December 2017 Volume 10: Issue 2 Ted Wilkins Inducted to Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame Inside This Issue: Read the Story on Page 6
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Kinmount Gazette KINMOUNT GAZETTE THE KINMOUNT COMMITTEE FOR PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT December 2017 Volume 10: Issue 2 Ted Wilkins Inducted to Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame Inside this issue: Read the story on page 6. FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS: PARRY SOUND 2 KINMOUNT UNITED CHURCH 150TH YEAR 3 MICRO FIRES OF KINMOUNT 1898 3 NOGIES CREEK 4 LOOKING FOR OLD VICTORIA COUNTY 5 NOVEMBER HIGH 5 CLUB 5 TED WILKINS INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME 6 THANK YOU TO OUR PATRONS 6 COUNCILLOR’S CORNER 7 SPOT THE SHOT RECAPTURED 7 KIDS CORNER 9 THE HOT STOVE 10 KDHSF CHRISTMAS APPEAL 13 KINMOUNT ARTISANS IN THE LIMELIGHT 14 DOROTHY’S DELIGHTS 15 LETTER TO THE EDITOR 15 THE ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION BRANCH 441 16 IN THE LIONS DEN 16 THE LIBRARY LINK 16 SESQUICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF KINMOUNT 17 THE GALWEGIANS 18 EDITORIAL 19 Get Results! Thursday Dec. 7 ADVERTISE IN Christmas Tree THE GAZETTE! Lighting 6:30 pm Kinmount Train Station Rates per issue: Saturday Dec. 9 Carolling Business Card Size $15 8:30 am - 11 am Bonfire & Treats 2 x Business Card $30 St. James Free Photos with Santa 1/4 Page $40 Anglican Church 1/2 Page $75 Crego Street Full Page $150 FREE! [email protected] 705 - 488 - 2919 Kinmount Farmer’s Market The Gazette is a non profit monthly 10 am - 2 pm COMMUNITY CENTRE publication produced by volunteers. Free Christmas Crafts for Kids Up- The Gazette depends on advertising per Level Community Centre sales & donations to remain operating. Kinny Elf Hunt Free Kid’s Surprises various locations see page 9 We are very grateful for the continuing support of area businesses & patrons. Special Prize at Kinmount Artisans Marketplace! Free Draw too! Do you enjoy the Gazette? Horse Drawn Wagon Rides at Railway Station 12:30 pm Send a donation! Santa at Legion Meet 2 pm at Post Office & follow him up Kinmount Gazette, c/o KCPED, to the Legion for a Free Family Lunch - Gifts for kids 10 & under P.O. Box 17, Kinmount, On K0M 2A0 Christmas Music Night with Rhythmfoot Make cheques payable to K.C.P.E.D. 7 pm Galway Hall Your name will appear in our Desserts, Christmas Loonie Auction - Tickets $15 705.488.2635 Thank You to Our Patrons Section Tax Receipts issued for Donations $25+ Kinmount Gazette Kinmount Committee for Planning and Economic Development Friends and Neighbours: Parry Sound and Its Ghost Towns Parry Sound has the largest as the village became the west- bush. Today little natural harbor on Georgian ern-most terminus for railways remains of the Bay. It was named after a for several years. The Northern town; Mother Na- famous Arctic explorer: Sir Railway arrived in 1907 and the ture having re- William Parry. Lake Huron harbor became a transfer port claimed the site. was surveyed in the 1820s by for western grain. It was easier Royal Navy personnel based to unload the big grain boats at Depot Harbour at Midland. Midland hosted a Parry Sound and ship the west- In the 1890s, the RN base in the 1820s as part ern gold top Halifax by rail that railways arrived at of the defence of Upper Cana- winding the way through the old Parry Sound. J R da after the War of 1812. To- St Lawrence Canal. Booth, the lumber day the base is a museum Parry Sound became the admin- baron from Ottawa called Discovery Harbour. istrative centre for the 40+ controlled all the The first settler at Parry townships that became Parry lines in the area. He Sound was a saw mill op- Sound District, even though it wanted to use the erator named William Gib- was far away from much of the harbour at Parry son. He built a mill at the district. It was by far the largest Sound to work with mouth of the Sequin River town in the district. As lumber- the railway connec- on the sound. William ing declined, the town turned to tions. But the land Beatty purchased the mill tourism. Today the town con- owners in Parry in 1865 and it was he who tains 6,500 residents and it is a Sound demanded a founded the hamlet of major tourist centre. high price for land, Beatty’s Corners at the so Booth moved 6 port site. Beatty operated a Nobel miles down the har- steamship line between Located just outside of Parry bour and built his Parry Sound, Midland and Sound, the village was a sleepy own port called Collingwood. Water one called Ambro until 1913. Depot Harbour. The transport was the order of In that year Canadian Explo- rival port eventually the day until the 1870s sives