Unique Muskoka - Issue 45 - July 2024 WH

JULY 2024

ANTIQUE BOATS

Muskoka history on display

Music festivals: the sounds of summer VIVID EXPRESSIONS OF MUSKOKA’S WILDLIFE Working Boats: The watercraft that make vacationing possible

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...telling the Muskoka story

Features 11

A Tangled Web of Ambition – Simon Hally

Article by Bronwyn Boyer / Photography by Josianne Masseau Retired journalist Simon Hally released his first novel, Losing It, in late 2023. Despite his background, Hally found the switch from journalism to fiction writing more challenging than he anticipated.

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The Early Days – Port Sydney

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Article by J. Patrick Boyer The village of Port Sydney had many beginnings as a farming community, lumber milling and shingle-making centre, pivotal hub of navigation, grain milling and cheese producing place with a shifting location and changing name. When the railway bypassed it in 1885, the village was resuscitated by shifting to a tourist destination with resorts like Clyffe House.

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The Antique and Classic Boat Society Vintage Boat Festival

Article and Photography by Tim Du Vernet This year, the Antique and Classic Boat Society, Toronto Chapter has shifted from its traditional in-water boat show to a four-day vintage boat festival. With cruises, boat sales and tours, including events at the new Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame the event is sure to provide entertainment and exhilaration.

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A Muskoka Summer Soundtrack

Article by Bronwyn Boyer Tall Pines Music and Arts Festival, the COVID baby of Kevin Goodman, is a two-day summer celebration of music, art and everything to love about summers in Muskoka.

Celebrating its third year, the festival has made changes this year to the location and date and still aims to provide good vibes for all in attendance.

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Sleek Lines and Roaring Engines – Antique Boats

Article and Photography

by Tim Du Vernet The history of antique and classic boats is an integral part of the culture and identity of Muskoka. The lakes and rivers were the original highways and served as essential transportation routes for goods and people. The Muskoka Lakes Association’s bi-annual boat show recognizes the cultural and commercial significance of this history.

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Stylizing Muskoka – The Art of Mark Kulas Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography

by Tomasz Szumski

Mark Kulas’s art is bold but it would be an error to think it is not subtle or painstaking. A veteran of the Artists of the Limberlost Tour, Kulas creates art with an engineer’s precision, building colour gradients with hundreds of tiny dots, while still having fun with his stylized versions of wildlife and scenery.

Departments 54

What’s Happened

Article by Matt Driscoll The Muskoka Discovery Centre’s Misko Aki exhibit wins a national award, a Muskoka swimmer qualifies for the 2024 Paris Paralympics and giant hornet sightings have Muskokans on edge. Red Canoe Gallery finds a new home in Bala and new train shelters are planned for Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and Huntsville. Peaches hosts the Muskoka launch of Summers with Miss Elizabeth and Music on the Barge returns to [40] Gravenhurst.

Photograph by Tim Du Vernet Cruising the lakes of Muskoka in a wooden boat brings us back to early days where water travel was the main mode of transportation. Summer boat shows and festivals celebrate the history of boating in Muskoka.

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Cottage Country Cuisine

Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography

by Tomasz Szumski Found across Muskoka, sumac plants are easily visible with their fat, red spikes of flowers. What’s less known is the use of sumac as a spice. With a lemon-like flavour, sumac can be used in brines, soups or stocks, dressings and more.

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Muskoka Insights

By Meghan Taylor

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Muskoka Moments

By Kate Monk

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Boats That Work

Article by J. Patrick Boyer In a district legendary for pleasure boating of all kinds, it is understandable that personal watercraft get rave publicity.

However, Muskoka also relies on an armada of workboats, a diverse fleet of barges, tugs, supply boats, and more, to do all the heavy lifting that makes lakeside vacationing possible.

Our Cover

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Opinion

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Muskoka Insights and the Muskoka Lakes Association’s bi-annual Antique Boat Show. While this year the ACBS has opted for a new format, the Vintage Boat Festival continues to honour the long-standing tradition of celebrating vintage boats.

The MLA Antique Boat Show will once again draw crowds to Port Carling this summer with a hand-selected roster of boats, many that represent the best of “The Roaring 20s” which is this year’s theme. The post-war 1920s were a pivotal time in Muskoka’s development and the boats built here during that time, like the show’s poster boat Whippet, are representative of that era.

The often-overlooked working boats are given their kudos in a feature from regular contributor Patrick Boyer. From tugboats to barges to police cruisers and everything in between, these hardy but less handsome watercraft are the reason vacationers could, and still can, enjoy cottages and resorts on Muskoka’s many islands.

While boating may take the lead for this issue, summer in Muskoka is an experience and everyone can discover their own favourite event or adventure.

Dunn’s Pavilion, now the Kee to Bala, was once the pinnacle of live entertainment in Muskoka, welcoming big names and guests as part of summer tradition. Now, there are even more concert venues in the region but the Tall Pines Music and Arts Festival has opted to make the most of Muskoka’s natural beauty, hosting their two-day festival outdoors. As contributor Bronwyn Boyer shares with us, Tall Pines is about partnership, collaboration and discovery, making the event about much more than just music.

However you choose to savour summer in Muskoka, be in the moment.

Happy reading!

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Photograph: MacKenzie Taylor

Over the years, I’ve often heard the reference of being on “Muskoka time” – yes, there can be positive and negative connotations to that phrase. It can mean things are delayed, not progressing quickly enough or being ignored altogether. However, it can also be a reference to going with the flow. Allowing yourself to take in what’s happening around you and knowing that, in most cases, the work will still be there when you get back to it.

Being present is important.

Summer in Muskoka is only a few months in the year, after all.

Summer is time to enjoy nature’s peak and all the beauty that comes with it.

Summer is the season of green grass, blooming flowers, sunshine, ice cream, barbecues, bonfires and time spent on the water. Known for its lakes and waterways, Muskoka boating is a quintessential feature of the summer experience.

Being on the water provides a different perspective. Distances seem shorter. Time passes differently. Noises can be projected or muted, depending on the circumstance.

There’s exhilaration when you’re flying across the water with the wind whipping in your hair and calm as you troll, or even paddle, along shorelines or in shallow bays.

As a kid, my boating experience was limited to canoes and a “tinner” for fishing with grandpa. As I’ve grown up, I’ve had the privilege of being able to enjoy trips on steamships Segwun and Wenonah II, speed boats, ski boats and classic wooden launches, racing and pleasure craft. In every instance, I’m grateful for Muskoka being my home and having access to water the way we do.

Several features in this edition of Unique Muskoka highlight boats and their connection to the history of Muskoka – pleasure craft, race boats and boats that work.

Contributor Tim Du Vernet provides a look into two classic events of summer – the Antique and Classic Boat Society boat show

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SIMON HALLY

Article by Bronwyn Boyer Photography by Josianne Masseau

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Self-proclaimed recovering journalist Simon Hally published his first novel, Losing It, in 2023.

racebridge author Simon Hally’s debut novel, Losing It, had been brewing in his mind for several years. After escaping Toronto a decade ago, the slower pace of semi-retirement gave him the freedom to finally give his characters a voice.

As a veteran journalist with a 40-year career under his belt, fiction was a whole new adventure. “After all those years of journalism, I had plenty of practice writing,” Hally explains. “But I hadn’t really appreciated how different the craft of fiction writing was from journalism. I thought I could just tell the

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 13

Hally’s first novel, Losing It, is a critique of the corporate world and an expression of the many ways that working in business can change people and perspectives. Hally wanted a story that would make people laugh while also keeping them engaged. story the way I was used to but it’s not the same. Journalism is all about sharing facts, while writing fiction is about letting the reader fill in the gaps with their own impressions. You show, rather than tell.”

Hally was born in London, England.

When he was eight years old, his family

14 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

moved to Canada. He grew up in Aurora, Ontario, then moved to Toronto to attend University of Toronto to study physics.

Torn between his love of writing and his love of science, he eventually chose writing. He started working for MacleanHunter, the largest magazine publisher in

Canada at the time. The company produced titles such as McLean’s and Chatelaine, as well as various trade and business publications. Hally was also the founding editor for Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour, which was read by thousands of doctors across Canada, many

Losing It follows Peter, who helps his sister and brother-in-law cover up a crime, all while falling in love with the victim’s sister. The novel has an exciting plot, intriguing characters, real-life situations and humour. of whom put it in their waiting rooms, giving it high readership among the public as well.

A decade ago, Hally and his wife settled in Bracebridge, which they discovered after spending time at his son-in-law’s family cottage in Muskoka.

Set in Toronto, Losing It is a comedic critique of the world of business. Full of intrigue, romance, violence and humour, it explores the corruption of the rat race and its various entanglements. These themes were inspired by Hally’s own impressions navigating the corporate world, which his main character, a photographer named Peter, is both disgusted and amused by.

“I wanted to write a story that would make people laugh and keep them engaged,” Hally says. “But also, to show the damage large companies do when they lay someone off at a moment’s notice. Like Peter, I was

disillusioned by the hierarchies, the politics and the brutal way they deal with people. I think anyone who has worked in the business world will relate, although there’s something in the book for everyone.”

Losing It refers to “losing” the game, thanks to how brutally competitive the corporate world is. It also refers to losing morals, status, relationships, mental health, integrity, innocence, and even free will.

“I think corporations generally are quite immoral the way they behave,” Hally explains. “And they can force people to become immoral when they otherwise wouldn’t be. We’re all kind of complicit in

it, because anyone who has invested in stocks wants returns, so these companies are under a lot of pressure to be profitable.

It’s the evil face of capitalism and we all feed into it. No one is truly immune.”

Losing It presents serious situations and messy entanglements with a funny tone and a brisk, exciting plot. Though the characters are intelligent and ambitious, they’re also misguided and naïve. One of the main characters, Lee, always dreamed he’d one day become CEO of his family firm. This ambition proves dangerous when he loses

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In his career as a journalist Simon Hally is no stranger to writing. But the transition to fiction was a completely different experience and took him some time to adjust to building the story and characters, rather than reporting only the facts. his temper in a road rage incident and goes to great lengths to avoid accountability, all for the sake of his career.

The story is told in the first person by Peter, who also happens to be Lee’s brotherin-law. Through family obligation, Peter reluctantly helps cover up the crime for the sake of his sister, Catherine, who’s convinced that Lee will lose his sanity if he loses the

promotion. Meanwhile, he finds himself falling in love with the victim’s sister, Jessica.

The plot thickens as Peter is pulled deeper into a tangled web he never wanted to weave.

“I wanted to have someone who was an outsider to the business world but also connected to it,” says Hally. “As a commercial freelance photographer, Peter sees the way they operate. Photographers are

observers; they have a strong visual sense. I wanted him to be funny and sardonic.

Getting his voice right took a while, because I wanted him to be intelligent and articulate but also innocent and shockable.”

