Our Native Heritage Kawartha Lakes Spirit Walks The Naming of Hiawatha The Native Peoples of Alderville	History History of Rice Lake The Islands of Rice Lake Pioneers on the South Shore of Rice Lake Glacial Birth of the Rice Lake Area The Steamboat Geneva

Kawartha Lakes Spirit Walks

Take a journey of discovery with some of Canada's most vibrant Native Cultures . . . past, present and future. By participating in these experiences, you will hear first-hand, through the eyes and from the heart of the First Nations of the Kawarthas, their distinctive history and culture.

Visit the communities of Alderville on the south shore of Rice Lake, Hiawatha on the north shore of Rice Lake, and Curve Lake north of Peterborough, for a rare insight into the geologic, natural, aboriginal and cultural heritage of the Kawarthas over the last 10,000 years. The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough celebrates the heritage of the canoe on the Kawartha waterways, with a prestigious collection of over 600 canoes from all over the world.

The native way of life takes time to learn and understand. You will encounter the Medicine Wheel in many native teachings along your "Spirit Walk". It will help you understand native views on the significance of place, of the circle of life, of the learning process ­ from beginning through search to discovery, understanding and respect. 

At the Alderville First Nation, located on the south shore of Rice Lake south of Roseneath, you can take a Heritage Tour with Rick Beaver, artist/biologist and Jeff Beaver, naturalist.  The tour includes a 4-hour seminar of the geology, natural and aboriginal history of Rice Lake and the First Nation community of Alderville. Information (905) 342-3261.

On the north shore of Rice Lake visit the Serpent Mounds Park which is owned and operated by the Hiawatha First Nation.  The Park is situated among a grove of aging oak trees where nine burial mounds enclose graves of ancient peoples who gathered there more than 2000 years ago. The Serpent Mounds are the only ones of its kind in Canada. Interpretive tours, workshops and lakeside family camping are offered.  Information  (705) 295-6879.

In Peterborough, is the Canadian Canoe Museum, which features the world's largest collection of canoes and kayaks. Each craft tells a wonderful story about the people of Canada. The exhibits include Northwest Coast whaling dugouts, traditional birch back canoes, and 100 year old cedar canoes built during the last century by the famous canoe companies of the Rice Lake and the Peterborough areas.  Walk through an original trading post from Canada's exciting fur trade period and learn why the canoe is our greatest national symbol. Information (705) 748-9153.

Other native experiences can include a visit to the Petroglyphs Provincial Park located near Woodview on the north shore of Stony Lake. At the Petroglyphs you can see the "teaching rocks" which are believed to be between 600 - 1000 year old carvings and remain sacred to many native peoples. The park offers interpretive brochures and information focusing on native stories and legends, as told by the Native People. (705) 877-2552.

As well, you can visit the Curve Lake First Nation. Settled on the shores of Buckhorn and Chemong Lakes for nearly 200 years, this growing band of Anishnaabeg, are eager and willing to share their heritage with all visitors. The Kawartha Lakes Spirit Walks is a unique series of opportunities to learn about native people and their land in this area.

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First Nation, Rice Lake, Canada
By Donna S. McGillis

"By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water."

H.W. Longfellow (1855)

In 1855, when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809-1882) wrote his epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, he did not know that its romantic imagery and melodious native names would impress and inspire a young English prince. In the autumn of 1860, during his first Canadian visit, 19 year old H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (1841-1910), was taken by train from Cobourg to Rice Lake to view the beautiful scenery. He was scheduled to cross Rice Lake by train over the Cobourg-Peterborough Railroad bridge and to visit the Rice Lake Indian Village, established in 1829 on the north shore. The bridge, however, was rumored to be unsafe and so the prince was taken off the train at Harwood and asked to board the steamer Otonabee. Nervous officials covered up by explaining it was done in order "that he might have a good view of the fir-covered islands which picturesquely dot the lake and also the beds of wild rice in blossom."1

When Prince Edward arrived to greet the native subjects, on behalf of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was moved by the picturesque scene to name the village Hiawatha, after Longfellow's legendary hero.2   The name Hiawatha was accepted by the Ojibwa/Mississaugas even though the real Hiawatha was a member of the Iroquois Confederacy, their ancient enemy. The Hiawatha of history is "thought to have been a Mohawk Indian chief who founded the Iroquois Confederacy in New York state. Hiawatha's name and title were hereditary in the Tortoise clan of the Mohawk tribe. It is thought that he lived about 1570 in central New York. He was a social reformer interested in ending war and promoting universal peace among the Indian tribes."3

Longfellow, however, wrote that his mythical Hiawatha and the scenes of his people are "among the Ojibways on the southern shore of Lake Superior, in the region between Pictured Rocks and Grand Sable".4 The inspiration for his poem was based on his interest in the traditions of North-American native peoples who lived on the shores of the Great Lakes. 

In The Song of Hiawatha, Longfellow describes a legendary Indian hero who has many battles and contests and who married an Indian maiden named Minnehaha. Hiawatha "prepares his people for the coming of the white man and Christianity and departs from the earth to become a god of the Northwest Wind." Longfellow "used folklore, myth, heroic characters, and a natural grandeur to give a sense of Indian culture, ideals, and racial pride."5

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born 27 February, 1807 in Portland, Maine. His ancestors settled in New England about 1651. Longfellow published his first poem when he was only 13 years of age. By the time he went to Harvard, as a professor of modern languages, he had a separate career in literature. When he retired from Harvard, in 1854, he had published 12 books. His first publication after he retired from teaching was The Song of Hiawatha, his second major narrative poem after Evangeline, published in 1847. The Song of Hiawatha "sold a million copies during Longfellow's lifetime and was considered a remarkable record for any book, and especially remarkable for poetry."6

Before his death, in 1882, Longfellow achieved success and fame. He received honourary degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge universities. The British people paid him the supreme accolade by placing a memorial bust in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. Longfellow is the only American so honoured. His works were translated into many languages and many people throughout the western world, including an adolescent prince, were enthralled by his images and tales of life in the North-American wilderness. Hiawatha, Ontario, Canada with its lofty church-steeple rising above the trees on the north shore of Rice Lake, continues to thrive, one hundred and fourty-one years after receiving its poetic name.

Herewith is an excerpt from The Song of Hiawatha Chapter VIII Hiawatha's Fishing:

Sources:

1. Edwin C. Guillet, Cobourg 1798-1948, (Cobourg: Cobourg Business and Professional Women's Club, 1948) p. 45
   
2. Alan Rayburn, Place Names of Ontario, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc., 1997)
   p. 156.
   
3. 5 & 6. The World Book Encyclopedia (U.S.A.: Field Enterprises Educational Corp. 1971),
   Vol. 9 & 12.
   
4. Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 1893-1901)
   p. 431.

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Eons ago, aboriginal people migrated across the land bridge over the Bering Sea to inhabit North and South America. At first, coastal tribes established themselves along the way, with the continuous mountain ranges and a succession of glaciers discouraging any attempt to leave the coast for the interior.

The migrants worked their way south to a warmer Mexico and Central America without interior ice fields, establishing the early civilizations of Incas, Mayans and Aztecs. Among them, a nomadic element  lived by hunting. As the last glacier receded, the larger animals, mastodons, bear, moose, elk, etc. were hunted by these native ancestors. As the animals moved north, the Great Plains and the larger river valleys became home to these far distant relatives. One of the greatest tribes of these hunters was the Ojibway and of these, the Mississauga became most prominent. Their "totem", a crane or Great Blue Heron, was a familiar hieroglyph on area trees. 