Company (CEL) built a had a population of when the Parry Sound Col- rather large explosives factory 1,600 and siphoned onization Road, an exten- in the area. The plant was just in off a lot of business sion of the Muskoka Colo- time for WW I and was kept from the more established Parry controlled destruction, all re- nization Road, arrived in busy making explosives for the Sound. Two huge grain elevators maining buildings were demol- town. The Road was not war. At least one accidental dominated the port and transferred ished in 1959 and Depot Har- meant to handle the lum- explosion levelled one factory western grain to the railway for bour ceased to exist. ber business, but rather to and killed several workers. The transport to eastern ports. open the area to agricul- new village was named Nobel Improvements to the Welland Canal tural settlement. after Alfred Nobel, the inventor and new railway links cut into the Pioneers did trickle into the of dynamite. By 1922 the town harbour traffic. Booth’s company neighbourhood, but the rough was virtually abandoned. sold out to CN Rail and the railways terrain was the home of the When the Second World War now used Parry Sound. The town lumberman, not the farmer. In broke out in 1939, the factory dwindled until it became a ghost 1897 the first railroad arrived. town of Nobel was back in ser- town. While the nearby Nobel ex- The Ottawa-Pembroke & Par- vice. At its zenith, 4,000 work- plosives plant functioned, the harbor ry Sound Railway ran through ers were busy supplying the war shipped explosives. But when Nobel the new Algonquin Park and effort. By 1946 the boom was closed, the town was finished. In a made Parry Sound its western over (again) and the town of terminus. The port flourished Nobel slipped back into the Clockwise from top: Parry Sound hotel; map of the Parry Sound District; a local hotel; CEL Explosives Company in Nobel; Page 2 Kinmount Gazette Kinmount Committee for Planning and Economic Development Kinmount United Church 150th Year The members, friends, and worship leaders of Kinmount United would like to wish each and every one a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our December schedule of services at 9:45 a.m. is as follows: December 3rd- Kevin Fitzpatrick, December 10th- Rev. Dr. Carol Kilby, December 17th- Kevin Fitzpatrick, Decem- ber 24th- Rev. Dr. Carol Kilby. There will be no church service on Sunday, December 31st at the church. Micro-Fires of Kinmount 1898 Kinmount’s History is punctuated the west side of the street: with fires. Twice (1890, 1942) the Hopkins and Marks to the entire Main St business section south and the Henry Block to was wiped out by major conflagra- the north. Also saved were the tions. But there were also minor Dunbar House Hotel, the next fires that caused havoc in the vil- building to the north of the lage. This is the story of the mini- stricken structures on the east fire of 1898. side of the street. The losses Kinmount village had recovered were calculated thusly: Dr nicely from the disastrous fire of Frost’s Drug Store/Office - 1890. New and more imposing $1,700 (insured), Train’s Mil- structures graced the main street. linery - $1,200 (insured), Old pioneer Kinmount had given Hawkins Store - $2,000 (not way to Victorian Kinmount. Hop- insured). Losses for other kins & Marks rebuilt their depart- businesses were not recorded. ment store into a four store com- Dr Frost rebuilt on the other plex. The Dunbar House graced side of the street and remained the east side of the street and the in Kinmount until 1920. He Henry and Train blocks were built was a much admired doctor CGC Ltd. on the north-west corner of Main and finally moved to Fenelon Falls. Street. But on an early morning in Ms Train bought the Bowie Hotel on Warren Gas Services 1898 much changed. At 9:00 am the east side and re-opened her busi- 15 Years Serving Kinmount & Area smoke was seen issuing from Dr ness. Mr. Hawkins disappears from SALES - SERVICE - INSTALLATION PROPANE Frost’s Office in the Train Block. town. Alex Moore, twice burnt out, PRO Ms Train noticed the fire on her rebuilt and was burnt our again in PHONE FURNACES,, FIRE PLACES way to work. The Train Block also 1917. Three times unlucky! Dr : BBQ'S, WATER HEATERS housed her millinery shop and McVea, the vet, moved away and PROPANE SERVICES (705) BLAINE WARREN Hawkins Store. With no formal Kinmount lost its only veterinarian 488 - Certified Gas Technician fire brigade, the Train Block was in its history. R. B. Sylvester was an WETT3294 [email protected] soon ablaze. The sparks set alight interesting case. He moved to Kin- Certified 3 more businesses on the east side mount from Fenelon Falls just be- 705-488-3294 of the street near the bridge.