Losing It is available at book stores and online across Canada as well as the US, UK, and Australia. Hally is currently working on a highly-anticipated sequel.

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Photograph: Susan M. Sheffield, The Companion Guide to Muskoka District Post Offices

Photograph: Frank Micklethwaite

Article by J. Patrick Boyer

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lake Kche-negeek-chiching because its largest island resembled a swimming otter. But in 1853 Alexander Murray, conducting a geological survey of Muskoka and always away from home, guiltily renamed it Mary’s Lake as a compensatory treat for his daughter. She never saw it.

By 1868, with the northland not filling up as hoped, Ontario offered free lots to

homesteaders and Muskoka’s land boom began, helped by the surging steam age. Immigrants from the British Isles – an overwhelming source of district settlers – reached Muskoka quickly thanks to steamships and trains. On September 9, 1869, the Kay family sailed from Britain and just two weeks later discovered Bracebridge, “a very healthy place,” as 18-year-old Annie Kay told her diary.

Photograph: Wilfred Clarke, courtesy of G.H. Johnson/Boston Mills Press

y the early 1860s one of Muskoka’s largest townships was surveyed, named for the British engineer who’d just built the world’s longest bridge across the St. Lawrence at Montreal and opened for settlement. Yet Stephenson’s 43,000 acres of land, much of good quality, and 3,000 acres of water, including a most beautiful lake, remained quiescent. The Ojibwe called the

Above, as the village industrialized, this shingle mill’s many employees and high production matched output from Port Sydney’s sawmill, grist mill and cheese factory. In the top left photo, steamer Joe approaches Port Sydney wharf where passengers and greeters await, with an automobile standing-by as the turn of the century brought new life to the Mary Lake vacation economy.

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Photograph: G.H. Johnson Collection

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In 1870 John McAlpine began the arduous task of building this remote sawmill at the falls where Mary Lake empties into the Muskoka River’s north branch. This 1872 photo shows the mill’s new owner, Albert Sydney-Smith at the bottom right, evaluating his lumber-making asset. winter miles to Utterson and back for supplies was often disappointing since little was available.

With no coal oil for lamps, the Kays made candles out of deer fat.

In 1868 John McAlpine also arrived but not to farm. The waterfall where Mary’s Lake drained into the Muskoka River could power a sawmill. Muskoka was for logging as well as farming. The falls were at the corner of four township lots, which he claimed as Free Grant Land.

“McAlpine’s sawmill,” wrote George Johnson, “built on the fringe of the wilderness at the

Photograph: David Scott Collection

The next day her father James and brother Will walked 16 miles into Stephenson then returned having claimed “600 fine acres of land” for the various family members. Their claim included 100 acres for Annie because land grants were equally available to women, a factor creating an egalitarian strain in Muskokans at the time.

At their homestead two miles downstream from Mary’s Lake, alongside the Muskoka River, the Kays cleared trees and planted oats, potatoes, peas and turnips amongst the stumps.

Life was rugged and primitive. Walking six

With the railway bypassing Port Sydney and the community’s industrial base shrinking with the sawmill, shingle mill, grist mill and cheese factory waning, the attractiveness of Mary Lake led to new resort hotels opening, such as Clyffe House, which five generations of the same family would successfully operate.

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Photograph: Victor Clarke, courtesy G.H. Johnson/Boston Mills Press

This 1884 photograph looking northeast across Port Sydney shows the heavy toll of logging for the village sawmill, with offshore islands clear cut – as unsightly as other places around Muskoka where tourists, delighted to be in the district, seemed to overlook missing forests. the village was resuscitated by resorts beside Mary Lake, including welcoming Clyffe House that would be run by the same family for five generations.

The village’s rapid evolution and staying power lay in its diversity and waterway location.

Like Bala and Baysville, it was also at the edge of a large lake system where water draining out created a waterfall that fostered growth. Port Sydney was at the summit of the Muskoka River’s north branch flowing down to

Photograph: David Scott Collection

end of a road that was little more than a rough trail through the woods, became a remarkable tribute to the man’s ability and determination.”

It took 18 months to build, including bringing heavy machinery bit by bit from Bracebridge.

Port Sydney had many beginnings as a farming community, lumber milling and shingle-making centre, pivotal hub of navigation, grain milling and cheese producing place with a shifting location and changing name. When the railway bypassed it in 1885,

In 1869, James and Fanny Jenner, newly-weds from England crossed the Atlantic and came to Muskoka, carving a homestead from virgin forest, as their descendent David Scott recounts. In 1885 they were among the first to cater to tourists by establishing Clyffe House, which still operates in Port Sydney today.

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Photograph: David Scott Collection

Robert Jenner, at right, greatly expanded Clyffe House during his time at the helm. Here he is photographed bringing summer guests back from Sunday morning church pulled by a yolk of oxen.

Bracebridge and the base for navigation from Mary’s Lake north to lakes Fairy, Peninsula, and Vernon – for the time the only supply route to Huntsville and Hoodstown.

Another arrival was Arthur Sydney-Smith – neither farmer not lumberman but a selfdesignated squire of the fledgling community.

Though Ontario-born, he’d been raised as if

on an English country estate and acted in commanding fashion. He took over McAlpine’s sawmill and achieved the prosperity that had eluded its builder. Clear-cutting around the

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By June 18, 1877, Port Sydney’s future as a transshipment centre at the head of the Muskoka River’s north branch and the lower end of the chain of four navigable north Muskoka lakes seemed secure when the Northern was launched with every person in the village on her upper deck for this dockside photograph. Built in Port Sydney by Captain Denton, she was the first steamer on the chain of lakes.

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This year’s Antique and Classic Boat Society events will be different than their usual in-water boat show. The four-day festival will include various cruises and tours to highlight the best of vintage boating in Muskoka.

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Article and Photography by Tim Du Vernet

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ummer in Muskoka is synonymous with boating. Usually, that also means an in-water boat show at the wharf in Gravenhurst to marvel at the many stunning watercrafts that ply Muskoka’s lakes.

However, this year, due to significant road closures and construction at the wharf, the show, as it usually proceeds, had to be cancelled. The cancellation gave the Antique and Classic Boat Society, Toronto Chapter (ACBS-Toronto) the ability to get creative.

The result? ACBS-Toronto has organized a Vintage Boat Festival to run from July 4 to 7 to ensure the celebration of wooden

watercrafts continues.

Instead of seeing upwards of 100 boats congregated in one spot for a glorious concentration and celebration of historic wooden boats, vintage fibreglass and even aluminum craft, the ACBS has organized a series of events. Spanning four days, the festival includes cruises, a nautical flea market and boat sale, wine and cheese event, dinner cruise and more.

The change to the format is bringing new life to the typical show setup and increases the opportunity for members to socialize.

Antique and classic boats were never meant

to be static pieces and getting out on the water with family or friends is what vintage boating is all about. While many of the events require registration, some do have public viewing opportunities as well.

Events begin with a cruise in Gloucester Pool, which will take participants past historic sites and hotels. Participants will also have the chance to visit the Dunsmoor boathouse, which is home to several historic boats, including the Traveller.

Also along the cruise route is the Kennedy Marine Motor Museum. Sandy Kennedy began collecting outboard

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 25

memorabilia around 2001 and has managed to collect a wide assortment of models, more than 100 engines, brochures, dealer signs, vintage photos, race trophies and more. Any boating enthusiast will find something at which to marvel.

The Gloucester Pool trip even involves a ride on the marine railway at Big Chute.

The railway is fascinating to see with some boats lying on their bottoms and other boats on a large platform while they ride the rails to continue into the Trent-Severn system.

Two cruises have been organized for Lake Muskoka on July 5 with participants choosing between a “slow” route or “fast” route. The routes provide an inclusive opportunity for the wide range of boat styles and speeds involved. The Port Carling locks will be the lunch stop for the event.

The next cruise is moves to Lake Rosseau on July 6 and is a poker run.

Participants will attend four special

cottages around the lake where they will pick up cards and hopefully form a winning hand. Departure starts at the docks below the Muskoka Lakes Museum.

Winners will be announced at the Port Carling locks at the end of the event.

Also on July 6 is the official opening of the new Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame (CRHF), just west of Bracebridge on Highway 118. The museum celebrates and displays the artifacts, boats and memorabilia related to the rich Canadian legacy of racing boats. The CRHF tells the story of Canada’s success, past and present, in national and international boat racing.

The opening plans to include a flea market and boat sale yard among the festivities.

The quiet lakes of Muskoka that occasionally offer serene experiences in paddling or sailing, are also home to record breaking race boat achievements as well. Beginning with the boats built for Harry Greening by Ditchburn, which faced international challengers in Gold

Slow and fast route cruises on July 5 will tour Lake Muskoka, meeting for lunch at the Port Carling locks. The two cruise plans allow for a wide variety of boats to attend and participate.

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Vintage boats of all styles and sizes, like the Traveller, are welcome to join the variety of cruises and events as part of the ACBS Vintage Boat Festival Cup races, the legacy spans over a century and continues. Motorboats such as Harold Wilson’s Miss Canada series, including Miss Canada III and IV will be recognized along with record holding Miss Supertest. While these are recognizable names, there are many other race boat legacies to acknowledge from Muskoka and across Canada.

The Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame is also home to the Muskoka Seaflea Club.

There is nothing quite like a small boat, close to the water going at “speed” to give a thrill and to capture the imagination.

Many a trophy winning race boat driver started their career in a Seaflea.

Members of the Maple Leaf Antique Outboard Club, Trent-Severn Antique Boat Association and ACBS-Toronto can attend the Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame at no charge on July 7 as part of the festivities.

While the Gravenhurst wharf site will be unavailable for the boat show as usual, Muskoka Steamships and Discovery Centre has organized special events in co-ordination with the Vintage Boat Festival for the afternoon and evening of Friday, July 5. Of particular interest to those focused on wooden boats, the Discovery Centre features North America’s largest collection of in-water classic antique wooden boats.

While admission is free to ACBS members for the afternoon tour, registration is required.

Come aboard the jewel of Muskoka’s floating heritage, Segwun, North America’s oldest operating coal-fired steamship, which was built in 1887, for a tour and cocktails on July 5. Following the tour of Segwun, another cruise, this time aboard the Wenonah II is available. The event has a limited capacity and will give participants a taste of what it would have been like to travel aboard the vessels that steamed the lakes of Muskoka in the early 1900s.

On July 7, the final day of the festival members of ACBS-Toronto, Trent-Severn Antique Boat Association and Maple Leaf Antique Outboard Club will be able to tour the Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame from 10:00 a.m. until noon for free.

While most of the events are for ACBS members or affiliates, viewing the boats on their cruises is possible for anyone. Boats will likely congregate at Port Carling and the Marine Railway as well as being visible through narrows and from bridges or your dock. More information and registration can be found at acbs.ca.