The Mississauga established themselves as a tribe along the north shore of Lake Huron and northern Georgian Bay. The warring Iroquois had crossed Lake Ontario and by the mid 1600s, had nearly wiped out the Huron settlements. The Mississauga went on the defensive, left their homeland and pursued the Iroquois along the Severn to Lake Simcoe and then along the Kawartha chain to the mouth of the Otonabee River. Numerous battles were fought along the way and each time the Mississauga prevailed. The first Mississauga-Mohawk battles were around Georgian Bay but the final decisive battles took place on Rice Lake. 

The Mississauga were poetic in their names. Words such as "Omemee"  (the wild pigeon) and "Otonabee" (mouth water) are Mississauga names. They were impressed, as they gazed across Rice Lake, to the southern shore where the Mohawk burned the vegetation and planted corn. They named Rice Lake Pem-e-dash-cou-tay-ang (Lake of the Burning Plains). The first recorded white person to see Rice Lake was Samuel de Champlain, who in 1615 recruited a Huron war party and made his way down the Trent-Severn to attack the Lake Ontario Iroquois.

The steady influx of European settlers along the northern shore of Lake Ontario resulted in the first of a series of treaties that seriously affected the woodland ways of the native. The first treaty in this area was Treaty #20 signed on Nov. 5, 1818 at the mouth of the Ganaraska River at Port Hope by Crown official William Claus and several tribal chiefs. At issue was 1,951,000 acres, in the northern section of the Newcastle District. For this surrender of land the tribes of the Kawarthas were guaranteed an annual payment of "seven hundred and forty pounds Province currency in goods at the Montreal price". By this time, the immediate forefathers of the Alderville band were now living along the Bay of Quinte and the shoreline toward Kingston. In 1824  a Methodist Episcopal Church Conference was held in Hallowal (Picton), and William Case was the Bay of Quinte¹s Presiding Elder. He was assisted in native mission work by the Rev. Peter Jones (Sacred Feathers), son of an native woman and district surveyor Augustus Jones.  As a friend of educator and clergyman Egerton Ryerson, Jones traveled throughout southern Ontario, including Rice Lake, for the Methodist cause. By the time he got to Cavan in 1827, about a third of the 300 Rice, Mud, and Scugog Lake natives were Christians.

The Methodists felt that more public support  could be obtained for their mission if they had a long-term lease  for a permanent site. The Methodists leased Grape Island and the adjacent Sawguin Island in the Bay of Quinte from the natives for their use. The treaty of 1818 had not included islands in the Bay of Quinte, and this was how the native ownership was established.  Although these islands were not officially leased until Oct. 16, 1826, some of the Mississauga moved to Grape Island that fall and spent their first winter in bark wigwams.

The mission seemed to flourish. The natives managed to manufacture 172 axe handles and 415 brooms within a two-week span but in spite of this, there was not enough combined acreage on Grape and Sawguin Islands to support a growing agricultural community. A deputation met with the Indian Agent in York to make a strong case for more land and also asked that the claims on Big Island be clarified. Unfortunately, they didn't fare too well and returned to Grape Island undaunted where the mission and the school continued to grow.

William Case spent part of 1828 in the U.S seeking aid for the Mission. John Sunday and Peter Jones joined him in New York. Donations came in and enough ticking was provided for 20 straw beds at the mission. Two female missionaries returned with Case.

Extensive travel by Sunday and Jones spread the word about the success of the Grape Island Mission and familiarized them with the Rice Lake Indian Village (now Hiawatha) and the area. Rev. William Case settled on Grape Island, organizing the natives in planting and harvesting crops, growing 300 bushels of potatoes in 1828. He was later transferred but he concentrated on translating the scriptures into the native languages. 

Population figures for the thriving mission put Belleville natives at 116 members and Kingston natives at  92 members. This brought Grape Island up to 45 families and 208 natives, who were receiving $2,320 in annual goods as payment for the surrender of their lands to the Crown. There were also 5 European workers at the mission which had 23 whitewashed dwellings including a chapel, schoolhouse, hospital, general storehouse, blacksmith shop, and trades building.

In 1831 with Jones and Case away, a high number of children were dying, with measles and whooping cough as two of the suspected causes. This and the departure of some of the Kingston natives to their own lands, caused the mission to lose membership. Part of the problem may have been that their farm lands were scattered over Grape, Sawguin, Goose, Huff and Everett Islands and also, inadequate land was an unsolved problem.  Within two years their population was down to 81, but other missions suffered the same fate. As the population dropped down to 65, the Rev. John Sunday was appointed Missionary for Grape Island and  things stabilized. 

In 1836, the annual Methodist conference in Belleville decided to merge the Rice Lake and Grape Island Missions into one pastoral charge. Rather than have a day's travel between the two missions and also to make more land available to the Grape Island Mission, it was decided to move the Grape Island Mission to a new settlement on the south shore of Rice Lake. This seemed the only solution to the lack of land. In 1837, 3,600 acres were assigned to the natives of the Grape Island Mission in the Township of Alnwick. The new village of Alderville was built, named after the Rev. Robert Alder one of the missionary secretaries. The Rev. and Mrs. William Case resided there until their deaths, whereas Sylvester Hurlburt, who had been with the Grape Island people a number of years, was stationed on the north side of the lake at the Rice Lake Indian village now Hiawatha.

Within six years, Case described the Alderville community as follows:  "The number of families settled here are about 40, and contain a population of 200 souls. They occupy a plot of 3,600 acres assigned them by the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada Sir John Colborne, surveyed into lots of 500 acres each on which are erected 36 comfortable dwelling houses. These are situated on either side of the street a mile and a half in length, with Chapel, Parsonage and school rooms in the centre. They also have 400 acres cleared by their own hands and under cultivation."  In 1837, Peter Jones arrived at Alderville and assessed the new mission this way in his journal: "The settlement at Alnwick bids fair to be a prosperous one. The Indians in general are very industrious and ambitions...The arrangement of this mission is the best I have seen in all the native settlements."

For centuries, local aboriginals used Rice Lake's wild rice beds as a food staple. It sometimes stood four feet above the lake, so thick that they hid much of its surface. The natives guided their birch bark canoes through these rice beds on autumn days to harvest the highly prized grain. They grasped and bent the stems, striking the crown of the plant with their hands or paddles so that the rice would fall into the canoe. When full, often with as much as 10 or 12 bushels of rice, they paddled the canoe back to shore to be unloaded by the tribeswomen. Processing methods for the rice varied according to time, place and facilities available.

The Indian River, on the north shore of the lake near its eastern end, enters through a wide, swampy estuary and was once used by the Natives travelling between Rice Lake and their hunting grounds further north. Today, the Rice Lake natives are still sharing their rich heritage through their Spirit Walks. Take a journey of discovery with some of Canada's most vibrant Native Cultures . . . past, present and future. By participating in these experiences, you will hear first-hand, through the eyes and from the heart of the First Nations of the Kawarthas, their distinctive history and culture.

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Let me begin this brief history of Rice Lake by quoting poet, Rhoda Anne Page, an early Rice Lake resident who wrote in 1848: "In all this fair and fertile land, there are probably few spots endowed with a richer gift of beauty than ... the Rice Lake.. with all its fairy islands resting so calmly upon the blue waters, and giving it, especially when half-veiled by the white haze which often rises from its surface at early morning, such a character of dream-like loveliness - magnificent park-like scenery ... the beautiful views bursting upon the eye at every vista through the tall oak trees, are charms which no lover of nature can look upon with indifference."

Those of us who live around the shores of Rice Lake can certainly agree with this assessment. The islands to which Page refers are the primary reason the lake has been described by so many artists and writers as an area of considerable and varied natural beauty. Many of the 20 islands are partly submerged drumlins, part of the Peterborough drumlin field. The word drumlin is a Celtic word meaning little hill. These islands were formed around 12,000 years ago in the pre-glacial valley now known as Rice Lake, when the Wisconsin glacier receded from southern Ontario forming melt-water lakes south of it. 

