now magazine has always been great to temagami

this article got me thinking about how great now magazine has always been to temagami. whether the topic is travel, environment, politics, or.... or.... well, what else is there in temagami, really? now magazine has always been there for the temagami wilderness.

now magazine articles on temagami

now i'll have to write something about bob hunter and citytv, before it is swallowed up by ctv.

btw, congratulations to hap wilson on winning the 2007 bill mason award.

plus ca change

in an update to my posting from april on the arrival of a skills training school in temagami, n.a.c. has decided not to locate here. rumour is that the deal was sunk by a prominent local businessman who wants to use temagami shores inn for another purpose. there is no official line on this story though.

this development is very unfortunate for the economic diversity of temagami. more on diversification in future editions of wild temagami. needless to say, i'm a big fan of anything that has nothing to do with being a "hewer of wood and drawer of water."

april 10, 2007 - welcome to temagami, n.a.c.

temagami environmentalist receives honourary degree

minnijean trickey, who played an instrumental role in temagami's environmentalist protests of the late 1980's, received an honourary doctorate of laws degree from laurentian university in sudbury last week. trickey is more famously known as one of the 'little rock nine,' a group of black teenagers who were the first to attend a desegrated high school in arkansas in 1957.

minnijean trickey at laurentian university's convocation ceremony, may 31, 2007. courtesy of the sudbury star.

trickey being escorted into central high in little rock, arkansas, by national guardsmen, 1957.

native protest on the red squirrel road, 1988.

sudbury star article on trickey's honourary degree
wikipedia entry on the little rock nine

what's new in town?

a compendium of photos highlighting what's new and exciting in the village of temagami this summer.


the little shop with no name, occupying the former temagami garden centre lot, sells muskoka chairs and assorted lawn ornaments. my only question is, will the chairs now be known as "temagami chairs?"


the angele egwuna exhibit will be housed this summer in twin boxcars next to the train station. from their webpage: "the purpose of this touring exhibition is to present works and historical materials that "set the record straight" in terms of an important and strong individual who lived in our area and, by virtue of her values and intellect, was able to contribute to the making of what has become a northern legend: the legend of grey owl."
the angele project


extensive repairs to the temagami municipal building continue apace. the original building was based on a scaled-down, rejected design from science north. it leaked extensively and garnered derisive comments from residents and visitors alike due to its extreme ugliness. it won't look much different when finished, but one crucial question remains: will the new trim be the same atrocious orange?


temagami's cop shop is moving out of the venerable building on lakeshore drive and into an expanded boathouse across the way. word on the street says this is so the province can sell the old mnr, mto, opp, and jailhouse buildings as a package for some developer to build waterfront condos.

why youth camps should be able to have 12/site

in most ontario provincial parks, groups are limited to 9 people per campsite. this grew out of a practice developed in algonquin park in the 1970s. algonquin youth camps have a tradition of tripping with a mojo, or third person in a canoe. when algonquin began seeing negative impacts from increased use, park authorities implemented the 9 person rule. this allowed the parks to send out 3 canoes with 3 people in each boat. over the years, the 9 person rule was adopted across the province.

now in temagami, ontario parks is considering implementing the 9 person rule.

it is true that limits are needed. groups of 30 are not uncommon in temagami, stereotypically a church group or scout troop from the northeastern u.s.a. these groups are attracted here because it is the nearest high quality wilderness area to southern ontario and the northeastern states where such practices are not prohibited.

temagami's youth camps, however, trip with 2 people in a canoe, with a maximum of 12 on a trip. that's pretty standard practice everywhere, with the exception of algonquin park. if the 9 person rule were implemented in temagami, that would mean that temagami camps could only trip with 8 people through the local parks. provincial camping association rules require at least 2 staff. that would mean a ratio of 2 staff and 6 campers. the camps can't afford to do that. they could trip outside of the parks with larger groups, but those routes are of lower quality. besides, shouldn't the camps, who have maintained the routes for over 100 years, be allowed to continue using those routes?

imagine no group from wabun ever going to wabun lake again?

temagami's canoe routes and parks would quite literally not exist without the youth camps. when camp keewaydin started tripping here in 1902, the nastawgan were in a state of disrepair. the anishnabe were moving off the land, abandoning the trails their ancestors created. for 105 years, youth camps have been maintaining the trails. true, the department of lands and forests, precursor to the mnr, did trail maintenance off and on from the early 20th century until the 1980s. (in fact, just prior to world war one, the nastawgan were probably in their best shape ever, thanks to the hundred or more fire rangers who worked all summer long keeping the trails open for fire access.) furthermore, the parks would not exist without the nastawgan. it was love of the temagami backcountry, connected by the nastawgan, which drew the save maple mountain committee together in the 1970s. this committee was the beginning of temagami's environmental movement, which pushed successfully for park creation and expansion in the 80s and 90s.

so to recap, the youth camps saved and maintained the nastawgan. the nastawgan brought the environmentalists to temagami. the environmentalists lobbied for the parks. therefore, without the youth camps, there would be no parks in temagami. and now ontario parks wants to push the camps out.

ontario parks should stop bullying the youth camps and let them continue to trip with 12 people per trip.

the aurora trout need your help

in my last post, i encouraged you to take action on behalf of temagami. this week, I'd like to point out something concrete you can do, today, to fulfill the earth day pledge. ontario's new endangered species act is being debated at queen's park. our mpp's need to hear that the people of ontario support this important legislation. wildlands league has put together an excellent resource for us to use to learn more about the esa, as well as take action by writing our provincial representatives. you can find their page on the esa here.

so before we go, can you name all of temagami's species at risk?

endangered fauna

peregrine falcon
eastern cougar (pictured)
bald eagle
aurora trout (pictured)

rare fauna
black tern
northern long-eared bat
ruddy duck (pictured)

rare insects
ebony boghaunter (pictured)
black meadowhawk
ski-tailed emerald
kennedy's emerald
clamp-tipped emerald
brush-tipped emerald
least clubtail
elusive clubtail
muskeg darner
ocellated darner

rare flora
milk-vetch
rugulose grapefern
cloud sedge
limestone oak fern (pictured)
hygrohypnum subeugryrium
potamogeton confervoides
smooth woodsia

earth day pledge

happy earth day, temagami!



in honour of this wonderful occasion, i would like to encourage all of us to commit to doing some things for mother earth and temagami.