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July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 27

A Article by Bronwyn Boyer

T

he first major music festival born and raised in Muskoka was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival rose like a phoenix from the ashes of an industry forced to a halt.

Though still a fledgling, the two-day summer celebration in Gravenhurst is a powerful healing force musicians and

music lovers needed. Now in its third year, it’s quickly becoming a highly anticipated phenomenon.

Kevin Goodman, CEO of Front Row Centre Music and Entertainment in Toronto, has long been familiar with the allure of Muskoka, being a cottager in the area since his youth. Since 2007, his agency has specialized in connecting

“brands, bands, and fans.” By creating partnerships for programs and promotions built around music and entertainment, they work with “really big bands, and really big brands” ­– from breakfast cereal to automobiles, and everything in between.

“Tall Pines is my COVID baby,” Goodman says. “When the pandemic

Photograph: Oh Canada Creative

Attendees of Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival have a concert experience unlike any other, with a wide array of talent. From big names like I Mother Earth, Classified and Serena Ryder to local talent and emerging artists, as well as visual artists and vendors, Tall Pines creates an unforgettable festival with its focus on good vibes.

The Canada Day House Party was a seven-and-a-half hour virtual music festival that featured 17 bands. Audiences could tune in to see performances by Buffy Saint-Marie, Brett Kissel, Sam Roberts Band, William Prince, Rufus Wainwright, and many others.

“We had incredible sponsors like Air Miles and Roots,” Goodman recalls.

“After that, we said, okay that was fun but hopefully we never have to do it again. But we were wrong.”

After the success of that event, Goodman and his team were

approached by the restaurant and bar coalition, SaveHospitality.ca, to put together a New Year’s Eve event.

“New Year’s Eve is the biggest night for bars and restaurants, so they were really struggling during the lockdowns,” Goodman explains.

“So, we created a mini

Photograph: David Walker

hit, the music stopped. As an agency that focuses on live events, we were at standstill.

In the spring of 2020, it was clear there would be no shows or festivals happening that summer, so we were at a loss.”

All they knew was that something had to fill the void. Goodman noticed a lot of virtual music festivals being televised but he felt they lacked a certain spark.

“They were just a one-way conversation, not very engaging or exciting,” he explains.

“That’s when we came up with the idea to create our own for Canada Day called The Canada Day House Party, to bring the nation together under one virtual roof.”

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 29

Photograph: David Walker

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virtual festival called The Big Night In, with the slogan, ‘if you’re staying in, make sure you order out.’”

When the summer of 2021 rolled around, Goodman wanted to do something different for the Canada Day House Party.

“I wanted to have a cottage event in Muskoka because it’s such a classic Canadian thing to do,” he recalls. “So, I called our friends at Roots and pitched the idea to the owner, Michael Budman, who has a beautiful cottage around Algonquin Park.”

As it happened, Budman had just purchased Camp Tamakwa, which is where he and Don Green met as youth and came up with the idea for Roots.

Despite COVID protocols, they got the blessing from the District Health Unit to bring seven bands and Cottage Life TV up to Camp Tamakwa for a three-and half-hour virtual music festival they called Summer House Party.

“Those five days in June 2021 went from a concert to a happening to a healing,” Goodman recalls. “Then more sponsors got on board. The province, the region and the district all loved it. We ended up having just under 50,000 people tune in. So, our little virtual music festival ended up being something really special.”

The unique experience of Summer House Party demonstrated to Goodman that Muskoka was where it was at for live entertainment in the summer. It also caught the attention of the executive director of Muskoka Tourism at that time, Janet O’Connell, who suggested to Goodman they do a full-on music festival in Muskoka.

This year, Tall Pines will take place at Gull Lake Park due to the construction project underway at the wharf.

“I wasn’t going to take a risk that the wharf site would be inaccessible, so we decided to move the festival this year,” Goodman explains. “Gull Lake Park is a beautiful site, with beach front property. I’m telling people to bring their swimsuits.

They’re also upgrading the site and installing a new amphitheatre down by the water, so we’re really excited about that.”

Goodman also made sure the Music on the Barge series, which takes place Sunday evenings at the park, wouldn’t be cancelled due to the festival tear-down on the Sunday.

“Since most of the infrastructure for the festival will be finished by late Thursday afternoon, we decided to move Music on the Barge to Thursday evening,” he explains.

“The site will be free then, and I think it’s important to find solutions that embrace the community.”

To that end, a ticket promotion called Muskoka Local was created. “If you have one of nine Muskoka-Parry Sound postal code prefixes, you can purchase tickets half price,” says Goodman. “It’s our way of giving back to the community.”

Another change to this year’s festival is the dates. The first two years were held in June, but this year, it will be in July.

Goodman’s reason for this is simple.

“I have a fishing problem,” he shares.

“And when I go fishing, I try to go where the fish are. I used that analogy in my decision to move the dates. The population of the region pretty much quadruples in July with seasonal rentals and cottagers. So, I want to go where the fish are, so to speak.”

Despite Goodman’s many years of experience putting on large live music events, it’s still a learning process.

“We learn the hard way what works and what doesn’t,” he explains. “It remains to be seen if we do better with the July dates or how can we include more artists and vendors. We had 14 vendor spots last year and we had over 70 applications. It wasn’t easy figuring out which ones to take on. It’s like a living, breathing, organism where we learn as we go. And we don’t even talk about the weather – we just have to hope that it co-operates.”

In addition to its headliners, Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival showcases emerging artists, like Toronto band Misty Blue.

Photograph: David Walker

“I thought about it for about twenty seconds, which was about two weeks and twenty seconds too short, and then I said, ‘Sure! We’ll do it,’” remembers Goodman.

“And six weeks after a beer on the patio of Taboo Resort, Tall Pines was born.”

After Goodman and O’Connell met that August to brainstorm the idea, the new festival seemed to take on a life of its own.

“By the end of September, we already had a name, a logo and a feel of what we wanted to do,” Goodman explains.

The inaugural Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival was held in June 2022 at Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst. Since it was the first major music festival in Ontario to emerge from the cocoon of COVID-19, the media coverage was extensive. CTV News sent up a crew and about six dozen stories flooded the airwaves, internet and print media.

“That first year, we had our friends Big Wreck, K-os, Peaches, Boy Golden, Caveboy, and so many amazing bands up to play,” recalls Goodman. “It was like a reunion, because it was the first time that any of these artists had performed in a long time. It was also the first time they’d seen each other, even their own bands. We took over the wharf field and had 2,500 people that weekend.”

At the outset, the mood of the public was mixed. As much as people were ready to celebrate a return to a sense of normalcy and socialize again, many were still apprehensive about being back in a large crowd.

“I think that showed in our ticket sales,” says Goodman. “But what we lacked in quantity we made up for with quality. That first year, the phrase ‘good vibes at Tall Pines’ was coined and it’s been our mantra ever since.”

Goodman says he and his planning team chose the Gravenhurst wharf as the location because they wanted a site that embraced the natural surroundings and elements.

“When we visited the site and saw forest on two sides, a gorgeous Muskoka rock cliff on one side and the lake on the other, it just made sense – it was immediately an integral piece of the festival experience,” explains Goodman. “Also, there aren’t too many music festivals in Ontario where you can park your boat across the road and walk over to the festival. I really dug that.”

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 31

All my industry colleagues share the dream of discovering the next big act and being the one who gave them their start.”

Speaking of giving new artists their start, Goodman also had the idea to collaborate with 89.1 Max FM in Orillia to choose a local act for the festival. Artists submit their song to the station and then 20 are selected and played on the air. From there, the judges select nine to perform in a three-day Battle of the Bands at Bracebridge Hall, producing a winner each night. The final decision is made among the three finalists.

Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival will take place July 19 - 20 at Gull Lake Park in Gravenhurst. Tickets and all other information can be found at tallpinesfestival.com Goodman’s message for music and arts lovers is simple – “Come join us for the magic, the music and the memories in Muskoka.”

With a wide variety of musical guests, like Jerry Leger and The Situation, Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival has a focus on partnerships and discovery.

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It takes almost a year to plan for the festival. “It’s an 11-month process,” says Goodman. “We have amazing partners and collaborators but it’s just a handful people that plan it all. It’s a lot of long hours, and a lot of really hard work. It makes me think of doing really difficult puzzles when I go to the cottage with my family. Putting all the pieces together for a festival makes those puzzles look easy. But it’s definitely my passion. Music is the fuel for my engine, so creating this festival from scratch has been a dream and nightmare at the same time.”

Another important partner is Muskoka Tourism, and Goodman takes their motto, “discover Muskoka” to heart.

“Tall Pines really adheres to the notion of discovery,” he says. “People can come discover Muskoka for the first time and a whole bunch of new bands while they’re at it. I remember when I discovered the Tragically Hip in 1986 at a campus pub, when they were still mostly unheard of.

Those memories last forever. Festivals are not only the most economical way to experience live music but they’re also a rite of passage.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 33

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Article and Photography by Tim Du Vernet

T

he history of antique and classic boats is an integral part of the culture and identity of Muskoka.

The lakes and rivers were the original highways and served as essential transportation routes for goods and people.

The Muskoka Lakes Association’s bi-annual boat show recognizes the cultural and commercial significance of this history.

The mandate of the show more specifically states “The MLA Antique Boat Show began in 1971 and has been held bi-annually since, honouring boats that have

36 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

been built in Muskoka or have spent most of their life in Muskoka waters. This show is a tribute to our Muskoka boat building heritage.”

The 1920s were thrilling and formative years in Muskoka’s history. Wooden boat design evolved through the decade with elegant long deck launches and race boats that made their mark nationally and internationally. The theme of this year’s MLA Antique Boat Show, “the Roaring ‘20s,” is a nod to the importance of those years in Muskoka’s history and the many

changes to boats of the time.

By the 1920s, wooden boats were capable of serious speed, having left a war behind and engine power roared with enthusiasm.

The theme of the year will bring examples of antique race boats and gentlemen’s racers from the ‘20s as well as examples of a broad range of boats from the teens to the fifties.

“We always reserve about 20 spots for our theme boats out of our space restricted total of about 65,” explains Dunc Hawkins, committee member for the MLA Antique Boat Show.

For 2024, Whippet, a 26-foot race boat owned by the Herrmann family of Lake Rosseau, has the honour of being the MLA Antique Boat Show’s poster boat. In addition to festivities throughout the docks at Port Carling, the Muskoka Lakes Museum is preparing a display of racing trophies and similar memorabilia from the 1920s.

“The Roaring Twenties were exhilarating years in Muskoka with the steamboat, hotel, cottage and wooden boat building industries flourishing,” adds Ian Turnbull, another long-standing member of the committee and supporter of wooden boating.

Whippet, a 1925 Ditchburn sports runabout, has been selected to represent the theme. At her inception, she was custom ordered by Clarence Ewart McLaughlin (1898-1968). He was the son of George W. McLaughlin, and grandson of Robert McLaughlin, founder of the McLaughlin

Carriage Company and the McLaughlin Motor Car Company, which became General Motors of Canada.

