Discover Ontario: Stories of the Province's Unique People and Places

In memory of Bob Rowe, a good friend and mentor

Thanks to my wife, Allanah O’Boyle, for assisting in the editing of this book

Table of Contents

Introduction

Memories of Ontario

Fishing

Lost North America

The Irish: Part 1

The Irish: Part 2

The Need to Remember

From the Sixties and Beyond

Prohibition

The Great Depression

Elders’ Conference, 1992

Nature in Victoria County

Memories of Ontario

The Brougham Apple Basket

Bancroft Rock Festival

Demographics

Shipwreck

A Young Bride’s Dream

The Paranormal and the Unexplained

The Mysteries of Long Point

Strange Creatures Swimming in Our Waters

Strange Lights in the Sky

The Discovery of the Crystal Skull

The Agawa Pictographs of Lake Superior

Beyond the Grave

Saving Lives on the French River

The Roswell Crash

Project Magnet

The Aboriginal Haunting in Orillia

Fairies and the Elemental World

A Pioneer of Paranormal Research

The Ghost Road

Alien Encounter in Ontario

The Mound Builders

Serpent Mounds

Ghosts

Who Murdered Billy Stone?

Interesting Residents

Sheriff Nelson Reynolds

Joseph Bigelow

George Reid, the Painter

Franklin and the Northwest Passage

David Boyle

David Suzuki

Gerald Sinclair Hayward

Grey Owl

Local Interest

Oil Springs: The Oil Capital of North America

Collingwood

Sarnia

London

Southampton

Penryn, Port Hope

The Dream of Owning a Castle

Ravensworth, Cobourg

The Mackenzie Estate, Kirkfield

Perth

Cornwall

Brooklin

Scugog Island

Stirling

Niagara Falls

Penmarvian, Paris

Wasaga Beach

Kincardine

Elora

The Conant Homestead, Oshawa

Moose Factory and Moosonee

Gores Landing

Long Beach

Oakville

Sudbury

Sault Ste. Marie

Gravenhurst and Bracebridge

Cochrane

Rodman Hall, St. Catharines

Bibliography

By the Same Author

Introduction

My career in radio began by chance in 1987, when a radio salesman by the name of Bob Rowe arrived at my place of business. Bob and I exchanged some words and quickly realized that we had quite a lot in common. As a journalist I had written several books, and Bob had spent a career in public relations. In other words our meeting was a synchronicity, to say the least.

Bob commented on my voice and asked me if I had ever worked in radio. I said no, but I had studied broadcast journalism at one time. He then asked me if I might consider working in radio as a broadcaster. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I asked him what he had in mind. He stated that the station he worked for, Classical 96.3 and 103.1 FM, had a spot to fill after the Saturday noon-hour news. A brief commentary, three minutes in length, would do the trick. He added that I could highlight people, places, and events going on in Ontario. In fact, they could call the show Discover Ontario with Terry Boyle. Bob felt that a show of that nature would prove to be an asset to the station.

Wow, was my only reply.

Bob asked me to write some copy and come down to the station and record a demo tape. In those days the radio station was located in a small plaza in Cobourg, Ontario. After some consideration, I proceeded to write a show and tape a demo. It was a hit and I was suddenly on air.

This book, Discover Ontario, is a collection of radio shows spanning 1987 to 1997. I have attempted to select informative, interesting, and thought-provoking shows for your reading pleasure. Some stories have been brought up to date with a note at the end.

The book includes stories like that of Project Magnet, which was a Canadian government top-secret mission during the 1950s involving the study and observation of unidentified flying objects.

Buried treasure always seems to appeal to the metal-detector enthusiasts, and the mystery of Long Point should attract some interest. A chest of gold was buried there by trader David Ramsey, shortly after he killed three Aboriginal people during a drunken binge.

Then there is Dr. Troyer, who was convinced that he was being kidnapped at night by witches. In order to procure some safety from these creatures he designed and built a witch trap. This apparatus is now on display in the museum in the town of Simcoe.

Creature features are always a hit. Here you’ll find a show about a water snake measuring thirty feet in length and fifteen inches in diameter sighted in Lake Ontario off the shore of St. Catharines. Or, how about the seven-foot alligator that attacked a young girl at Fraser Lake near Bancroft in September of 1925?

Discover more about the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull (a feature in the last Indiana Jones film) that was found in the ancient City Of Fallen Stones. What is this ancient relic’s connection to Ontario?