The drumlin islands, which point in the direction of movement of the glacier are said to be unique in Ontario. Although Rice Lake is commonly included in the chain of Kawartha lakes, geologically it is separate. Its origin is actually pre-glacial. As vegetation followed the retreating glacier so too did human habitation, such as evidenced by the 2,000 year old Serpent Burial Mounds near Keene. The first proof, however, of caribou-hunting native peoples occurred in the 1980's, when Derek McBride, of Webb's Bay, discovered the heel bone of a species of woodland caribou. Anthropologist, Howard Savage, determined this bone to be approximately 12,000 years old. 

The first known European to see Rice Lake was Samuel de Champlain. In 1615, he travelled with a group of Hurons from Georgian Bay down the Trent-Severn waterway to Lake Ontario.

In 1660, a Cayuga tribe of the Iroquois nation established the first recorded out-post at Rice Lake when they controlled the fur trade on the north side of Lake Ontario. Around 1700, the Cayugas were forced to withdraw from the Rice Lake area by the Mississaugas, a branch of the Ojibwa-Algonkins from the Lake Superior region. According to the late Chief Robert Paudash, in a verbal account in 1904, his ancestors fought many bloody battles to dislodge the Iroquois. One of these battles took place near the mouth of the Otonabee river where he claimed one thousand warriors were slain. 

The early Mississauga name for Rice Lake was Pem-e-dash-cou tay-ang or Lake of the Burning Plains. This refers to the hunting grounds on the southern shore where the Mississaugas burned the vegetation each spring to encourage a type of grass relished by deer.

Some early colonial maps refer to the lake as Folle Avoine or Lake of Wild Oats. On subsequent maps in the later 1700's, the Lake of Wild Oats becomes Rice Lake. The wild rice (zizania aquatica) for which our lake is known, was an important article of trade. The plentiful wild rice, called men-o-min by the natives, grew so thick at one time that according to early naturalist, Charles Fothergill: "when the Indians go in their canoes to take the grain when ripe they are obliged to back out by the same channel by which they had forced their way into it."  He further stated that up to 10,000 bushels a year were available for harvesting. In the mid 1800s wild rice was sold to local hotels for 10 shillings per bushel. Sadly, the wild rice beds have been destroyed by a number of factors including the varying lake levels following the construction, in 1838, of a dam at Hastings, the first dam built for the Trent canal system. In July, 1928, a hurricane wreaked further havoc and since 1950 an infestation of carp has destroyed most of the roots of remaining rice plants.

On the 5th of November, 1818, a provisional treaty was signed and later confirmed between the Mississaugas and the British Crown. A large tract of land including the Rice Lake and Otonabee regions was surrendered and settlers gradually pushed north from Lake Ontario.

In the 1820's, many of these early settlers living on both sides of Rice Lake were retired officers of the Royal Navy, such as: Captain Charles Rubidge, Captain Robert Pengelley, Captain Francis Spilsbury, Lieutenant Philip Elmhirst and Lieutenant John William Bannister, as well as surveyor, Richard Birdsall. Many of these names are familiar to us today. Until the 1840s, however, settlement remained scattered. The early settlers established the first inns, taverns and ferry services on the lake. They were the transfer points on the arduous trip from the front to the back townships. The taverns provided an essential respite for weary travelers, when the 12 miles from Cobourg took almost a day's journey. Inn regulations stated that an operator must "provide no less than three decent beds, allow no profane swearing, disloyal songs, talk, or gaming, serve no liquor after 10 o'clock weekly, and not at all on Sundays, except to travelers."   Letters written by early travelers in Upper Canada refer to the deplorable conditions of most inns. They complained of poor food, rough company, surly help, and incompetent innkeepers. It was better, they said, to sleep on the floor than to share a vermin-infested bed with several strangers.

The ferries from the taverns provided transportation for the remainder of the journey up the meandering Otonabee river to Scott's Plains, now Peterborough. Beginning on 5 September, 1825, a flat-bottomed scow propelled by cars made 60 trips from Gore's Landing to Scott's Plains transporting the Peter Robinson Irish settlers. This represented the first wave of mass immigration to this area.

Around 1867, according to Registry office records, the Crown began to sell the Rice Lake islands. A few were retained by the Crown and reserved for the native peoples. The proceeds from sales were to benefit the Alderville natives and the Mississaugas of the Rice Lake Indian Village, later known as Hiawatha, after the visit in 1860 of H.R.H. Edward, Prince of Wales. Hiawatha is also the point where the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway crossed Rice Lake from Harwood, after it opened in 1854. The bridge across the lake was declared unsafe and closed after only six years of operation because of damage from ice floes. This ill-fated section of the railway is mentioned in Ron Brown's 1993 book, 50 Even More Unusual Places to See in Ontario. 

Many people have been inspired to paint and write about the beautiful scenery and sporting opportunities at Rice Lake. Some are ranked as famous such as: Gerald and Alfred Hayward Jr., and J.D. Kelly. Others have left a valuable historical record such as: Charles Fothergill, Robert Pengelley, Charles Rubidge and Reginald Drayton. Probably no one left a more valuable record of early life at Rice Lake than pioneer writer, Catharine Parr Traill. Traill was a sister of writers Susanna Moodie and Samuel Strickland of Lakefield. Traill, with her husband Thomas and family, lived on the south shore of Rice Lake for eleven of her most productive years as a published writer. Her book, Canadian Crusoes, A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains, published in 1852, is perhaps her most well-known work. Earlier, in September, 1832, she described her overnight stay at the Sully tavern, near Harwood. She said it was a log house with two rooms, where she shared the floor with all the passengers of the Cobourg stage. In the morning she described the Pemedash, the first steamboat to ply the waters of Rice Lake, on which she would travel on to Peterborough. She said it was a crude, smoke-belching, uncomfortable vessel with no cabin and offering only an inefficient awning as shelter. 

The age of steam had arrived at Rice Lake in June of that year when the Pemedash (an abbreviation of the Ojibwa name for Rice Lake) was launched, shattering forever the tranquility of the lake.

Boating has been of paramount importance to this region since man's first arrival at Rice Lake. First as a means of transportation and later, at the turn-of-the-20th century, when the great era of steamboating began in earnest. From that time until mid-century "steamboats did a brisk business carrying passengers, excursion parties and picnics ... when nearly every club, society and Sunday School in the area held an annual boat excursion."  Over the years boat-builders were kept busy supplying the demand for faster and bigger steamboats and faster and sleeker canoes. Daniel Herald of Gore's Landing, was one of the forerunners in design of a new type of canoe for which there was a growing market. Until that time the only canoes were the ones built by natives made of birch-bark or hollowed out logs. Around 1854, he built one of the first wooden canoes of the area. His design was copied from the attractive Ojibwa bark canoe, with its high curving bow. Vacationers were starting to spend their summers in the now traditional Canadian way. They took the air at lakeside cottages, villas and hotels, where canoeing, hunting and fishing became popular ways to spend leisure hours. Canoe clubs and racing regattas were fashionable and there was a demand for a canoe that was aesthetically pleasing as well as functional. The first known regatta to take place at Rice Lake was held 11 August, 1846, at Gore's Landing. 

In the 1860s and '70s Herald entered his canoes in various international exhibitions. His canoes were judged in the top three in nearly every world competition or exhibition in which they were entered. In 1883, Herald won the Gold Medal at the Fisheries exhibition in London, England for what would be his most famous design - a double-planked, cedar canoe with a flat-bottom he called Herald's Patent Cedar Canoe. When his sons took over the business they changed the company name to the Rice Lake Canoe Company. Many canoe aficionados today treasure ownership of an early Rice Lake Canoe.  Examples of the Herald canoes may be reviewed at the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, part of a world-class collection of watercraft acquired by Prof. Kirk Wipper. Prof. Wipper has called Rice Lake, "the Mecca of the canoe world."   Other Rice Lake boat-builders of note were: Fred and Wally Pratt, Frederick Pengelley, Tom Wallace Jr. and Sr., George (Brady) Wallace, Zack Smoke and George Harris.