Currently, Whippet is owned by the Herrmann family of Lake Rosseau. Matt Herrmann is at the wheel of the 26-foot race boat, representing the third generation in his family to do so. One of the more recent modifications to Whippet is that she is now powered by a custom designed

Ilmor 625-horsepower V-10 engine. Herrmann believes Whippet will top 70 mph in current form, while historically she likely achieved nearly 60 mph.

Whippet will be joined by other sports runabouts with equally remarkable stories to tell. A replica of Rainbow IV, built for Harry Greening to challenge Baby Bootlegger, shows just how advanced Greening’s ideas

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 37

Whether you’re an avid boater or someone who knows little of the history of Muskoka’s sleek launches, the MLA Antique Boat Show provides an opportunity to experience stunning restorations, replications and originals of classic Muskoka watercraft.

38 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

were. Unfortunately, he pushed the rules too far for the American competition and she was disqualified.

Dix is another 1920’s Ditchburn sports runabout that follows the stylistic trends of the time, but she is a considerably smaller and more personal craft at only 19 feet. Black Prince, a 1934 sports runabout, is one of a series of compact racers built

by Minett-Shields that made regular appearances on the Muskoka summer racing circuit.

Some boats have been fortunate to have been passed through multiple generations and now have new faces at the helm. In addition to Whippet, Fleetwood II, a 26-foot 1929 Minett-Shields, is another example of the next generation representing a family boat. She is now owned by Will Gray and was originally owned by his grandfather.

More than a century ago, boating was an adventure that required planning. Boats such as Seraph, a 1905 steam launch owned by Paul Gockel, are no turnkey operation. It takes time to sort and gather sufficient firewood for the distance and then to build steam in the engine, which develops all of three horsepower. For longer trips, Gockel may have to stash a supply of wood along his route in advance. Seraph has seen many MLA boat shows over the years and the fascination for her engine never wanes.

Another early launch, a 1905 Minett called Pioneer, was built from the pine of the original Cleveland’s House

property, according to her owner James Woodruff. Another example of early boats will be the Port Carling built Disappearing Propeller boats, which were first built around 1915.

The long, displacement hull boats that continue to impress more than a century after they were built, served an important purpose in Muskoka’s history. Boats such as Lady Elgin were built to carry people to and from private cottages and resorts.

The 38-foot 1912 Minett Come N’ Go was not designed as such but was put into service as a livery boat – the water buses of the time.

A few of the “old” boats still have either their original engines or authentic period power. Come ‘N Go is powered by a four cylinder, 25-horsepower Van Blerck engine. The engine is a jewel itself with red paint and brass. When moving at speed, Come ‘N Go looks as sleek as a knife cutting the water.

Certainly, there can be an added challenge and concern when relying on an engine that is over 100 years old. However, according to boating experts, once they are fully and properly serviced, a vintage engine can be as reliable as anything brand new.

The town of Port Carling was a very different place, upwards of 100 years ago. The shoreline was home base for at least three boat builders – Matheson, SeaBird and Duke Boats. The docks also served the many steamers and large private and commercial pleasure boats such as the Rambler, Wanda III and High Tea, among others.

To anyone growing up in Muskoka, being surrounded by antique boats, they are icons that have spanned the generations.

Boats sometimes take on part of the character of an owner at one time or another. Dr. Henry Wilson is fondly remembered for taking visitors out for rides in Lady Elgin and Tim Chisholm and Rambler were regular participants at the MLA show.

With a large congregation of antique boats such as this, one of the most exciting aspects of the MLA show is when the boats

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 39

The docks at Port Carling, once the historic site of several boat builders, are now the site of the bi-annual MLA Antique Boat Show.

arrive or leave. Seeing the variety of boats in action, honouring the speed limits, of course, provides an added layer of entertainment and perspective. Many will arrive early in the morning when the water is still calm.

For those arriving a bit later, landing a boat over 30-feet long can be quite intimidating, particularly with an audience to watch every move. Fortunately, the MLA show dock hands, wearing their white gloves, are ready to catch you. Despite their size, an experienced driver like Rick Terry or Ian Turnbull, who have been driving boats like these nearly from the cradle, can make a 36-foot boat literally turn on a dime.

The Muskoka Lakes Association Antique Boat Show is a unique event among most boat shows. Hawkins explains that the boats

are invited to display at the show, rather an open invitation to classic boat owners to register to attend. Hawkins stressed that while this may sound elitist, “it gives the show committee an opportunity to ensure the gathering has variety and represents truly significant examples of our wonderful, and I have to say, world-renowned, boat building heritage. Show space is limited so careful selection is required to stock the docks with some of the best examples.”

Hawkins also pointed out that the boat show committee has independence in managing the show, with the administrative support of the MLA. “The show has evolved little over the years, because the formula is simple and works well,” shares Turnbull. “Invite the boats that best demonstrate Muskoka’s wooden boat

Docking a launch of significant length can draw a crowd. However, the MLA dock hands, wearing their white gloves, are ready to catch these sizable boats.

40 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

history, fill the docks at Port Carling, fete the owners with recognition, provide a free spectacle for the public, cover 100 per cent of show costs through sponsorship.”

Turnbull further explains, “The MLA show celebrates boats that were built locally or have spent a long time living here. It typically features the best examples of Muskoka’s unique-in-Canada wooden boat building and restoration legacy, which represents over a century of stewardship of the craft.”

In conjunction with the MLA shoreline celebration of wooden boats, the Muskoka Lakes Museum is preparing a display of racing trophies and similar memorabilia represented around the 1920s. Participants in the show are also encouraged to loan their family trophies to the museum for the day.

On Saturday, August 11, the docks of Port Carling will be filled with over 60 of the best examples of wooden boats in Muskoka. The large boat locks are usually closed for the day and independent boating groups such as Muskoka Seaflea and the Outboard Motor Club may be found on either shore.

Surrounded by surviving sites of historic significance, such as the Duke Boats building, the freight shed and Port Carling’s wall “Looking Back,” the MLA Antique Boat Show displays decades of preserved and restored boating history for everyone to enjoy.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 41

Artist Mark Kulas starts off his works by wanting to do something different. His highly stylized and colourful renditions of nature and outdoor activities are easily identifiable, eye-catching and entirely distinctive.

Article by KM Wehrstein / Photography by Tomasz Szumski

H

is paintings seize the eyes.

Unabashedly brilliant colours swirl together, strictly delineated by knife-sharp lines. A highly stylized yet anatomically accurate bird or fish is frozen

42 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

in frenetic movement. A purple wolf or orange moose stands majestically motionless in an utterly natural pose. Four ravens circle in a lockstep “x” against a glowing golden moon and a brooding deep blue sky that

radiates their shapes. A vibrantly indigo hawk wildly flies against a background of pure dazzling scarlet. An airborne fish and a submerged loon dance together in a yin-yang-esque image whimsically entitled

Mark Kulas has participated in the Artists of the Limberlost Studio Tour since 2007, when he was offered a guest spot. Since 2010, his cottage on Bella Lake, east of Huntsville, has been a stop on the annual tour, which gives him the ability to showcase his original paintings, as well as prints, art cards, T-shirts and more.

“Trading Places.” All these wild creatures are strikingly encased in black-cored borders that arrest and demand full visual notice.

Mark Kulas’s art is precise as an engineer’s draft, attaining moods through shape and colour. His art is bold but it would be an error to think it is not subtle or painstaking.

Where there is not contrast between colours, there is subtle harmony. Where he wants to create a gradient of one colour into another, he doesn’t blend them; he creates

the effect by painting hundreds of tiny dots of changing frequency. One at a time.

The eyes of his creatures have a certain calm and wisdom.

“I stylize like mad,” Kulas explains. “I enjoy skimming off the superfluous detail and producing something that’s very identifiable. I have done super-realistic nature art, but it’s photo reproduction, it’s easy. It’s not nearly as much of a challenge.”

The Ottawa-born artist is often asked if

his work is inspired by First Nations art. In style, he explains, he is definitely influenced, particularly by the legendary Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau, who also used bright colours within black outlines.

“There’s something about that that is eye-catching,” Kulas acknowledges, then adds unabashedly, “But being a professional illustrator, I wanted it tighter.” However abstract, his creatures are always clearly identifiable.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 43

Your Landscape, Our Passion

Using precision and dedication, Mark Kulas creates gradients of colour within his artwork by painting hundreds of tiny dots of changing frequency, rather than blending colours together.

He aims to play and have fun with the colours of a piece, while not straying too far from nature.

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For content, he is inspired the same way First Nations artists of the Precambrian Shield are inspired: by having lived most of his life surrounded by the particular species that live over granite and, spending much of his time in the wild, with them. But he also traces his creative roots to his Polish heritage, not to mention modern Western principles of composition and colour theory acquired in his training and career as a graphic designer.

Along Highway 60 east of Algonquin Park lie the municipalities of Wilno and Barry’s Bay, home of a large Polish community.

Kulas’s family hails from here.

“My mother did needlepoint on table runners and pillow covers, with thick black outlines on flowers, roosters and so on,” he recalls; such images can also be found in the area on signs and barns. He grew up on a farm next to Golden Lake, near Pembroke, that adjoined crown land. “So, I got on snowshoes or skis or my Canadian Tire bicycle and went places.”

Of his childhood schooling, Kulas says, “I was dyslexic, so academically I was a mess. I had teachers letting me through thinking I could make a living digging ditches. Drawing or doing art was something I looked at that didn’t require mathematical or verbal ability, and there were people in my family who had artistic ability who were looked at highly.”

Despite not being noticed as an artist – he still claims to have no natural talent, only

skill gained by unceasing practice – he threw himself into it.

“By the time I was in high school, I was one of the geeky artists,” Kulas shares. “Just through the amount of time I put into this stuff, I got good at it. All my other marks were barely passing but I scored high in art.”

His efforts enabled him to attend Algonquin College in Ottawa for graphic design, which he financed by moving furniture.

“My capacity was recognized in something in which I found no difficulty,” he says. “There was a strong illustration component to the program and that was something in which I really excelled.”

Graduating in 1986, he jumped into the field right away. He has done graphic design for the federal Auditor-General’s office in Ottawa and Saint John Regional Hospital in New Brunswick, living in the Maritimes for four years.

“I did a lot of corporate identity work,” Kulas says. “I’d be asked, ‘Simplify our ideal, our company, our mission, to a logo that can be put on an envelope.’ Any piece I did was a challenge to solve.” If his art seems sometimes to have a logo-like visual

simplicity and unity, hence power, there’s a reason.

In 1991 he moved to Pembroke, where he still lives in winter. Summer is spent at a spectacularly situated cottage on Bella Lake, east of Huntsville, which belongs to the family of his common-law wife since 1998, high-school teacher Kathleen Mottershead.

