January 2016 Volume 8: Issue 3 Inside This Issue
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Kinmount Gazette KINMOUNT GAZETTE THE KINMOUNT COMMITTEE FOR PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Christmas in the Village 2015 January 2016 Volume 8: Issue 3 Inside this issue: FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS: 2 MEET ME AT THE STATION PART 2 3 JANUARY HIGH FIVE CLUB 4 LETTER TO THE EDITOR 5 BURNT RIVER LIBRARY SLATED FOR CLOSURE 6 UNDER THE RED ROOF -OUR COMMUNITY CTR 6 COUNCILLOR’S CORNER 7 BRIDGES OF BURNT RIVER 8 KID’S CORNER 9 THE HOT STOVE 10 THANKS TO THE WEBB BROTHERS 12 SIDE ROADS OF KINMOUNT 13 KINMOUNT HOUSE B&B CELEBRATES 25 YEARS 14 HOW THE GRANFATHER CLOCK GOT ITS NAME 15 DOROTHY’S DELIGHTS 15 ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION BR.441 16 IN THE LIONS DEN 16 THE LIBRARY LINK 16 SOLDIERS OF THE GREAT WAR 18 EDITORIAL 19 Get Results! ADVERTISE IN THE GAZETTE! Rates per issue: Business Card Size $15 2 x Business Card $30 1/4 Page $40 1/2 Page $75 Full Page $150 [email protected] 705 - 488 - 2919 The Gazette is a non profit monthly publication produced by volunteers. The Gazette depends on advertising sales & donations to remain operating. We are very grateful for the continuing support of area businesses & patrons. Do you enjoy the Gazette? Send a donation! Kinmount Gazette, c/o KCPED, P.O. Box 17, Kinmount, On K0M 2A0 Make cheques payable to K.C.P.E.D. Your name will appear in our Thank You to Our Patrons Section Breakfast with Santa, Santa & new friends, Kids Crafts, Farmer’s Market Open House, Tax Receipts issued for Donations $25+ Cookie time, Santa & kids ride to Legion, Christmas at the Legion, Christmas Music Night Kinmount Gazette Kinmount Committee for Planning and Economic Development Friends and Neighbours: Harwood, Gore’s Landing and Rice Lake Rice Lake is a large lake on local natives were only too hap- north. Gore‟s Landing was found- mous for its fishing. Pickerel, the Trent Canal that forms the py to provide the supply. How- ed to be the terminus or port of the Muskies and Bass are the most southern boundary of Peter- ever in 1839 a dam was built at Plank Road. This road was sur- common species. The fish habi- borough County. The Otona- Crooks Rapids (now Hastings) to faced not by gravel, but by 3” tat of the lake is ideal for warm bee River flows into the west hold the high water levels of wooden planks. The planks were water species. The habitat is so end of the lake and flows out spring and assist the lumber in- plentiful and cheap, but the Road ideal, it was claimed Rice Lake the east end as the Trent Riv- dustry. This raised the water was a disaster! The planks rotted contained the most fish per er; basically making Rice level on Rice Lake by several quite quickly, frost heaved them square mile of any lake in Ontar- Lake a flooded section of the feet and destroyed most the rice every spring and the Road required io. River. The Lake is 5 km wide beds. The water levels became constant care. After a few years, it Harwood by 32 km long. The lake is too deep for rice to grow. About was in such bad shape, it was Harwood was the “port” on the rather shallow, with a maxi- the same time, and as result of simply abandoned! south shore of Rice Lake where mum depth of only 27 feet. higher water levels, carp began So when railway technology be- the Rice Lake railway started to The south side of the lake is to infest the Lake. These scaven- came common in the 1840s, one of cross the lake. The area was pur- the Oak Ridges Moraine gers ate the young rice shoots the first plans was for a railway chased in 1828 by a Montreal which drains into Lake Ontar- and further degraded the rice from Cobourg to Harwood to carry merchant named Robert Har- io. This height of land plays a beds. Today, only a fraction of traffic from Cobourg to the shores wood and was a port for the wa- big part in the history of the the rice beds have survived. of Rice Lake and beyond. The sto- ter routes up the Otonabee to lake. Wild rice also grows in patches ry of the Cobourg to Peterborough Peterborough. The railway The lake was named after the on other of the Kawartha Lakes, or Rice Lake Railway will be told reached Harwood village in large beds of wild rice that including Sturgeon and Pigeon separately. Simply put the Railway 1854 which set off an economic covered the lake. Wild Rice is Lakes. It is still harvested today failed, the citizens of Cobourg lost boom. But the railway was native to Canada and grows in by