The dawn of the tourist industry took place when big, excursion steamboats plied the Trent-Severn system. Lakeside summer hotels in the Canadian woods attracted many vacationers. Astute entrepreneurs found they could be successful capitalizing on the natural advantages of Rice Lake - its scenic beauty and excellent hunting and fishing opportunities. And so, the businesses that proved to be the most rewarding through the years at Rice Lake have been those catering to the tourist industry.

Over the years many people have described the beautiful scenery and their love of Rice Lake. Perhaps none more eloquently than Catharine Parr Traill who wrote in 1849, from her new home: "The day-dream has been realized and from the Oaklands I now look toward the distant bay beyond the hills where I spent my first night on the Rice Lake ... and can say as I then said, 'truly it is a fair and lovely spot'."

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The Islands of Rice Lake

"In all this fair and fertile land, there are probably few spots endowed with a richer gift of beauty than...the Rice Lake...with all its fairy islands resting so calmly upon the blue waters, and giving it, especially when half-veiled by the white haze which often rises from its surface at early morning, such a character of dream-like loveliness...."  

The Lost Boy:  A tale of the Burning Plains (l848)  by Rhoda Anne Page (l826-l863)

In l8l7, when he first viewed the spectacular scenery at Rice Lake, another early writer and noted naturalist, Charles Fothergill (l782-l840), wrote: ...puts one strongly in mind of  Windermere in Cumberland...its islands and woods, [but] it is more lovely. The partly submerged drumlin islands in Rice Lake are the primary reason the lake has been described as an area of considerable and varied natural beauty.  The drumlins are part of the distinctive Peterborough drumlin field (the word drumlin is Celtic for little hill ). The islands were formed around l2,000 years ago when the Wisconsin glacier receded from southern Ontario. When this last glaciation passed over this area, it moved huge mounds of rock debris about.  In places it is believed that the glacier overrode some impediment.  The soil and rock material being carried on the lower part of the glacier then became plastered against this impediment and slowly built up an oval-shaped hill.  They resemble an inverted bowl or spoon, sometimes called sowbacks or whalebacks.  Drumlins are of interest because they point in the direction of movement of the glacier. The drumlin islands formed in the pre-glacial valley now known as Rice Lake are said to be unique in Ontario.  The only other known drumlin island is in Lake Simcoe near Orillia.

In l785, Benjamin Frobisher, in his report of the Trent system, refers to the early French name for Rice Lake as Folle avoine  (wild oats). On subsequent maps recorded in l789, l790 and later, the Lake of Wild Oats becomes Rice Lake. In the early l800s the plentiful wild rice (Zizania aquatica), called men-o-min by the natives, was an important article of trade.  It has been said that before the lake levels rose it was difficult for boats to enter the mouth of the Otonabee River because of the dense beds of wild rice growing there.

The early Mississauga name for Rice Lake was Pem-e-dash-cou-tay-ang or Lake of the  Burning Plains. This refers to the hunting grounds on the southern shore where native peoples burned the vegetation each spring  to encourage the growth of a type of grass relished by deer. The Mississaugas, according to records "by a provisional treaty signed on November 5, l8l8, and later confirmed, surrendered a large tract of land to the British Crown, including the Otonabee region."   When the native settlements of the Rice Lake Indian Village (later Hiawatha) and Alderville (named for the Rev. Robert Alder, English secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society) were established in l829 and l837, respectively, the colonial government referred to the Rice Lake islands by number.  The Mississauga's influence, however, is evident in some of the names of the islands such as Cow, Paudash and Sugar, named by and for native people.  Most retain these names today.

Several of the present islands, particularly near the northern shoreline, were former marshy peninsulas.  These peninsulas became flooded during the construction of the Trent Canal system starting in l838 when a dam was built at Hastings.  It is said the present lake level is about six feet higher than earlier. In 1913, compensation was given by King George V to some owners for damage caused by the Trent Canal. 

Around l867, according to Registry Office records, the superintendent-general of Indian Affairs, on behalf of the Crown, began to sell the Rice Lake islands.  A few  were retained by the Crown and reserved for the native peoples.  The proceeds  from some sales were to benefit the Alnwick or Alderville natives and some the Mississaugas of the Rice Lake Indian Village and Mud Lake.   

In l903, one such deed states in  part: Edward the seventh, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the seas King Defender  of the Faith Emperor of India.  Whereas the lands hereafter described are part and parcel of those  set apart for the use of the Mississaugas of Alnwick Indians; and Whereas we have thought fit to authorize the sale and disposal of the lands hereinafter mentioned, in order that the proceeds may be applied to the benefit, support and advantage of the said Indians, in such manner as we shall be pleased to direct from time to time.... 

Information about the origins of the names for the following list of the 20 islands in Rice Lake has been obtained from deeds, historical books of the area, government agencies and local interviews.

BLACK
Catharine Parr Traill (l802-l899), noted pioneer writer, included several of the Rice Lake islands in her fictional story for children entitled:  Canadian Crusoes  (l852).  Black island she described as  "the sixth from the head of the lake; an oval island, remarkable for its evergreens."  According to local tradition, the conifers growing  there gave it a dark appearance in winter.  Black island was purchased from the Crown in the l870s, along with several others, by Alfred Harris, a prominent and well-to-do innkeeper in Gore's Landing.

COW
This island was once a marshy peninsula on the west side of the mouth of the Otonabee River.  In l8l9, the southern section was called Fothergill Point.  It was the location of Charles Fothergill's hunting lodge, Castle Fothergill.  It was renamed Jubilee Point in l887, by steamboat entrepreneur Henry Calcutt, to honour the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign. The island was named for the Cow (now Cowie) family of Hiawatha.  Other places in Peterborough County have been named for members of this family, such as Jack's Lake near Apsley,  named for "Handsome" Jack Cow, and Polly Cow Island below  Young's Point, named for his daughter. In l867, part of Cow island, along with others mentioned, was purchased by Alfred Harris. It has always been a popular spot to trap muskrats.  It is said that Rice Lake muskrats possess the finest skins in the world. Victor Harris, a great-great grandson of Alfred Harris carries on the operation of the Rice Lake Fur Company at this location.

FOLEY (UPPER AND LOWER )
Both of these thickly wooded islands were named for the Foley family, early settlers of Otonabee township.  In l837, James Foley operated the first store in Norwood.  He later formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Peregrine Maitland Glover, known as Foley and Glover, Lumber Merchants. Their lumbering interests included these islands.  Members of the Foley family still live on the lakeshore north of the islands. Lower Foley  was once part of the mainland, separated by a small creek. Once thirteen and a half acres, it was reduced by flooding during  the construction  of the Trent Canal.  It was sold by the Crown in the l880s and
was known at that time as Otonabee or Green island.  Since l9l4, it has been owned by the Johns family of Cobourg.

In l896, Upper Foley was visited by archaeologist David Boyle.  His results were published under the auspices of the Ontario Department of Education. His examination revealed possible corn-caches, as well as potsherds and flint-flakes on  the west side of  Foley Point. 

GRASSHOPPER
According to early records, this island was also known as Ames, Round and Alnwick island.  In l902, it was sold to Henry Montgomery for $l80.00. Proceeds were for the benefit of the Mississaugas of Alnwick.  It was after this time it acquired its self-descriptive name.