As well as being a full-time graphic designer, Kulas says, “I was drawing or painting all the time. I began going to studio tours or outdoor art shows. I’d see a lot of work that had a certain sameness, that made me think ‘I can compete, I need to pursue this’.”

Starting out as a guest artist on a studio tour in 2007, he began to have success, possibly because his art doesn’t contribute at all to any sameness.

In 2010, he was offered use of the cottage as a stop on the Artists of the Limberlost Studio Tour and has continued to participate. As well as original paintings, he now sells prints, art cards, T-shirts and more, though some of these items are now also available at retailers in Huntsville and Bracebridge.

“It’s kind of taken off,” he says.

Accordingly, his career is now 90 per cent art and 10 per cent graphic design for a few longstanding favoured clients.

If one can sense a certain muscularity, self-discipline and endurance in Kulas’s paintings, it could relate to a strong streak of athleticism rooted in his childhood wilderness treks and early swimming lessons.

Always wanting to take on challenges, he competes in cross-county skiing, masters swimming and cycling, and is a former triathlete. This past Victoria Day weekend he participated in the ‘Spin the Lakes’ charity ride. He usually carries a canoe or kayak on the roof of his vehicle in case he comes by a lake or river that tempts him to explore and find inspiration.

For Kulas, a painting starts with wanting to do something different. “If I last worked on a big piece, I want to work on a small one,” he shares.

Except for commissions, he tries to vary the subject, too. “I do a lot of biking,” Kulas explains. “If I see a deer, I’ll think ‘I’m going to do a deer’. I have to refer to some sort of reference – though I can do a loon in my sleep. They’re pretty basic and I know where all the spots are.”

Always wanting to take on challenges, Mark Kulas competes in cross-county skiing, masters swimming and cycling, and is a former triathlete. Often, he carries a canoe or kayak on the roof of his vehicle in case he comes by a lake or river and is tempted to find inspiration.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 45

Taking inspiration from nature, Indigenous art and his own Polish heritage, Mark Kulas’ style is a blend of his own training as a graphic designer and exploration of styles and techniques that appeal to him. He happily takes his time in getting the colours and content just right.

Execution begins with pencil sketching.

“Draw, erase, correct, decide how big I want it to be,” says Kulas. “I plot that stuff as I work, out of the pencil sketch. I’ll draw for a day then come back to it a few times in the next day or so, to correct proportions; you need to have a fresh eye at times.”

Next, by using a grid system – he creates a grid on the sketch and a larger grid on the canvas – Kulas transfers the image in sections onto the canvas.

“Then I start working on the beastie,” he says. “The colours are me having fun. I paint purple wolves and blue wolves, though foxes will always be red. If I just painted the tones of nature, they’d be all grey and brown. If I go too bizarre, I’ll go away from the nature of the animal, but I’m going to have fun.”

It involves trial and error, of course, though he has noticed that he has to do less and less of that as he racks up experience.

Of his gradient by pure-colour dots methodology, he says, “It’s laborious, but when I get it right, I love it, it works. It’s my style. I enjoy the challenge of solving that problem. If I blended, I wouldn’t be happy with it. It is a resolution to a challenge. I’ve

46 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

tightened up a lot, was looser and a lot less accurate when I started.”

Like many artists in every form of art, he has early works hidden away that no one will ever see.

“I can’t sit for too long, so I paint for three to four hours a day, max,” he says.

“For a two-by-three-foot canvas, I’ll be at that for a month before I’m happy with it. A lot of the time is spent on multiple coats; almost everything gets hit twice.”

Because he never blends, he can take his time using acrylics and store colours he has mixed for one painting in resealable containers. He’s decidedly not a palettepainter.

“I don’t want to show brush strokes or texture,” he says. “People ask what computer I printed them off of but it’s all done by hand. I wanted to paint pictures that didn’t look like anyone else’s. And wanted it to look Canadian. I’m happy with the style I’m producing.”

Mark Kulas will be on the Artists of the Limberlost Studio Tour again this year, meaning you can see his art up close and meet him on August 16-18. The precipitous climb down to the cottage on zigzagging wooden stairs, built so the curvaceous trunk of a massive cedar tree is incorporated into them, is totally worth it.

With skill gained by unceasing practice and a willingness to try various techniques and colours, Mark Kulas has created a body of work he is happy to be producing. Varying everything from the size of his paintings to the colours and the subject matter, his style is entirely his own.

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July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 47

Photo by Laurel Turansky, recipient of the 2024 Michael Foster Photography Award

Article by J. Patrick Boyer

A

ll boats work. But not all work the same way. A vessel delivering fuel in one century may offer vacation tours in another. The canoe may be the backbone of the fur trade, basis for a camping trip or summer regatta competitor.

A runabout can reach a cottage, pull a water-skier, transport a tradesman and carry supplies.

In a district legendary for pleasure boating of all kinds, it is understandable

48 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

that wooden boats, top-dollar speedboats and the latest in runabouts, sailboats and personal watercraft get rave publicity. However, Muskoka also relies on an armada of workboats, an equally diverse fleet of barges, tugs, supply boats, public transit vessels, utility company service boats, police cruisers and honey barges – all doing the heavy-lifting that makes lakeside vacationing possible.

The elegant S.S. Bigwin on Lake of Bays, long known as “the hardest worker at Bigwin

Photograph: Muskoka Discovery Centre Archives

In 1908, Port Carling grocer William Hanna replaced his original Minko supply boat with this vastly larger Newminko, seen here steaming away from Ferndale House on Lake Rosseau. Her greater capacity was needed supplying the busy resorts around the Muskoka lakes.

Photograph: Frank Micklethwaite

The scale of operations to move logs out of the forests and to waiting sawmills is captured in this image of a single tug pulling thousands of boomed logs down Lake Muskoka to Muskoka Bay and its many waiting mills at Gravenhurst. steamer Edith May, captained by George Stevens, ran similar supplies around lakes Rosseau and Joseph to regular customers, tying up at their wharves on islands and along shorelines.

In the early 1900s, the British-American Oil Company (BA) purchased wooden steamer Ina, renamed her Peerless and hired Port Carling’s Bert Brown to operate the former private-use yacht as a fuel supply boat around the Muskoka Lakes. After World War II, BA built the larger all-steel Peerless II to meet rising demand from resorts and other lakeside customers for essential fuel from her 8,000 gallon tank. This work lasted a half-century until better roads enabled fuel delivery by tank trucks to mainland lakeside properties and on heavy-duty barges to islands.

After a hiatus for Peerless II, Captain Randy Potts would convert her into a popular touring boat with narrated excursions operating out of Port Carling; a different “work boat” role in Muskoka’s vacation economy.

Meanwhile, by 1920, Billy Langmaid in Baysville expanded Langmaid’s Groceries by offering fresh meat, vegetables and fruit and launching a summer supply boat, the Joe Bell, to call around Lake of Bays bringing these foodstuffs from his store to cottagers.

“A special treat was arrival of Mr. Langmaid and his supply boat every Tuesday,” recalled Dean Matthews, a Port Cunnington summer resident. For Captain Langmaid to put in, “you just tied a white towel in a branch near the dock. He always had bananas and fresh fruit, quite a luxury to us in those days.”

Also in 1920, Bigwin Inn opened on Lake of Bays. In addition to ever-busy Bigwin, the new resort ran supply boats daily to Bigwin farm at Huntsville fetching fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, cream and butter, and also exchanging with a town cleaner the soiled linens for the prior day’s cleaned and folded ones.

In Port Carling William and Sarah Hanna operated a busy grocery store and in 1891 put

Photograph: Muskoka Discovery Centre Archives

Inn,” shows an initial problem here: how to distinguish between workboats and pleasure craft? After all, Muskoka has a tradition of boats doing double-duty, even multitasking.

The Bigwin ferried passengers and luggage to and from the elegant island resort for decades but today she is still hard at work in these same waters, refitted and touring folks from Lake of Bays Marine Museum. Work or pleasure?

During Muskoka’s triumphant steam era from the 1860s to 1960s, the big steamships were also working vessels – offering public transit, serving on-board meals to passengers, carrying freight and moving mail. Linked to steam train schedules and effecting mid-lake transfers, they provided seamless transport from the urban south to Muskoka’s northland accommodations.

Although the age of steam evaporated, the working tradition of the big ships endures as Wenonah II and Segwun provide moving platforms for scenic tours, weddings, sporting events, onboard meals and maintaining Gravenhurst as a “Gateway to the Muskoka Lakes.”

Muskoka’s outrageously bad roads, dangerous and impassable for horse-drawn wagons and impossible for motorized deliveries, gave rise to vessels whose name was synonymous with work: the supply boats. By the 1890s, for instance, grocers and farmers were making supply boat calls around the lakes to cottagers and lodges.

Farmer John Beaumont at Alport on Lake Muskoka owned the small steamer Nymoca from which his sons, Frank and George, sold fresh vegetables, apples and eggs from their farm as well as flour, hams, bacon, tea, sugar, soap, bananas, watermelons and canned fruit to customers at Beaumaris, Gibralter, Port Keywaydin, St. Elmo, Mortimer’s Point, Torrance, and Bala. Another supply boat, the

The Alporto supply boat, owned and operated by the Beaumont family, sold produce from their farm along with other items. This rare interior shot of a the floating grocery store shows the attractive presentation of produce and other goods.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 49

Photograph: George Johnson Collection

One of Mary Lake’s hardworking steamers, Gem, pulls a small boom of logs into the Muskoka River toward Port Sydney’s busy sawmill in 1919. The point at the right, notes village historian George Johnson, was a dumpsite for mill waste. the Mink, a locally built 57-foot steamer, into service as a floating grocery store with iceboxes on board to keep food fresh during calls around the shorelines.

“A specialty is catering to camps,” Hanna advertised, “at prices much lower than the tourist can bring in provisions himself.”

In 1908, the Mink was replaced by Newminko as demand for fresh food delivered straight to

one’s dock increased. Up and down Muskoka’s Georgian Bay coast, supply boats were essential, their services provided everything from groceries and produce to gasoline for marinas.

With so many moving parts to the district’s waterway economy, niches kept opening for boats to take on special tasks. The Mildred, owned and operated by Captain Wesley Archer of Browning Island, linked the Lake Muskoka

vicinity with short-run passenger and light freight service. The Mildred’s service was a small business thriving on opportunities the big steamship fleet operating out of Gravenhurst was too large and tightly scheduled to handle.

Later, when Earle Dunn fashioned his Big Band magnet in Bala “where all Muskoka dances,” Mildred ran evening public cruises from Bracebridge to Bala, returning from

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Photograph: Ontario Archives

Over her long career, owned and operated by the Archer family, popular steam yacht Mildred operated from Browning Island, serving all three of the Muskoka lakes – here at full capacity touring Muskoka holidaymakers along the Joseph River.

