name of Joseph Rosseau.

The lakes run in a string along the western edge of Georgian Bay stretching some 50 kilometers from Parry Sound in the north to Gravenhurst at its southern edge. Lake Muskoka is the southernmost lake and is connected to its northern neighbor, Lake Rosseau, by a small lock system which controls the levels of water in the two lakes. Lake Joseph flows freely into Lake Rosseau to its south. The three lakes are self- contained in that they are the biggest, and they are connected to each other but not to the larger Trent system that leads to Lake Ontario. Historically occupied by Indian tribes, specifically the Algonquins and the Iroquois, the demographics of Muskoka began to change in the mid 1800’s. The Ontario government began granting blocks of 100-200 acres to all takers, hoping to encourage them to settle and work the land. Until now, little had gone on except trapping. The government wanted to expand the use of the land beyond this single industry and to encourage farming. They promised these plots of land, some as large as 200 acres, to potential farmers as long as they cultivated 15 acres. But no one told the farmers about the condition of the land they were about to cultivate.

Muskoka was, and still is, covered with a dense forest of pine and maple and birch. The root systems were heavily entangled and it took a gargantuan effort to dig them out. Once the trees were felled and the Medusa-like roots removed, the farmers discovered huge rocks that had to be dug and then wedged out of the thin layers of dirt and clay underneath. The farmers quickly realized the clay dirt was totally unsuitable for growing crops, rocks or no rocks, and despite a valiant effort, the harshness of the winters together with the almost impossible task of removing those huge boulders to get at the thin layer of dirt on top of granite bedrock was just too much. The landscape is still riddled with piles of rocks left behind by the woebegone farmers.

In the meantime, the logging industry had begun. The riches of the Canadian forests were there for the asking. All the beginning lumber industry needed was transportation. It came to them when Lord Alexander Cockburn introduced the steamship to the sawmills at Lake Muskoka in the 1860’s. It was now possible for the newly founded lumber companies to ship their lumber throughout Lake Muskoka, specifically to Gravenhurst.

Then, as the logging people brought tourists with them, the farmers instantly had an opportunity dumped in their laps. These tourists needed a place to stay, so many of the disappointed farmers converted their homes to boarding houses and hotels. The wealthier wanted something better, which gave rise to the era of the luxurious tourist lodges: Rosseau, The Royal Muskoka, Windemere, Beaumaris, and Cleveland House. They were all built near the logging industry which they depended on for supplies and construction labor.

The more independently wealthy summer residents built huge rambling houses near these lodges, large enough for servants and complete with a boat house or two. They had few amenities, usually no central heat or running water, but they had a distinctive charm of their own. These original old Muskoka cottages can still be seen, along with the nearby lodges, scattered along the shores of all three Muskoka lakes.

At first the summer cottagers used only rowboats and canoes on the lakes, but with the coming of powered engines, they had the means to travel some distance from the lumber industry, and even out to the islands that dot the three lakes. Some of the early personal motor boats were made of polished mahogany, sported gold fixtures, and were long and unseaworthy—beautiful but totally unsuitable for boating in the Muskoka lakes.

In the early part of the 1900’s, another and more compelling use of the land began to emerge as the recreational hunter and fisherman found a nirvana in Muskoka’s wilderness. They could be found in the more remote areas of Muskoka, where wild game was still abundant. Many built themselves small cabins as roughshod shelters against the elements while they hunted in the fall season,

Then, finally, starting in the mid- twentieth century, Muskoka witnessed another significant turn in demographics as the ordinary citizen from the Toronto Metropolitan area discovered Muskoka, along with the Districts of Haliburton, Simcoe, and Georgian Bay, and began buying up lakefront property for their modest summer cottages.

With the growing affordability of the car and the demand for better roads, a cottage in Muskoka was now within the reach of the middle classes. The invention of fiberglas also made boats affordable and opened up summer leisure activities to the same group of summer residents. Boats were a necessity if you bought land on an island, a common phenomenon on the Muskoka lakes.

These second homes, vacation residences if you will, were primitive at first with no plumbing, electricity or running water. They were not insulated and often the only source of heat was a wooden or propane stove that did little more than take off the chill. They were summer residences only. Their occupants expected to rough it at the cabin, or the camp. They enjoyed a lifestyle not at all that far removed from actual outdoor camping, even pioneer life.

From the very beginning, these Muskoka cottagers were fiercely loyal to their settlements and to the lakes where they spent their summers. The Muskoka Lakes Association was formed early on to protect the lakes and the land from abuse. This group has been a powerful watchdog on matters such as lake pollution, the size and placement of septic tanks, the kinds of boats allowed on the lakes, the burning of fires.

But times change. In recent years, the wealthy real estate denizens in Southern Ontario have turned Muskoka into something of a wealthy man’s playground. Some of the new summer homes are huge and lavish, some tasteful, some less so. The major difference between now and then is the price tag. If you want to buy one of these dark brown cottages of yesteryear, and they still exist, you are looking at a million dollars or more. In 1963, my father’s White Wave cost him $5,000 and about the same for the land. He sold it in 1991 for $700,000.00.

Recently, various other commercial enterprises have attempted to open up the Muskoka Lakes by dredging the Moon River between Georgian Bay and Bala on Lake Muskoka. This dredging would bring larger cruisers into the lakes with their resulting pollution. It would also allow zebra mussels into the lakes, a disaster which so far has not yet happened. Up until now, The Muskoka Lakes Association has been successful in stopping the dredging of the Moon River, but the fight is not over yet.*

One year, someone began hiring out house boats, which brought the people of Muskoka together in a herculean fight. The renters not only partied all night, they also dumped their grey water into the lakes. All of the marinas