GRAPE  (EAST and  WEST)
In l6l5, Samuel Champlain, the first European to see Rice Lake, noted  in his diary the abundance of wild grapes in the area.  He also recognized their "pungent  acidity". In her book The Female Emigrant's Guide, written in l854 at Gore's Landing, Catharine Parr Traill, identified them as Fox or Frost grapes. She claimed the fruit was far from unpalatable "when cooked with a sufficiency of sugar" and that "a fine jelly and excellent  home-made wine can also be manufactured from these grapes."   The wild grapes, still abundant today, gave their name to these islands. In l890, East Grape island was purchased from the Crown by John Purser. West Grape remains an uninhabited small out-cropping north of Pinetree Point. It is owned by the Crown and reserved for the native peoples of Hiawatha.

HARMONY
This small island was once the high section of the marshy shoreline at the head of Rice Lake. In the l800s it was owned by the Heaslip family. A feature of Harmony island is Sandpoint Marsh, a cattail marsh located on a clay plain on the west end of Rice Lake on a shallow bay.  This privately-owned land occupies an area of approximately 150 hectares.

HARRIS
Before the lake levels rose, the high points  of this marshy area were known as Rainy Point, Prickly Point and Muskrat island.  Due to the extensive surrounding marshland, they are considered part of Harris island. It was a favorite location for duck-hunting.  The area contains many cattails and scrub  willow and has many open pools, providing first-class cover and food for wildfowl.

In l974, it was acquired by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Province of Ontario, as an  extension  to the Serpent Mounds Provincial Park.   It is now uninhabited.  Harris island was probably named for Pasker Baptiste Harris (l890-l940) a grandson of Alfred Harris of Gore's Landing.  Harris and a friend "Matey" Fraser maintained a hunting lodge on the east side of Rainy Point.

HICKORY
Known for the hickory trees that still grow there, it was also once called Balsam island.  In l906, it was sold by the Crown to John Dumble Hayden.  It had formerly been set aside for the Mississaugas of Alnwick.

LONG
Named for its size and shape, Long island is the largest of the Rice Lake islands.   It was once farmed by the Nurse and Hall families.  J. W. Hall of Hall's Landing, on the north shore, was an early owner.

MARGARET
Once called Long island, this property was purchased from the Crown in l885 by George and Wellington Ferguson.  It was once the location of Yoo-Hoo Lodge, a summer guest house operated by the Ferguson family.  Yoo-Hoo received its name after guests arrived at the landing on the mainland and called over for transportation to the island.  The lodge burned down in l927. The island was also once farmed.  Ferguson descendents are still at this location. According to local tradition, Margaret island received its name in remembrance of a native girl from Alderville, who drowned after falling through the ice on her way to Keene.  Her body was found when it washed up on the northwest shore of the island. Margaret island has been another favorite spot for duck-hunters, including the well-known painter of Canadian historical scenes, John David Kelly (l862-l958).  Until old age Kelly and his friend, William Herald (l864-l945) of Gore's Landing, made an annual ten-mile excursion by canoe to Margaret island for duck-hunting.

PAUDAUSH OR PAUDASH
This island is named for the Paudash family, the last hereditary chiefs of the Mississaugas at Rice Lake.  In l905, in a published oral history of his family, Robert Paudash described his father, Mosang Paudash, as the last hereditary chief.  He died in l893 at the age of 75.  He further stated that his grandfather, Cheneebeesch, who died in l869 at  the age of l04, was the last Sachem or Head Chief of all the Mississaugas.  The word Mississauga means river. When the Rice Lake Indian Mission was established in the mid l820s by the New England Company, a missionary society of the Methodist church, many of the natives were converted to Christianity.  In l826, George Paudash attended an annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in Hamilton.  It is recorded that the missionaries received a warm welcome at Rice Lake. 

RACK
Early records show this island was known as Wrack island.  It was sold by the Crown in l882 to Edmund MacNaughton.  Proceeds were for the benefit of the Rice Lake Indian village (Hiawatha) and the Mud Lake natives. According to the dictionary, the word wrack  means:  "wreck or wreckage; seaweed  or other marine vegetation cast ashore."  Later owners also had a poison-ivy problem and solved it by pasturing goats who were not too discriminatory with their diet.

SHEEP
This island is the middle of the three drumlin islands that give such an esthetically pleasing vista from Gore's Landing.  It was once known as Beaver island. In Canadian Crusoes, Catharine  Parr Traill  writes: The Beaver, commonly called Sheep Island, from some person having pastured a few sheep upon it some few years ago.  I have taken the liberty of preserving the name, to which it bears an obvious resemblance; the nose of the Beaver lies towards the west, the tail to the east.  In l867, Sheep island was among those purchased from the Crown by Alfred Harris.

At the turn of the century, during the zenith of the steamboat excursion business, boats heading for the dock at Gore's Landing and the Harris-owned Rice Lake Hotel gave several loud blasts of the whistle at Sheep island. This was the signal that guests were arriving for dinner. 

SPOOK OR SPOOKE
It was also known as Ghost and Spirit island  because of the local belief that the island is a former Indian burial-ground.  In l829, according to early Methodist historians, there was once an early mission school on this island.  It is recorded "The summer was a sickly season, and a number of the Indians were attacked with fever.  It was considered best to remove the missionary family and the schools to an island in Rice Lake, called Spooke...."  In l836, shortly before the Mackenzie Rebellion, during a highly-charged election in the Newcastle District, Sully (now Harwood) was picked as the voting place for the Peterborough area.  Spook island became an electioneering headquarters and campground when a large marquee, which had served as a hospital tent during the Irish emigration of l825, was set up by leading Tories.  The island was temporarily renamed Constitution Island. The marquee sheltered a large group of well-primed and probably ineligible prospective voters.  They had been conscripted in Peterborough and brought down to Rice Lake on a refurbished  steamboat wreck to flood the poll.  One of the organizers, a fervent Tory from the Fenelon Falls  area, John Langton, described the  raucous  scene: There was astonishingly little fighting, considering the number of wild Irishmen we brought down, but they were altogether too strong  for the Yankees, [Reformers], who after giving  their votes generally mounted their horses and made off; so for want of better game our Patlanders occasionally got up a snug fight amongst themselves, but though there were three or four kilt  I did not hear of any very serious damage. Needless to say the Tories won the election and Mackenzie's Reformers were defeated. In l852, Catharine Parr Traill writes in Canadian Crusoes: Spooke Island.  A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh from the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury their dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached with reverence. Now famous for two things, picnics and poison-ivy...many persons having suffered for their temerity in landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities. To date, there has been no evidence to support the local belief that the island is a former Indian burial-ground. In l867, Spook island was purchased by Alfred Harris of Gore's Landing. 

SUGAR (East)
In l896, archaeologist David Boyle reported visiting East Sugar island where he found some burial mounds containing  a number of skeletons and burials and several artifacts, including copper beads and a copper axe or chisel.

According to Ministry of Natural Resources records, the island was "purchased in l899 by Indians and created an Indian Reserve under the name 'Sugar Island Ind. Reserve' ". In l972, students of the Roseneath Centennial School, under the supervision of the Royal Ontario Museum, uncovered an Indian settlement on the north-east end of East Sugar island.  It  was said to be over 6,000 years old.

SUGAR (West)
Both East and West Sugar islands were named very early by the Mississaugas of Rice Lake because of the maple trees growing upon them. In the winter of l8l7, Charles Fothergill recorded in his diary: Set out on horseback [from Port Hope] to find my way to Rice Lake....At first view of the lake it appeared long and narrow with several beautiful islands in the middle.  I aimed at that in the centre called by the Indians Sugar Island from the number of maples which grew upon it and because they there manufacture much sugar every year. In l852, Catharine Parr Traill called it Sugar-Maple Island  "a fine thickly-wooded island, rising with steep rocky banks from the water."  In l867, West Sugar island was sold by the Crown to Alfred Harris.