Photograph: Boyer Family Archives

Dunn’s Pavilion around 2 a.m. When this needed, a morning or a month, just as on land Muskoka Bay, delivering barge loads of tan varied working life had run its course, the they rent trucks and special equipment from bark to the vast leather tanneries in Bracebridge elegant Mildred was scuttled – a watercraft’s Muskoka’s burgeoning rental companies. The and Huntsville and taking log booms from same goes for district retailers or their customers the Georgian Bay coast across Lake Huron to most honourable end.

However, passing time changes everything. who, throughout navigation season, efficiently Michigan mills. A variant was the steampowered warping-tug, affectionately Refloated by enterprising Randy known as an Alligator, a vehicle-vessel Potts, she is being restored to combo custom-designed for the operation. Captain Potts and his Canadian Shield logging environment, wife Debbie expect to have Mildred adeptly moving logs reptilian-like over back at work, on the public transit land and across water. tourist side of things, for upcoming The small but mighty tugs never seasons of pleasure cruising. yielded their role. Generations of Water taxies work daily crossing lake-freighting families and dozens district lakes, providing the public more Muskoka transport operators with rides for hire. Most every marina throughout the district, rely on tugs in Muskoka provides this service, to move fully loaded barges from from Harbour Water Taxi at Honey Nymoca, one of a number of supply boats bringing foodstuffs and other mainland wharves where trucks deliver Harbour at the district’s southwest items to lakeside Muskokans for decades, calls at Walker’s Point on building materials and other supplies to Mountain Trout Marina at Dorset Lake Muskoka in the 1890s. cross-water to a contractor’s worksite. on Lake of Bays in the northeast.

Travelling anywhere day or night in all kinds schedule water-borne deliveries where trucks There the barge is secured for the coming days of weather on different waters means the size rendezvous with barges or capacious workboats to serve as a floating platform or off-loaded by and nature of water taxies varies considerably, at public wharfs and privately-owned marinas. crews using front-end loaders or lifts to move With Muskoka’s rocky shorelines, the gravel, soil, stone, timbers or skids of lumber from runabouts and pontoon boats to larger advantage of highly buoyant freight barges and shingles ashore, either way enabling the vessels.

Many Muskoka contractors own and operate and pontoon-supported watercraft is the ability doughty tug to depart and work another loaded workboats on the larger waterway systems to reach most shores over shallow and rock barge.

On an expanse of lake wide enough to connecting lakes of north Muskoka, those of infested waters. Like swing-bridges that enable central Muskoka and the Georgian Bay coast. water and road routes to function in sync on visibly include the curvature of Earth’s surface, Whether for new construction or renovations, Muskoka’s patchwork watershed, these especially at sunrise, it is possible to see a they arrive onsite by boat – teams of tradespeople waterborne platforms keep district life and dream-like image as rays of light spotlight a with a full battery of tools – where building commerce functioning so smoothly one hardly heavy cement truck or fuel truck being driven supplies, generators, even a rented portable notices – as long as everything keeps working. over the water. At 7 a.m. when loading begins, Tugboats gained a pivotal role amidst the a ready-mix vehicle with rotating drum or a toilet await, having been delivered by barge.

Building contractors with only intermittent district’s working watercraft from the 1860s tanker may drive directly onto a barge and lake work need not own a vessel because they – pulling boomed logs down the central lakes lowered by its heavyweight cargo, off they go. can more economically book one for the time to Sawdust City’s lumberyards rimming Someone a half-kilometre away, seeing only

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 51

Photograph: Muskoka Discovery Centre Archives

Photograph: Harper Family, Honey Harbour Historical Committee

“Supply boats” could take the form of a barge moved by boats alongside, such as the Zingari seen here on the right, and another workboat on the opposite side for balanced propulsion, bringing a car from an offshore freighter to Georgian Bay mainland. the truck moving, the barge and tug below their sight line, glimpses how surrealistic Muskoka’s magic can be. In this special quiet moment, a vessel actually doing the work appears to be, one way or another, out of registered sight.

A different category of work vessel are boats operated by the Ontario Provincial Police, Ontario Hydro and Lakeland Power, telephone, tree service, plumbing and other utility companies. Whether owned or leased, in play

daily or ready on stand-by, located at their own yards or in rented marina slips at strategic locations throughout Muskoka, these watercrafts are operated by the organization’s own staff.

A century ago, when the first police boats began operating on Muskoka waters, policing was a provincial responsibility that had been delegated to municipalities. District towns and villages each had local constables, few in number, to walk a nightly beat along main street and down to the train station and back.

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52 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

S.S. Islander pushes the season well beyond Muskoka’s fabled autumn colours in 1929 as passengers carry their luggage aboard at Port Carling through more than a foot of snow.

Once two competing railways began disgorging thousands of spirited vacationers daily to Bala’s three stations, the village’s lone officer was unequal to his constabulary tasks. In March 1921, anticipating the summer ahead, the Ontario Provincial Police opened its first detachment in Ontario.

Of necessity, Bala’s inauguration of provincial police handling local duties required use of watercraft. Today a fleet upwards of 20 OPP water cruisers based at the provincial solicitor

palliative education. They are also trained in grief support, Indigenous cultural safety, LGTBQ+ diversity and pediatric care.

Hospice Muskoka is committed to providing unparalleled palliative care expertise.

To learn more about our clinical team, visit hospicemuskoka.com.

Photograph: Randy Potts, Sunset Cruises

Captain Randy Potts created reality from nothing but a dream when he recast Peerless II in a new workboat role. With many adaptions for carrying passengers instead of fuel, she now tours vacationers around scenic Muskoka lakes. because restoring phone service generally ranks below getting electricity flowing again to remote and isolated places. In the past decade, islanders have increasingly addressed problems of power outages and downed phone lines by installing emergency generators and using wireless communications. Of course, those back-up power systems had to be transported by workboats and then installed by utility company crews crossing water, meaning that any way you slice it, Muskoka can only be what it is thanks to the district’s workboats and freight vessels.

A number of Muskoka’s larger boathouses have slips where, alongside a polished classic wooden Ditchburn or Dippy, a battered but treasured fibreglass or tin slugger waits her turn to carry loads of groceries, rental equipment and building materials. When islanders use their runabouts as supply boats, it becomes clear almost any watercraft can at some time in some way be classified as a workboat – sharing the load of a genuine Muskoka experience.

Whether to provide security for some prominent passenger (a normal happenstance on Muskoka steamships) or simply show the flag for police public relations, in 1955 the Ontario Provincial Police, who began using watercraft when opening their first provincial detachment at Bala in 1921, escort Segwun with two officers aboard their water cruiser.

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Photograph: Muskoka Discovery Centre Archives

general’s Gravenhurst property, the former Ontario Fire College shoreline lands, provide district-wide waterway police services ranging from routine patrols and talks to cottager association annual meetings to spot checks, investigations, and emergency responses.

Muskoka foresters and arborists are early responders at islands and water-access cottages to clear windstorm damage but more frequently carry out scheduled maintenance work. Treecare companies get plenty of work around the lakes and generally operate their own workboats suited to their equipment, pattern of operation and the wide range tasks ashore.

The workboats carrying Ontario Hydro or Lakeland Power crews to destinations are strong metal craft with high power reliable engines.

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2024 BLACK TIE GALA IN SUPPORT OF THE SOUTH MUSKOKA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION Rotary Club of Bracebridge Muskoka Lakes successfully met its fundraising goal & purchased a portable ultrasound machine for our local healthcare facility.

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July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 55

Muskoka swimmer qualifies for 2024 Paris Paralympics

Years of hard work and sacrifice have paid off for Muskoka's newest paralympic athlete.

Mary Jibb of the Muskoka Aquatic Club was notified in May that she will be joining Team Canada for the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.

The announcement is the culmination of a banner season representing the Muskoka Aquatic Club on the national and international stage. Her qualification for Team Canada came on the back of successes at the Eastern Canadian Championships and the Citi Para Swimming World Series, followed by racing at the European Para Championships in Madeira, Portugal.

As a competitive swimmer for nearly 10 years, Mary’s road to success has not been without challenges. In 2012 at the age of four, Mary suffered a left basal ganglia stroke with focal vasculitis, which left her with a myriad of physical impairments. Due to the impairments caused by her stroke, Mary was first officially classified as an S10 para swimmer. In an effort to create a fair and equal competitive field, all para swimmers are classed based on their level of ability and impairment, S1 being the most physically impaired, S10 the least physically impaired, S11-13 include visual impairments and S14 intellectual impairments.

Last season, Jibb earned top honours in Canada as a National Champion winning gold at Canadian World Trials and then gold again at Canadian Nationals last July. Following her success at nationals, she set her sights on

56 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

earning a space on Canada’s paralympic team for Paris 2024.

Unfortunately, she experienced considerable setbacks in her training as she felt her physical condition progressively worsen. She experienced numbness and tingling on her right side from her hands down to her feet. In addition, her mild dystonia on her right side became more severe causing constant muscle clenching and cramping in her right foot and calf. Despite rigorous training and her best efforts, she was not able to set any new personal bests. After discussing her condition with coaches within Swim Ontario and Swimming Canada, she earned a spot to be re-classified.

Through months of extensive testing and travelling, Jibb continued to train to prepare for the Canadian Paralympic Trials. At the Eastern Canadian Championships in Quebec City, she earned her Canadian S9 classification. In Indianapolis at the Citi Paraswimming World Series, despite Mary’s arduous schedule, she was able to perform well at all key events that took her from Canada to the United States to Portugal.

At the Eastern Canadian Championships held in Quebec City in March 2024, Jibb earned a bronze medal in the 400-metre freestyle and silver medals in the 100-metre freestyle, 100-metre backstroke, and 200-metre individual medley. She put on quite a show adding to her considerable accolades by

setting a new Canadian record in the S9 category, claiming bronze in the 50-metre freestyle, posting a time of 29.86 seconds.

New train shelters in Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and Huntsville

The return of passenger rail travel to Muskoka took another step forward recently with a provincial announcement of new station shelters.

Representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Ontario Northland paid a visit to Bracebridge to make the announcement at the site of the new shelter, which is to be constructed next to the site of the former passenger station.

According to Vijay Thanigasalam, associate minister of transportation, the new passenger stations will be fully equipped with seating, lighting and heating and will be installed over the next two years.

In total, nine new shelters will be constructed along the route, including stations in Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Huntsville.

The announcement was part of the awarding of three contracts for the design and manufacture of the new station shelters as well as enhanced rail safety and complete warning system upgrades. The contracts mark a significant milestone in reinstating train service between Timmins and Toronto.

Photograph: Matt Driscoll

Mary Jibb, a swimmer from the Muskoka Aquatic Club, has earned a place on Team Canada for the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.

Photograph: Muskoka Aquatic Club

Whats Happened

Representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Ontario Northland recently announced nine new train shelters along the Northlander route, including stations in Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and Huntsville.