the local natives who kept the a ton of money, and to make mat- closed in 1862 and the boom shallow lakes. It was very rights to harvest wild rice when ters worse, rival Port Hope pushed went bust. However, the railway popular with the local natives, they signed the various treaties the first railway north to Lindsay line still existed and Harwood who gathered along its shores in the early 1800s. in the 1850s! The “ports” along became the terminus for the in the fall to harvest the rice. The earliest settlers to Peterbor- Rice Lake were bypassed by the Cobourg Line. The local sawmill They deftly paddled their ca- ough, Victoria and Haliburton new Iron Horse and business col- closed in 1895 and the railway noes among the rice, bent Counties arrived via Rice Lake. lapsed. line was discontinued. Today over the stalks into the canoe The Lake was only a few miles But all was not lost! Rice Lake Harwood is a tourist centre. and threshed the stalks drop- from the “ports” of Cobourg, was still the beautiful scenic gem it Gore’s Landing ing the rice into the bottom of Port Hope and Colborne on Lake always was, and tourism became Gores Landing was the terminus the canoe. When the canoe Ontario. Travelling overland, the number one industry along the was full, the rice was taken to these settlers embarked at “local south shore. Rice Lake is also fa- Continued on p. 17 shore and slow roasted over a ports” such as fire to cure it. The resulting Bewdley, Har- staple was stored for winter wood and use. Gore‟s Land- The wild or brown rice was ing for a trip gathered by natives at Rice by water up Lake from time immemorial. the Otonabee Serpent Mounds is an ancient River to points (2,000 years old) burial north along mound on the north shore of the Kawartha Rice Lake. It was not a per- Lakes. The boats used were a manent settlement, but rather variety of crude vessels such as a burial site where intern- scows, barges, canoes and what- ments occurred likely once a ever floated and could hold peo- year. The natives of the area ple or baggage. Steam boats only would descend on the site appeared in the 1860s, when from miles around to cele- railways had bypassed the lake. brate the Festival of the Dead. Peterborough was only a day‟s Likely this ceremony was row from the south side of Rice held in the Fall when the rice Lake. Never the less, these trips harvest was ready. were arduous and difficult. A The early settlers were eager “Plank Road was built in 1846 to buyers of wild rice, and many facilitate all the traffic going Page 2 Kinmount Gazette Kinmount Committee for Planning and Economic Development Meet Me At the Station, Part 2 Railways were a complicated around the lines, similar to station business. There were many agents. Good foreman were often jobs and departments to a rail- seconded to oversee large repair way company. The trains operations and took pride in their themselves had such staff as craft. engineers, brakemen, conduc- Work was often hard on the sec- tors, etc. Railway stations had tion gang. Wooden ties were re- their agents. The central de- placed without completely lifting pots or yards had specialized a section of rail. Gravel or cinder staff to assemble trains and stone needed to be added or re- load and unload. There were placed on a regular basis. Wash- also mechanics and staff to outs were a problem, and the track repair and maintain all the had to be regularly patrolled. It rolling stock. And of course, was embarrassing if a derailment each railway had its section occurred on your section; and crews. especially so if it was the result of These were the staff who poor maintenance or lack of vigi- maintained and repaired the lance. rail line itself. Their jobs in- Snow plows were attached to the cluded replacing rotting wood- engine of the train itself and did en ties, adjusting the iron rails all the plowing. But occasionally to keep them level, replacing the snow drifts were so deep, the iron rail sections, repairing train became stuck or just couldn‟t washouts, cutting brush and break through the drift. Then the other vegetation and shoveling section gang, often reinforced snow as needed. Section gangs with casual shovelers, were re- were assigned to sections or quired to clear the drift by hand! It stretches of track and usually was a hard, but necessary job. The train consisted of a section foreman plowed the main track, but the section Tell our advertisers and 3-4 section hands or crew had to clear snow from the switches you saw their ad in the workers.