TIC
The origin of the name Tic is obscure.  According to early records, Tic is the original spelling of this name, not Tick as appears latterly. The island is noteworthy because of its association with the Cobourg and Peterborough Railway that once crossed  Rice Lake from Harwood to the north shore at Picnic Point, near Hiawatha. The railway was officially opened 29 December, l854.  At that  time it was considered to be one of the longest railway bridges in the world.  It crossed the lake on a trestle bridge, which was later strengthened by a rock causeway.  The Rice Lake section closed during the winter of l86l, when most of the bridge crumbled under the pressure of ice (an annual problem) and sailed down the lake in the spring. In l853,  Catharine Parr Traill in an article entitled "A Walk to Railway Point" described watching the activities of the railway construction on the south shore.  About Harwood and Tic island she wrote: The ground in front sloped gently down to the shore, forming a little peninsula; on one side a deep cove wooded on its banks to the water's edge, in front the long line of piles stretching towards a small island on which a station-house is to be erected for the keeper of the gates, which are to admit of the egress and regress of boats and rafts. She also noted:  "The distance from shore to shore of the Rice Lake at this point is about three miles; the average depth as far as they had hitherto sunk the piles did not exceed fifteen feet;  but the deepest part was supposed to be north of Tick  Island."

After the demise of  the railway, the island was sold to various owners, including the Cobourg Hunting Club and the Fitzhugh family, wealthy American summer residents of  Cobourg. At one time the northern tip was the location of a lighthouse, one of two markers for boaters on Rice Lake. The raised bed of the railway is still visible across the island and a row of submerged cribs remains below the surface, north  of the island. The present owner, the Honourable  Pauline Drope Browse, every year finds oak railway ties washed up on  the island, some with spikes still in them.

WHITE'S
This island was named for John and Josiah White who once operated a sawmill on the mainland south of this island.  They also had another sawmill on the north side of present White Street, in Cobourg. In the spring of l848, during the construction  of the Plank Road from Cobourg to Gore's Landing, over 350,000 feet of lumber were purchased from these mills.

Tarry awhile among Rice Lake's unique and beautiful islands.  Enjoy the scenery and perhaps try to hook one of Rice Lake's elusive muskies!

Hamilton Township was not surveyed until 1796 and many of the lots along the southern border of Rice Lake were reserved for the Crown.  To supplement their incomes lessees of Crown lots often ran ferry services to the north shore and provided accommodation for travelers.  By 1819 inn and ferry operators were able to secure licences although illegal squatters were active on the lakeshore before then.  Native trails from Lake Ontario to Rice Lake developed into the first roads.  The termination points of these trails at Rice Lake became the nucleii of the villages of Bewdley, Harwood and Gore's Landing.

The First Pioneer
The first pioneer recorded on the south side of Rice Lake was John Williams, who squatted in 1804 on clergy reserve lot 8 where trailers now occupy the bay's shore.  In 1819 he was granted a tavern licence and a ferry lease for what was designated "the Lower Ferry Point".  John Williams died in 1832 and an item in the Cobourg Star said he was "the oldest settler in the neighborhood". The premises were taken over by John Bennett and called Bennett's Landing. 

Sully
One of the first attempts at a settlement on the lakeshore was on the western outskirts of the present village of Harwood.  Around 1823 another tavern was opened by John Williams on King's College lot 5.  James Grey Bethune got title to the lot in 1834 and named the tavern location "Sully" for his illustrious ancestor, Maximilien de Bethune, Duc De Sully, who had been financial adviser to Henry IV of France.  Bethune was interested in transportation and in 1832 launched a steamboat, Pemedash, to carry passengers and freight to the north shore. He also had plans to build a railroad from Cobourg to Sully but was under-financed.  He used some unscrupulous means to raise the money but went bankrupt and his plans were abandoned.  Bethune spent a short term in debtors' prison and died in 1841 a ruined and broken man.  The tavern continued to operate but no further settlement was attempted in Sully until the 1850's when the railroad plan was revived.

Bewdley
While Bethune was attempting to establish his settlement at Sully, other men had similar plans for the western end of Rice Lake.  This area had for centuries been the site of native camping grounds and was near the well-traveled Ganaraska Trail from Smith's Creek (Port Hope) on Lake Ontario north to Rice Lake and the trapping areas of the Kawarthas.  Around 1793 a fur trading post was established at the mouth of the Otonabee River by Herkimer brothers, early settlers at Smith's Creek.  An "Upper Ferry Point" was planned for lot 27 (on Ley Point between Oak Hills and Halstead Beach), but those plans were never carried out. Hamilton Township assessments of 1829 show William Black occupying the 200-acre lot on the western border of the township.  In the next four years he had built a tavern on the shore where his property touched Rice Lake. The location was known as Black's Landing and was on the ferry route. In 1833 William Bancks moved to Black's Landing to found a "gentlemen's colony" on property he had secured from the Hon. George Boulton, a land speculator who had a finger in most of the settlement pies of the Newcastle District.  Bancks built a sawmill on nearby Cold Creek, established the short-lived Newcastle Banking Company and laid out plans for a village.  He named the village "Bewdley" for his former home in Bewdley, Worcestershire, England, and also had plans for a railroad to this settlement.  Like Bethune his plans were under-financed and failed.  Bancks returned to England leaving the ownership of the village lots in a confused state that took a consortium of prominent Cobourg and Port Hope land speculators, including Boulton, years to resolve.  Banck's sawmill was taken over by James Sackville, an industrious Scotsman, who made a success of the business.  Bewdley was settled by the 1860's with a shingle mill on Cold Creek and a forge, steam sawmill and three inns on the water front.  One inn building remains and is now the Rice Lake Variety Store.  On the site of the old sawmill stands the Mill Point Apartments. 

Saxe Town and Claverton 
The first attempt at a settlement in the Gore's Landing area began with a tavern at the terminus of a native trail that ended west of the present village, now Harris Boatworks Road. The first settler there was Elijah Birdsley in 1807, who cleared 20 acres and built a log house where he accommodated travelers and ferried them across the lake.  He received a tavern license in 1819 but Lieutenant John Bannister got the ferry license for the "Middle Ferry Point".  Bannister named the settlement Saxe Town, a family name that had originally come from Germany.  The inn and ferry continued to be operated by others until James Grey Bethune bought them out in 1830 and moved his centre of operations to Sully.

In 1833, a judge of the Newcastle District, William Falkner, established a water-powered sawmill at the end of present Waldon Road (originally Old Mill Road) and built a house he named "Claverton", (on the site of Victoria Inn) for his former home in Somersetshire, England.  Claverton, Bewdley and Sully are shown on a map of the township commissioned by Bethune in 1833.

Gore's Landing
A decade after the failure of Bethune's plans for Sully, Thomas Sinclair Gore, the founder of the village of Gore's Landing, arrived.  In the 1840s William Weller of Cobourg, the stage coach magnate, was seeking a shorter mail route from Cobourg to Peterborough.  Instead of taking the road around the western end of Rice Lake Weller proposed to have his stage go straight north to the lakeshore, bypassing Bewdley, Saxe Town and Sully, where the mail would be transferred to a ferry sailing up the Otonabee River.

Gore, a surveyor who had emigrated from the north of Ireland in 1841, was hired to improve and straighten the road from Cobourg to Rice Lake.  In 1844 Gore bought clergy reserve lot 15 from the Hon. George Boulton and proceeded to survey the road through his own property to the lakeshore.  (Obviously there was no such thing as conflict of interest in those days.)  The same year William Weller launched his steamboat, The Forester, from Bennett's Landing.  Bennett moved his inn building on the ice to Gore's Landing c. 1845 and constructed a wharf there. The building (c. 1838) is the oldest in Gore's Landing and is now part of Plank Road Cottages.  Thomas Gore built a frame house on the hill overlooking Rice Lake where he and his wife lived with their eight children.  He died at the early age of 38 leaving his widow well off from the sales of his village lots.