There are stories of the paranormal, flying saucers, and alien visits. Read about the attempted murder that took place at Ravensworth in Cobourg or the fatal Whitby shooting of a telegraph operator.

Enjoy historical profiles of communities such as Collingwood, Sarnia, Southampton, Cornwall, Brooklin, Scugog Island, and Kincardine, to name a few.

Whatever your cup of tea, Discover Ontario will delight and entertain you. I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I loved writing and narrating the stories on radio.

I have increased the length of some radio shows from their original format to give you a more complete understanding of the subject matter than could be done in my three-minute limitations on air.

Since my decision to take a break from radio, Classical 96.3 and 103.1 FM has grown into a much larger radio station with expanded listenership and geographical presence. The old studio in Cobourg is long gone, along with some of the wonderful people I met and with whom I worked. The station is now located on Queen Street in downtown Toronto.

As for my good friend Bob Rowe, he has passed on to the other side. I have dedicated this book to him in honour of our time together and for his remarkable kindness and friendship.

Enjoy.

Terry Boyle

Burk’s Falls, Ontario

Memories of Ontario

Fishing

At some time in the first quarter of the nineteenth century someone developed commercial fishing on Georgian Bay. The introduction of fishing to the Thirty Thousand Islands region was achieved through the natural extension of operations further down the Great Lakes.

Georgian Bay fishery grew in time to be the greatest source of lake trout and whitefish on all the Canadian lakes. The east side of the bay, with its deep water and sandy shoals, suited these fish well.

In the 1850s, Georgian Bay harvest was upwards of a thousand barrels annually. When the railroad reached the south end of Georgian Bay, circa 1860, a more direct route to market was opened, and Collingwood, Meaford, and Owen Sound became the major fishing ports of Georgian Bay.

The expansion of the fishing market prompted more vessels to sail out each spring to the various fishing grounds in the bay. The men who fished some distance from home built a fishing station on the outer fringes of the Thirty Thousand Islands. The largest station was at the Bustard Islands. There were others at the Minks, the Snakes, and Champlain Island. These were sizeable summer colonies, made up of a number of fishermen and their families.

Improved transportation made it possible to market fish in very fresh condition. United States buyers sent schooners on regular rounds to collect the fish at the stations, packing them in ice in great wheeled boxes with a capacity of half a ton, that could be rolled on and off the schooners. One of the best available descriptions we have of the fishing industry in the nineteenth century is contained in the book entitled The Georgian Bay, written by C.L. Hamilton in 1893. After a sailing excursion on the bay he stated, There were then over 400 men engaged in fishing in Georgian Bay, and equipment included 150 boats, 15 tugs and one and a half million yards of nets. An outfit for two men, a boat and sails, and three gangs of nets was valued at around $1100. In a season, these men would take perhaps twenty tons of fish, for which the buyer’s agent would pay seventy dollars to eighty dollars a ton. Mr. Hamilton also recorded that there was a small trade in fish oil at the time.

The largest fishing station on Georgian Bay was situated at the Bustard Islands. By the 1850s, the Georgian Bay fish harvest was over one thousand barrels annually.

Courtesy of the Ontario Archives.

In the 1930s the sea lamprey entered Lake Huron and destroyed the lake trout population there. At first the Georgian Bay fish seemed to resist the invader from the Atlantic, but by 1960 there were no trout left in the fishing grounds. Other fish were attacked by the lamprey, the most important of them the whitefish. In 1959, the total catch amounted to only 14,515 kilograms of fish.

Large-scale commercial fishing in Georgian Bay came to a close. Today there are still a few commercial fishermen working their nets. However, when a licensed fishermen retires the government buys back his or her licence and usually does not reissue it. Therefore, the commercial fishermen are becoming a dying breed, just like the fish themselves. More questions need to be asked of our politicians regarding the restocking and current levels of fish in the Great Lakes. Restaurants operating in our tourist destinations in Georgian Bay never know if the commercial fishermen will be able to fill their orders or what will happen when the last commercial fisherman disappears. Their businesses may very well vanish like the fishermen and the fish before them.

A young boy stands proudly by the catch of the day.

Courtesy of the Ontario Archives.

Lost North America

When I recently went on a tour of the New England states in search of lost America, I realized the story told about North American heritage in schools and other official places may be entirely fabricated. Do we really believe that Christopher Columbus was the first to discover America? If not, then why do we continue to tell the story?