Photograph: Nancy Beal

Rick Maloney, mayor of the Town of Bracebridge said the Town is pleased to see the Ontario government investing in shelters along the Northlander route, including Bracebridge.

“These upgraded amenities will contribute to providing safe, accessible transportation options to residents and visitors while helping support the growth and development of our local economy through improved access to tourism and job opportunities,” said Maloney.

The launch party for Lori Knowles’ new novel, Summers with Miss Elizabeth, was hosted by Muskoka comedienne Peaches in May.

Peaches introduces Summers with Miss Elizabeth at book launch

With a wink and a biting wit, Peaches – Muskoka’s best loved comedienne – was the mistress of ceremony at the May book launch of Summers with Miss Elizabeth by local author Lori Knowles.

Held in The Boathouse at Taboo Resort on May 11, 2024, the room was packed with Muskokans sharing martinis and laughs as the funny woman introduced the novel, a family story set in a classic lakeside cottage billed as “summer in a book.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Peaches said, “I’ve been in New York all week advising Stormy Daniels on her next move.”

Summers with Miss Elizabeth is the emotionally charged story of the Wynward family, Pittsburgh industrialists with a century-old cottage on a Muskoka lake. At the centre of the story is the marvelous “Miss

Elizabeth,” a shrewd, champagne-swilling mistress of Pittsburgh’s Wynward Steel – a character Peaches joked was “a very dear friend.”

Behind the candy-coloured Muskoka chairs and glossy wooden watercraft lies a more shadowy side of cottage country. Written by Bracebridge author and journalist Lori Knowles, the novel is funny, sad, mysterious and a little tragic.

“I grew up in wonder of iconic Muskoka hotspots like Beaumaris, Rosseau, Bala, Port Carling and Millionaire’s Row,” says Knowles.

“Muskoka is a storied place filled with beautiful blue vistas, lacquered boats, Muskoka chairs and summer heat but there’s darkness there, too – family struggles, tragedy and loss, secrets swept behind wicker settees. I was raised in Muskoka and I’m a storyteller.

I’ve always known there are terrific tales to be told.”

Summers with Miss Elizabeth is sold at Unique Muskoka's Bracebridge store and online at loriknowles.com.

Music on the Barge returns to Gravenhurst

The ever-popular Music on the Barge concert series at Gull Lake Park in Gravenhurst is set for a July return. Music on the Barge is the largest outdoor concert series north of Toronto and it draws thousands of guests to the shores of Gull Lake Park every year.

The Town of Gravenhurst recently announced the lineup for this year's concert series: July 7 – Motown Mania July 14 – Doobie Brothers Tribute July 18 – Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival presents… Music on the Barge August 4 – Tom Jones Show August 11 – Joplin meets Hendrix August 18 – Sound of Sting August 25 – Foreigner: Jukebox Heroes NEW THIS YEAR: Battle for the Barge Winner Nights July 23 – Baytowne Big Band July 30 – VanHillert August 22 – Swingin’ Blackjacks August 29 – Southern Rock Tribute September 1 – Shout! The British Invasion

The shows take place on Sunday nights starting at 7:30 pm and admission is a free will offering.

Muskoka Discovery Centre wins national award

The considerable amount of time, money and hard work poured into the latest Muskoka Discovery Centre exhibition is paying off with recognition at the highest levels.

The Discovery Centre’s Misko-Aski: Confluence of Cultures exhibit recently received an award for outstanding achievement in exhibitions from the Canadian Museums Association.

The exhibit opened last year and conveys the presence of Indigenous Peoples extending back millennia including the histories and experiences of the Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabek, Métis and Haudenosaunee peoples.

“It is very satisfying for our team to compete successfully with some of the biggest museums in Canada,” said John Miller, president of the Muskoka Discovery Centre.

On behalf of the Muskoka Discovery Centre, Chippewas of Rama Chief Ted Williams and project director Tim Johnson accepted the award.

“The building of relationships is the foundation of our culture, our nature, our people and all living beings,” said Chief Williams. “Working with the Muskoka Discovery Centre we have supported the development of this exhibit to make a difference in our region and across Canada. As a result, the Centre is now able to present components of the real Indigenous history in an educational and enlightened manner.”

The guiding principle of the project was to feature Indigenous stories as told by Indigenous people under Indigenous project management. The strategic goal was to weave Indigenous culture and sustainability values into the fabric and identity of the Muskoka region. Misko Aki: Confluence of Cultures represents the assembling of knowledge and information as determined by Indigenous knowledge holders and elders whose peoples traversed and inhabited the Muskoka region throughout history up to the present day.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 57

“This kind of project is a game changer because it rounds out the long established historical narrative of a very important region of the country by adding back the Indigenous stories that were missing,” said project director Tim Johnson. “The curatorial approach of taking visitors on a canoe journey through time and to landing areas where events and issues are revealed becomes a transformative learning experience.”

Giant hornet sightings have Muskokans on edge

Are there murder hornets in Muskoka?

According to the experts, the answer is likely no but it appears another exceptionally large breed of hornet is on the rise this year across the region.

Social media has been awash this spring with pictures of huge hornets which seem to be proliferating in the area.

Murder hornets, or giant Asian hornets as they are more formally known, have only ever been spotted on the west coast of North America.

Photograph: Red Canoe Gallery

Red Canoe Gallery moves to a new home

The Red Canoe Gallery has found a new home in Bala to display their original paintings of some of Muskoka’s and Ontario’s best artists.

On the other hand, European hornets (smaller than the Asian hornet but larger than the typical North American hornet) have lived in North America for nearly two centuries.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is asking the public to report any irregularly sized wasps to them so they can confirm the species.

While the European hornet might look intimidating experts say the risk is relatively minimal and no greater than that posed by a typical hornet.

The Red Canoe Gallery has officially opened the doors of its new location in Bala.

“We are so excited to finally be located here and to celebrate our 31st year in business in Muskoka,” said gallery owner Carola Grimm.

“The building is so well suited for our business with its large windows, high ceilings, easy level loading area and tons of onsite parking. Bala has so many great new shops and restaurants, with the handmade chocolate shop. Now the renovation of the Bala Bay is almost complete, so we plan to be open year round.”

Red Canoe Gallery features the original paintings of some of Muskoka’s and Ontario’s best artists and carries a wide range of sizes and styles. The gallery has also added five new artists this year, along with all the favourites such as Paul Garbett, Peter Reid and Carola Grimm. Red Canoe Gallery will also continue to offer a large selection of handmade Canadian wood bowls and wood accessories.

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The coolest seasoning you’ve never heard about: Cooking with sumac Article by K.M. Wehrstein / Photography by Tomasz Szumski Sumac is a plant found in volume across Muskoka, often visible along the plant-filled sides of roads. It’s a strange tree, that seems as if it might have come from Mars or the bizarre imagination of Dr. Seuss. Sumac is easily recognizable with its hairy zigzagging trunks and branches, its astonishing colours in fall and its many-leafed fronds radiating out from upright fat red spikes of… what are they? Berries? Flowers?

While the sumac plant across Muskoka is known, what may come as a surprise is that sumac is also a spice. Part of the reason for that would be the spice called “sumac” is not very well-known in Canada and is generally made from a sumac species that grows in the Middle East. It is cherished there as a key ingredient of za’atar powder, which is used in many Middle-Eastern dishes.

There are about 35 species of sumac

worldwide and their botanical names all start with Rhus. The one you see along roadsides in Muskoka is staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina). Store-bought sumac powder is typically made from the shrub Rhus coriana and imported from the Middle East.

So, you have your choice: buy it from the store to be more traditional or harvest it right here in Muskoka to use for your sumac-requiring recipes. The latter would be the choice of Laura Gilmour, CEO and co-owner with her husband, Chris Gilmour, of Wild Muskoka Botanicals. The Gilmours’ business in Dwight focuses on the healthy locavore movement to the max: getting nourishment and deliciousness right out of the Muskoka wilderness.

“We think of spices as coming far away but this one is here,” says Laura Gilmour.

“People need to eat locally and that includes spices.” There are at least a dozen high-quality spice plant species that grow in Muskoka, she shares, naming off a few: wild leeks, pine for

A traditional Greek salad, with no lettuce, is a great summer salad to prepare ahead. This version includes sumac powder in Gilmour’s Muskoka Za’atar Spice Mix for flavouring.

60 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

roasting and sweet gale, whose flavour she describes as “like black pepper and bay leaves had a baby.”

Gilmour eats a lot of foraged foods that she would never sell as products. Either they’re not sustainable on a large scale (“the short-window things like shoots of plants and baby leeks”) or they require too much processing.

“I eat acorns,” she says, absolutely seriously. “But you have to shell them, grind them, leach out the tannins, then dry them and it’s flour at that point.” She does the obvious thing to do then: bake acorn bread.

“Wild leeks, sumac, pine, elderberries – these are the large-scale items,” Gilmour says.

Wild Muskoka products made from these ingredients and more include syrups, infused apple-cider vinegars, cocktail and mocktail (non-alcoholic) mixers, spice blends and bitters (for high-octane cocktail flavouring).

One of the vinegars is called simply Sumac (for a home-made version, she instructs, “You can soak the flower still on the stem in vinegar; soak for at least a month.”) Among the mixers you’ll find one of Gilmour’s best-selling offerings: Strawberry Sumac Shrub (which one online reviewer delectably drizzled over ice cream).

Finally, there is Muskoka Za’atar, Gilmour’s version of the famed Middle-Eastern flavouring – whose recipe she has shared with us.

Originally from Niagara, Gilmour moved with her family to Muskoka at the age of 10 when her father landed a job as a chef at Deerhurst, and they lived in Melissa, just north of Huntsville. While studying ecology at Fleming College, she says, “I got really inspired about sustainability.” Once graduated, she signed on with Worldwide

Muskoka Za’atar Spice Mix – Laura Gilmour

Ingredients 1 Tbsp sumac powder 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds 1 tsp dried parsley 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried thyme ¼ tsp salt

Method Combine all ingredients in a small grinder (spice or coffee) and pulse until incorporated.

Wild Muskoka Greek Salad – Laura Gilmour

Ingredients 1 cucumber, cubed 1 small container of grape tomatoes (289 g), halved ¼ cup chopped red onion 100 g feta cheese, cubed ¼ cup black olives, chopped ¼ cup olive oil 2 Tbsp Muskoka Za’atar spice mix

Method Combine, let sit for 10 minutes and serve.

Forager-Cook Tips • Why no lemon juice? The sumac provides that flavour.

• Why the 10 minutes sit time? The vegetables and the oil hydrate the spice, which brings out the flavours more.

• Because it has no greens, which go soft if left for any time, this makes a great prepare-ahead salad. It’s also a great summer picnic salad because it marinates well.

• Za’atar is also great on rich meats.

Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), an educational exchange organization founded in 1971 which provides organic farm placements in 130 nations worldwide.