Mr. Gore's landing grew rapidly and became a boat building centre.  One of the boat builders, Daniel Herald, who emigrated from Ireland c. 1852, made the village famous with his double planked Herald's Patent Cedar Canoe.  Two hotels, an Anglican and a Methodist church, store, post office and a woolen mill appeared on the lakeshore. Of these buildings only two survive: the Rice Lake House (1849) (Gabetis-Weller Tavern) as a private home and the Methodist church (1858) as a workshop in the Gore's Landing Marina.

In the 1850s two steam sawmills replaced Judge Falkner's old water-powered sawmill, one on Lampman Lane and a larger one near the site of present Victoria Inn. These operated until the railroad was built to Harwood with spurs constructed to two huge sawmills built in the late 1860s.  Most of the trade then moved back to the Sully area.

Harwood
Sully remained stagnant until the 1850s with the tavern being advertised in vain for sale or lease for some years before its demise. The north half of lot 4 to the east had been granted in the 1820s to loyalists in Niagara and finally fell into the hands of the prominent and wealthy Harwood family of Montreal and New York.  A number of business men in Cobourg undertook to revive Bethune's railroad charter and in May 1854 the railroad was completed to the Harwoods' property, for whom the fledging village was named.  By December a railroad bridge across Rice Lake had been finished and two trains a day were operating.

The first recorded resident of Harwood was an eccentric but astute bachelor, Robert Drope, who had emigrated from northern Ireland twenty years earlier.  He moved from Roseneath to Harwood c. 1854 to become the first postmaster, store and inn keeper.  At first the village lots rose sharply from $3 to $400 an acre but with the failure of the railroad bridge to survive ice damage property values soon fell.  When the bridge was finally abandoned in the 1860s Drope was able to purchase the north halves of lots 3 and 4.  He promptly began to subdivide and sell village lots.  With the building of two steam sawmills a few years later people flocked in seeking employment until the population was estimated at 500.  From 1869-73 articles in the Cobourg Sentinel, gushing with Victorian hyperbole, termed Harwood a "sawmill" city and predicted a glorious future.

One sawmill was located on the site of Willow Bay Cottages and the other at the end of Mill Street at Cedar Cove Tourist Camp.  Huge log booms came down the Otonabee River and were sawn at the mills then transported by rail to Lake Ontario.  Several boarding houses for mill workers, two large stores and a two-room school were soon constructed with three churches, Methodist, Anglican and Catholic, following shortly afterwards.  Local stories say several hotels operated in Harwood but only two were ever in business at once.  The hotels began with the first settlement of the village but fires destroyed each one although they were rebuilt several times.  In 1897 the largest fire burned not only the Phoenix hotel but the nearby Harstone store and post office.  Today the only original commercial establishment still in business is the Harwood General Store build 1869.  The earliest surviving building (built c. 1866 of horizontally-laid planks) was once a mill workers' boarding house and is now a private home. 

By the turn of the century all the suitable timber had been cut north of Rice Lake and the mills failed.  Due to competition from larger lines and lack of freight the railroad closed and Harwood people began to look elsewhere for work.  It was at this period that lakeside summer vacations became popular with the wealthy.  Hotels in the villages of Bewdley, Gore's Landing and Harwood capitalized on their locations on beautiful Rice Lake with its excellent fishing.  They provided luxury food and accommodation and steamboats took holiday crowds on excursions around the lake and up to Peterborough.  When prohibition was introduced in 1917, however, most of the hotels closed and the steamboat era ended.  People then found it cheaper and more convenient to own summer cottages and their own pleasure craft.  Today the villages still cater to the tourist trade with convenience stores, restaurants, rental units and marinas.

TOP

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The Dramatic Glacial Birth of the Rice Lake Area

Back when time was, nearly 12,000 years ago two receding ice-sheets or lobes created this area. The process was slow but the outcome was dramatic and today when visitors come to vacation in our area what they see is truly beautiful ­ gently rolling farmlands, patches of forests, quiet country roads and small hamlets.

No one was around to watch this massive geological machination of two enormous lobes of the Wisconsin glacier when they met head on, melted and created one of the most distinctive and dominant land formations in southern Ontario, the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Here is briefly what happened. One glacial lobe was receding from the north, the Simcoe lobe and the other, the Ontario lobe was receding from the south and as they retreated they left a ridge of rocks, sand, gravel and clay, now known as the Oak Ridges Moraine.

This Moraine is one of the longest interlobate moraines in the world and one of the most prominent geological features in southern Ontario. An interlobate moraine is formed between ice lobes. 1  The Oak Ridges Moraine stretches from the Niagara Escarpment in the west to the Trent River in the east, covering about 100 miles varying in width from 400 - 600 feet. The Moraine forms a regional height of land and serves as a drainage divide between the Lake Ontario and the Georgian Bay basins. "Rivers south of it flow directly into Lake Ontario, while those north of it flow into the Trent System and then to Lake Ontario, or into the Severn system and then to Georgian Bay. If it weren't for the presence of this major glacial feature, the [Trent Severn] Waterway would probably have found its way further west, rather than going through the twists and turns it undertakes before entering Lake Ontario via the Trent River at Trenton."1  The erosion and deposition made by glaciers leave geological traits like moraines, drumlins, kames and eskers. Rice Lake is said to have been originally a pre-glacial valley; that it, it existed before the glacier. But the egg-shaped drumlin islands were deposited by glacial action. These drumlins are part of the Peterborough drumlin field and are visible on both sides of Rice Lake. They are thought to have been formed when the glacier passed over rock obstacles and the sand and gravel it carried built up behind these obstacles forming the egg-shape which all point in a direction showing the way in which the glacier was moving.

The glacier is responsible as well for the varying types of soil in our area; from layers and pockets of hard stoney clay or soft sand and gravel to the fertile sandy loam of the Rice Lake Plains, which lies above the south shore of Rice Lake.

In southern Ontario as the glacier retreated and the environment began to warm, the tundra-like growth was gradually replaced by white spruce, with shrub birch and poplars and lichens and sedges or coarse grasses. This type of vegetation attracted the woodland caribou and fossilized remains of that animal have been found at Webb's Bay on the south shore of Rice Lake.  The caribou was what attracted the first native hunters to our regional ten thousand years ago. These people lived mainly on meat. The caribou followed the coniferous forests northward and as the air and land became warmer and the forest more deciduous deer took their place. This coniferous forest was gradually replaced by the more southern forest types found in Ontario today.

"The Oak Ridges Moraine takes its name from many fine oaks that once grew along the ridge . These oaks were harvested and sent to Britain to build the wooden ships of the British navy. Not only were the trunks valued for their strength and size, but bent and crooked limbs were prized for the curved rib and prow parts that could be cut from them. Large, straight pines were needed for the masts of naval ships, and many of these timbers were cut along the Moraine and hauled by wagon to Port Hope for shipment to England."2

For some reason, perhaps because of fires started by lightning or man, about 5000 years ago the hemlock forests around Rice Lake almost disappeared and deciduous trees, especially sugar maples, gradually began to take over. These facts have been discovered by archeologists doing pollen analysis of cores taken from the lake bottom. This change in forest cover changed the surrounding soil of the lakes from acidic to basic allowing wild rice to now grow in the shallow water attracting a later type of native people who had added wild plants to their meat diet.

At one time the wild rice was so thick in the fall in Rice Lake one could get lost and you would have to back out by the same route as you came in. However, in the early 1900s much of the wild rice was drowned out when the lake levels were raised for the construction of the dams for the Trent Canal system. In 1928 a hurricane wreaked further damage so that now rice survives only in a few creeks near the shore.