Remember, our story is of our own creation. The tales we believe about ancestors become the basis for understanding ourselves and our land. This influences our actions in the present. Any fabrication about our origins keeps us in the dark about our truth and about the original people of North America.

The genocide that followed in the wake of Christopher Columbus in North America, and Cortes in Mexico, resulted in the death of approximately eighty million indigenous people beginning in the sixteenth century. Political power, economic expansion, and the consumption of natural resources is merely a continuation of the same destructive forces.

The violence and imbalance will continue until we correct the initial fabrication. That is why the struggle for recognition of truth is so important. Just when we seem to be helpless in the face of huge forces bent on destruction, a creative idea has emerged that has the power to dance us beyond these forces of devastation.

A recent exciting discovery of a great, and complete, stone, solar, and lunar calendar has been made in North Salem, New Hampshire. Throughout North America, hundreds of stone sites exist. Viking houses have been discovered in Canada that date back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Viking artifacts may very well have been found nearly one hundred years ago in Northern Ontario. Iron utensils and weapons of European origin have been unearthed in Canada and in Massachusetts. All over Virginia, Roman nails and iron utensils have presumably been found in undisturbed sites.

A book entitled Long Before Columbus highlights a site called Stonehenge in New Hampshire. This ancient site dates back 3,500 years and compares, in many ways, to Stonehenge in England. It is thought to be, and very well could be, of Celtic origin.

Could many of the Aboriginal teachings in North America be a blend of Celtic traditions? Archeological evidence of this sacred site indicates that it was occupied by several distinct groups at various times. Evidence indicates that many sacred sites were not first inhabited by those who are labelled the indigenous peoples of North America.

Archeologists in the past, according to Long Before Columbus, have not delved deeply enough to unearth the oldest evidence of ancient peoples in Canada and the United States and their habitation.

The idea that ancient peoples from all over the globe may have graced North America with their presence is exciting. The indigenous people of the Americas may be our own ancestors, considering all the ancient travelling back and forth across the seas. It is truly exciting to imagine what may yet be discovered on this continent.

What revelations are yet to come? Perhaps we can change our story after all and truly alter our current reality to reflect a more global, spiritual matrix on the planet. We are devouring this planet we call home for the sake of economic growth, dominance, and keeping a false ideology alive. It is not North America that is lost but rather our own true heritage.

The Irish: Part 1

On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, 1826, Peter Robinson sat in his log mansion in Peterborough to complete his long-overdue accounting of the Irish he had brought to Canada.

Two years had passed since the first contingent had come to the Ottawa Valley. Some people called Robinson too visionary, others questioned why he was dumping paupers on the colony instead of bringing self-sufficient farmers.

Of the 182 families brought to the Ottawa Valley in 1823, a third seemed to have melted away. Robinson could readily account for some who had gone to Perth, Cobourg, and Kingston to ply their trades as carpenters, shoemakers, and bakers. Nine men had gone to the United States as labourers or millwrights. Eight others had died, four by drowning.

People raised to be farmers remained on their granted land. Those who had prospered in the old country tended to prosper in their new habitat. It was challenging to determine the success of these immigrants. Many Irish concealed any good fortune as the slightest sign of wealth in Ireland had meant higher rents and taxes. Some Irish had acquired the habit of begging during the hard years in Ireland, and they begged in Canada even when it was no longer necessary.

One Irish settler, who begged around Perth, was so affluent he was doing it to get money to buy more cattle, happy to wear castoffs and look poverty-stricken.

In the spring of 1826, fifty-eight of Robinson’s families were known to be working the land in the area townships. Half a dozen families prospered exceptionally well in Ramsay Township. John Teskey, a Protestant descendant of Rhinelanders who immigrated to County Limerick in the eighteenth century to escape religious conflict, homesteaded on the Mississippi River between Shipman’s Mills and Murphy’s Falls, where he harnessed the rapids for milling. The hamlet of Appleton was the site of an Indian encampment when the Teskeys arrived, and the Aboriginal peoples came to the mill in their blanket coats, red leggings, and moccasins, curious and silent, to trade venison or a haunch of young bear for flour and pork.

At Clayton Lake, ten miles west of Shipman’s Mills, Martin Ryan, from Sixmilebridge in County Clare, had cleared twenty-five acres of thick woodland and acquired ten cows and twelve hogs.

In Ramsay Township the soil was good, but other Irish settlers found themselves