“I travelled mostly in western Canada and the United States, lived and worked on all sorts of organic farms, met herbalists and foragers,” she reminisces. “That’s where I started to learn what I know. I learned herbal medicine – food is medicine – and became a total nerd.

My partner and I spend all our free time doing this kind of stuff.” Actually, it’s all her time, really, since it’s her work time, too.

Around 2007, the Gilmours settled in Bracebridge, where Laura worked as an ecologist for five years. “And I kept practicing; I was a passionate forager and herbalist. I kept getting asked by different organizations to come and lead foraging walks and herbal medicine workshops.”

At the same time, following in dad’s footsteps, she became a passionate cook but with foraged ingredients. “People kept asking me to help and if they could buy things I was making. So, I started Wild Muskoka in 2015.”

At first the business was part-time work for Gilmour but it has grown to full-time work for the couple plus one part-time employee who has been there for a year. As well as the edible and drinkable products, you can buy books and swag from Wild Muskoka or you can put on your hiking boots and bug repellent and attend Gilmour’s foraging classes – though not this year as they’re all full.

“I put the classes out in winter. Sign up to our newsletter if you are interested and book early,” she recommends. “This year they were sold out by April.”

Here is a quickie sumac foraging and preparation class by Gilmour, as a free sneak preview.

“The staghorn sumac is all around us but catching the window is difficult,” she shares.

“It’s usually mid-July to early August but that can vary by area. If you pick it too early, it has no flavour. Too late and they’re infested with bugs.” Pick the red flower-spikes and open them up. “They should be pretty clean

Laura Gilmour of Wild Muskoka Botanicals focuses her business on getting healthy nourishment right out of the Muskoka wilderness. on the inside.”

To produce powdered sumac, Gilmour says: “I freeze them right away, for at least a week. Then I dry them: the place has to be dark, low humidity, with good air flow.”

Once the spikes are dry, she picks the flowers off the stems, grinds them in a coffee grinder to release the hairs from the seeds, and sifts out the seeds. “The hairs are what you want.”

Trying a pinch of these, there’s a sweetness in the sourness of sumac. “They’re a fruit, so they’re sweet,” she says.

Gilmour describes Za’atar as “a blend of sour, salty and aromatic.” The flavour combination is reminiscent of a powdered Greek salad. That leads us to the second recipe Gilmour provides us: a Greek salad. A real Greek salad; Greek salads served in Greece never have lettuce in them.

Accordingly, Gilmour likes to serve hers a bit later in the year than now.

“By late summer, unless you’re good at replanting, your lettuce has bolted and you have an overabundance of tomatoes and cucumbers,” she explains.

But Gilmour makes a major departure

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 61

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from the traditional Greek salad: her Muskoka Za’atar powder made using staghorn sumac replaces both lemon juice and oregano. It makes for a more subtle and slightly sweeter citrus taste and imparts a slight warm redness to the feta cubes.

If you’re worried about harvesting poison sumac by mistake: that nasty plant is in a different family entirely, along with poison ivy (not surprisingly their species name starts with Toxicodendron). It has smooth twigs and white-yellow berries that hang down. If the sumac tree you’re looking at has hairy twigs (like a stag’s horns) and rich dark red flower spikes that stand upright, you’re good.

You’ve met Liam Cooper in these pages before – last year’s last issue, in fact, for which he created a holiday turkey dinner using sumac. What he’s cooked up exclusively for Cottage Country Cuisine this time is Sumac Brined and Roasted Duck with Raspberry and Sumac Reduction and

Raspberry and Sumac Reduction – Liam Cooper

Ingredients 1 cup staghorn sumac flowers 1 cup frozen and thawed raspberries (or fresh) 2-3 cups hot water 3 Tbsp white sugar ¼ tsp ground sage ¼ tsp ground ginger 1 bay leaf

Method • Bring the hot water to a boil, place it with sumac flowers and soak overnight in a closed thermal container.

• Put the sumac and water into a pot and bring to a boil.

• Add raspberries.

• Boil for five minutes and strain through a fine mesh sieve.

• Put liquid back into the pot and add sugar, sage, ginger and bay leaf • Bring to a simmer and cook until thick (20-30 minutes). Remove bay leaf.

Sumac provides a slight lemon flavour to Liam Cooper’s Brined and Roasted Duck recipe.

oh, it’s good.

This July the culinarily-precocious son of chef John Cooper of Basilico in Bracebridge turned 16, after presumably having aced the hospitality course he took at Bracebridge

Sumac Brined and Roasted Duck – Liam Cooper

Ingredients Brine: Enough water to cover the duck Add 2 Tbsp of salt per litre of water 3-4 Tbsp sumac flowers 2-3 bay leaves ¾ tsp sage 1 tsp whole fennel seeds

Method • Brine the duck for 6 hours with sumac flowers, bay leaves, sage and fennel seeds.

• Remove the duck and pat dry, leave uncovered overnight in the fridge.

• Remove from fridge and cold smoke the duck for 1½ hours (optional).

• Transfer the duck to a 375°F oven and roast on a wire rack with a deep casserole or roasting pan until 165° in the breast for medium (180° for well-done) and 180° in the thigh. Roast 15-20 minutes

Muskoka Lakes Secondary School.

“My hospitality teacher just lets me do whatever,” Cooper says.

Having learned knife safety from dad while knee-high, he gently aided his

per pound.

• In the last 10-15 minutes, baste the duck with the hot fat.

• Serve with raspberry and sumac reduction.

Suggested side dishes: broccolini (scalded in hot water) and mashed potatoes (with white pepper, butter and leftover duck fat).

• Wine pairing (by John Cooper): A red that’s floral and not too sweet, such as Chianti.

Child Prodigy Cook's Tips • Set up the rack in or on top of the casserole dish or roasting pan so the duck doesn’t end up sitting in fat. That prevents the meat from confit (cooking in fat) – changes the structure of the meat and makes it fall apart.

• Lollipop the legs – score the skin just above the end of the drumstick and roll it back – to make it look pretty.

July 2024 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 63

classmates. The key trick, which not only keeps your fingers intact but makes you able to cut faster and more accurately: “Keep the flat of the blade on your knuckles.” That means you curl the fingers of the hand that’s holding the food so you can have the flat of the blade touching the knuckles while you cut, keeping the fingertips tucked away safe and in effect controlling the knife with both hands. If you’ve never done it, it feels awkward at first but soon you feel how much more control you have.

Cooper has worked kitchens professionally and has even had one of his creations on the menu of the Old Station Restaurant in Bracebridge. So, he knows his ingredients, including sumac. In some cases, he says, “You can treat sumac like lemon; I used it in the brine like lemon and used it in the sauce instead of lemon zest.”

However, he advises against using it as a direct substitute. “Lemon is a lot stronger.”

He does recommend using sumac instead of lemon in tea: “Sumac doesn’t lose its flavour when heated.”

How did he first learn about this relatively obscure spice? “There’s a sumac bush behind my elementary school and my friends and I used to eat them,” he shares. “I maybe read about it in a book as well. They’re not really berries, they’re flowers.” He and Laura Gilmour agree on that. The sumac he used to prepare this dish was harvested from a tree in the forest near Bracebridge.

Why brine? Cooper shares his expertise.

“Brining makes things a lot juicier and helps the skin crisp. It helps impart flavour. The salt breaks down collagen between meat fibres, making the meat more tender.” He recommends brining game meats for tenderness.

How to invent brine recipes? “Throw it in and hope for the best, it always works out well.” Well, it does for him. Remember, cuisine is in his blood.

Why use this particular sauce with duck?

Because the nature of duck calls for it.

“Sweet and sour cuts the richness,” says Cooper. As well as its natural richness, the meat has added flavour complexity from the brine that the reduction complements deliciously. Another winner from the wunderkind.

64 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

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Muskoka Moments

Deep Connections

golf around the block, swinging without any precision, completely unconcerned at the prospect of a stray ball landing on a stranger’s lawn or through their windows.

We’d head to the railway tracks before scheduled locomotives passed to put pennies down, then wait at a safe distance up the hill to watch them pass, hoping to turn the squished metal into a jewelry empire (Genius but also illegal!).

Many nights we slept outside wherever including on top of an old boathouse on Lake Muskoka, where we’d been dropped off, left to pitch a tent and fend for ourselves. This involved sourcing wood and lighting campfires to fry up meals, including ‘gourmet’ spaghetti one night (for which Gang Rules stated we weren’t allowed to use

Photograph: Kate Monk

What comes to mind when I think of Muskoka? Is it the people or is it the place?

Actually, it’s the simple – yet intricate – intertwining of the two.

Born in Bracebridge almost 56 years ago, I don’t remember ever feeling unrooted in all those years, even despite having skipped town for many of them. When you grow up here, no matter how far you wander, Muskoka lies deep in the bones. And for people over a certain age, the foundation for this heartstring usually happened when you met your neighbourhood gang. I was no exception.

Blessed with a childhood back in the day (I can’t believe I’m using that expression) when kids found their own fun by roaming like a feral pack around the extended block, my crew of four girls would be outside at all hours in the summer. We would dart from lawn to lawn, some days only entering one of our houses to take a bathroom break, to bandage a scrape or to beg a homemade popsicle from an amused adult.

Our pre-teen exploits were legendary, in our own minds anyway, and would likely terrify a lot of parents today (myself included).

We’d hike or snowshoe into the bush and climb trees to eat our packed lunches. We’d

Photograph: Kate Monk

Article by Kate Monk

Kate Monk and her childhood friends, “The Neighbourhood,” out for a swim and board games at the piano teacher’s cottage “back in the day.”

66 UNIQUE MUSKOKA July 2024

our hands or utensils to eat).

Another night at the lake, a storm arose and doused our tent and sleeping bags, forcing us to seek shelter in the boathouse.

At some point, our parents all called on the rotary phone to see if we were still alive but none of them were worried enough to come collect us until morning. For certain, after witnessing our escapades over time, they all had faith in their girls’ abilities to watch out for each other.

All my years in Muskoka, I’ve seen this intertwining of people and place create the deepest connections over and over again, which form the poignant attachment many of us feel about being here. I still see it in our rural community halls, where neighbours gather to share a potluck meal and socialize for companionship, permanent and seasonal residents alike. I see it in the tourism industry, where young staff form life-long bonds with their colleagues who also work hard and play hard, while providing visitors with unforgettable experiences. And I see it now, most prominently, as our communities rally to ensure healthcare in Muskoka serves every single one of our neighbours, for years to come.

Five decades later, our gang of four, which is now lovingly referred to as ‘The Neighbourhood,’ still meets to organize expeditions and to watch out for each other.

We have very different lives and a couple have moved away. But our hearts were forged together here and they beat with a collective pulse, thanks to this place.

There are such a thing as halcyon days and I am so grateful to have found them in Muskoka.

Kate Monk is a regenerative strategist who has worked in the area’s tourism sector for decades.

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