It has been speculated that when Iroquoian peoples arrived about 900 years ago, following the more primitive tribes who lived soley on meat and wild plants, they cut down trees with their primitive axes and burned off the land to enable them to grow corn, squash, etc. Burning allowed prairie grasses to take over. A prairie can only be maintained by being periodically burned over, otherwise the forest soon regenerates and begins its inevitable succession.

The Rice Lake Plains was one of these prairie areas, according to a number of early pioneers, such as author Catharine Parr Traill and her brother Samuel Strickland, who both came  in the first quarter of the 1800s. It was such a relief to the eye, they wrote, as they took the rough trail from Cobourg, jolting up the hills of the moraine, to finally come out of the solid forest and see the almost park-like plains. Before them was a sea of grasses with brush and cedar swamps in the low marshy places and a few stands of pine and oak on the hills, and in the distance glinted the blue waters of Rice Lake.

Dr. Paul Catling of the Dept. of Agriculture, Ottawa recently conducted a study of the area and concludes that the Rice Lake Plains are the easternmost prairies in Canada containing savannas and some trees similar to the prairies in western Canada. Dr.Catling bases his findings on numerous reports by early surveyors, naturalists and historians who all mentioned the continual burning off of the plains. The dry soil on the Rice Lake Plains would be more susceptible to fire than that of surrounding areas. Mrs.Traill said burned and charred roots had been found beneath the surface of the soil and local farmers on the plains have reported the same.

The Mississauga native people, who inhabited the plains in the 1700's, certainly were one group who continually burned off the six-foot grasses, so it is said, that the deer might be attracted to the fresh grass and be easier to hunt. Their name for Rice Lake was Pem-e-dash-cou-tay-ang, translated as "Lake of the Burning Plains". The Mississaugas were the last group of native people to inhabit the plains before the coming of the European settlers.

A 1994 Ministry of Natural Resources report noted that the moraine "supports an abundance of native plant and animal species and provides one of the few remaining refuges for many sensitive and threatened species."  An example of this is Peter's Woods, a 55 hectare Provincial Nature Reserve south of Rice Lake. It is one of the few remaining tracts of virgin forest in southern Ontario. Take County Road 45 to County Road 29 and turn east and go approximately 3 km to McDonald Road. Turn south and travel 2 km. Peter's Woods is a small remnant of near virgin maple-beech forest similar to the forest that once covered much of southern Ontario. The trees are some of the biggest you will see anywhere in the province. The white pines here are more than a metre in diameter and somehow escaped being cut in the early century.1  A network of walking trails has been developed through the woods allowing visitors to stand among the forest and imagine what it must have looked like 200 years ago.

In addition to its long history of native occupation, significant natural features and scenic beauty, the Oak Ridges Moraine performs a most important hydrogeologic function, serving as a headwater and groundwater recharge area. You can see from maps that all the streams and their associated wetlands in the area have their sources within or on the north or south slopes of the moraine. In many low-lying places in Gore's Landing, Harwood and Camborne, fresh, pure water gushes out of the ground.  Because of the large amount of permeable sand and gravel that forms the moraine, rain and melted snow water soak down through the surface and form great underground pools called aquifers.  As well, at the very lowest levels original melt water from the glacier still exists. 

A number of companies have tapped into these aquifers within the moraine to provide bottled spring water and along with development within the moraine there are concerns for its protection. In 1990, the Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) coalition was established by MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) in response to increased development pressures on the Moraine and hopefully put into place protective measures for its preservation. To date these efforts to establish legislation to protect the entire Oak Ridge Moraine have not been successful, however, the STORM coalition continues to lobby for integrated land use planning that acknowledges the fragility of watershed and headwater regions. 

In 1997 the members of the STORM coalition consisting of naturalists, botanists, geologists, historians, writers and photographers complied a celebration of the special nature of the Oak Ridges Moraine in a book by the same name. The book contains a fabulous collection of essays and photographs and points out the importance of this natural beauty and why it needs to be protected and preserved.  As attractive as the Oak Ridges Moraine is to visit and live in, it is an endangered environmental treasure to be protected for future generations.  

(A special thanks to Catharine Milne who supplied the references and basis of this article).

Other Sources:
1. Lorraine Brown, The Trent-Severn Waterway, An Environmental Exploration,
   (Friends of the Trent Severn Waterway, Peterborough, 1994) page 17; 18; 139.

2. The STORM Coalition, Oak Ridges Moraine, (Boston Mills Press, Erin,1997)
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Painting of the steamboat Geneva by artist Wayne Deremo

The Steamboat Geneva

The steamboat Geneva was built in 1905 by William Thomson of Orillia and had her maiden voyage on Lake Simcoe the same year. Thomson was the owner of the Longford Lumber Co. and the developer of Geneva Park, a popular picnic spot near Longford Mills on Lake Couchiching. Thomson brought the Geneva to Rice Lake in 1911 after a series of business mergers, when he became a partner in the Peterborough and Lake Simcoe Navigation Co. According to Richard Tatley, in Steamboating on the Trent-Severn, (1978), "she was a double-decked screw-steamer seventy feet in length and licenced for 214 passengers but was rather slow."  She conveyed goods and people up and down the Otonabee River until 1923, always under the command of Captain Wilbert Harris, of Gore's Landing. 

Over his forty-year-long sailing career Captain Harris remembered many highlights on board the Geneva. He recalled: "there were drownings, rescues from drownings, fights with unruly passengers and fogs so thick even...he got lost in his own backyard of sailing waters. There was the Christmas buying trip on December 15 when the noble craft of that day bucked forming ice both ways on river and Lake."   Captain Harris guided the sturdy steamer back to Gore's Landing safely, "but it took her five hours and she did it by running backwards, using her screw to break up the ice."  For 14 years the Geneva transported farm produce, lumber supplies, the Royal Mail, and people going to market in Peterborough.  

She stopped at Bewdley, Gore's Landing, Harwood, Keene and several landings along the Otonabee River. The author's family often recalled the momentous trip in 1917 when their widowed mother and seven children moved from Bomanton to Peterborough. They boarded the Geneva at Harwood with all their household belongings including the family dog.

According to Tatley, the small steamer was summoned back to Lake Couchiching in June of 1923, leaving Gore's Landing never to return. Captain Harris made his farewell trip as skipper on a double moonlight excursion down the Severn River. He then retired from steamboating and built a boat livery and tourist business (now Plank Road Cottages) in Gore's Landing.

Although steamboats no longer sound their whistles at Gore's Landing, the dock at the end of Plank Road remains, with its historic gazebo providing a distinctive landmark for boaters on the Trent-Severn waterway. The old Geneva, according to Tatley, "made her last trip around 1925; then her engines were removed at Orillia, and the old steamer was towed away to a bay near Longford Mills, close to the spot where she had been launched twenty years earlier. Here she was beached and left to die."  A modern-day Geneva skippered by a Harris still casts off from a dock at Gore's Landing ... a cabin-cruiser owned by Captain. Harris's grandson, Victor Harris. 

The 1999 Rice Lake Visitors' Guide featured a print of the Geneva done by local artist Wayne Deremo. Limited edition prints of the Geneva are available from Clay Publishing Co. Ltd. in Bewdley or directly from artist Wayne Deremo. Wayne is a local artist who resides and works full-time from his home and studio near Harwood, on the south shore of Rice Lake.  While working on the painting, Wayne learned that he had a personal tie to the Geneva. His brother told him that his mother had once traveled on it. Wayne's art is purchased and enjoyed by private collectors as well as corporations for its true attention to detail and natural themes related to Canada. Each painting is carefully researched and reveals a story that can be appreciated as much as its artistic value.

(Sources: Martin, McGillis, Milne, Gore's Landing and the Rice Lake Plains, (1986); Harris family papers; Richard Tatley, Steamboating on the Trent-Severn, (Belleville: Mika, 1978) 
By Donna S. McGillis, Local author and historian.
Artist Wayne Deremo - Arts/Theatre

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