1. write at least one letter a month to a politician or businessperson about an important environmental issue
2. be a responsible consumer - the reason that temagami is being pillaged is because there are people out there buying the products made from these natural resources
3. travel lightly on the land
4. support an organization doing work you believe in, with time or money. see the sidebar for some willing recipients.
5. expose lies and hypocrisy
6. educate yourself about the issues, then tell a friend
7. give thanks to the four winds, mother earth, father sun, and grandmother moon

new website for nastawgan trails

nastawgan trails has revamped its website. take a look here. you can also sign up for their overnight, end-to-end ottawa valley trail hike this weekend. drop them a line to sign up. don't think i can make it. but what an adventure, hiking from grand campment bay to latchford in one shot!

memories from bear island

i hope you enjoy this blog by Ojib-dorty, a nishnabe who grew up on bear island, as he recounts the old days (before indoor plumbing).

welcome to temagami, n.a.c.

finally temagami is taking its first tentative steps away from a resource-based economy towards something more sustainable. and the way it has happened has taken many people there by surprise. out of the blue, a company called n.a.c. has decided to open a skills training centre in temagami. north america construction is a "general contractor specializing in large municipal and industrial projects." in partnership with human resources and development canada, college boreal and northern college, nac is bringing its training initiative program to temagami. nac has purchased temagami shores resort and will be building student residences, classrooms and workshops. they will keep the motel and restaurant open as well. their first 20 students have been selected and they will begin studies in september.

why temagami? that's what everyone is asking. here's why (it's a poorly guarded secret): temagami is beautiful and it's a wonderful place to live. and furthermore, there are no bars to distract serious students from their studies.

well, this isn't exactly the temagami school of tree-hugging and granola-crunching, but it's a big start. temagami has finally realized that the future lies not in cutting down trees and digging up rocks, but in something else, something that embraces its natural beauty rather than seeks to destroy it.

why temagami should be a national park: reason #3

a national park would protect temagami's most threatened wilderness areas, inlcuding the lady evelyn river headwaters, spirit forest, misabi range and the muskego wildlands. all four areas are perenially threatened by timber harvesting. the muskego wildlands are temagami's last unprotected roadless wilderness and are expected to be devastated by logging over the next 20 years.

ontario's crown land use atlas describes the lady evelyn headwaters here and here.

thanks to ottertooth.com for the excellent map of these areas.

why temagami should be a national park: reason #1
why temagami should be a national park: reason #2

mnr report acknowledges it can't keep a lid on motorized access

the mnr's most recent access control effectiveness report acknowledges that inadequate government funding is hampering its ability to monitor illegal motorized access in the temagami area. the report, covering april 2006 to march 2007, says that 8 access control berms were breached during last fall's hunting season, and suspects the, "high violation rate [is] associated with publicity around limited enforcement presence due to funding shortages."

in total, mnr staffers inspected access control locations 187 times, noting 3 damaged signs, 2 locks damaged, 2 gates left open, and 19 tracks beyond the control. thirteen warnings were given to violators, but no charges were laid.

access control within special management areas is a key component of the temagami land use plan. sma's are an attempt to preserve remote tousism and recreation opportunities in certain areas while allowing timber harvesting to take place. the policy has had mixed success, as this report shows. most illegal road access in temagami is the result of hunters attempting to access new hunting grounds. ironically, the mnr has been scaling back access monitoring during the fall moose hunt, citing limited resources and staff, and safety concerns.

two mnr conservation officers currently patrol temagami. this is down from 3.5 in 1990. monitoring and enforcement is now done on a 'complaint' basis, with co's sitting behind their desks waiting for the tips line to ring. budgetary cutbacks have led opseu, the union representing provincial civil servants, to hold bake sales to fill the enforcement truck's gas tank.

the mnr is required by the minister of the environment to produce the access control effectiveness report annually. this is the result of a request by environmental groups to 'bump up' the 2004-2024 forest management plan to an environmental assessment. the groups, including earthroots and wildlands league, were concerned about the failures of access controls in temagami.

to report access infractions, call 1-877-tips-mnr (1-877-847-7667)

save the mnr

just a question

should the mnr give a key to the person whose traditional hunting territory lies west of the barmac gate on the red squirrel road? currently, of course, alex mathias lives past a gate on the goulard road west of obabika lake. alex has a key to this gate. however, the mnr has recently denied access to someone whose land lies beyond the barmac gate.

one might argue that this person has every right to travel the roads beyond this gate, but only by non-motorized means, just like everyone else. this is the same argument that says native people should have no limits on hunting and fishing, as long as they use bows and arrows. but if the road was built for forestry and forestry only, should anyone but forestry people have the use of those roads?

hard to see how the mnr could give a key to alex, but not to this other guy. maybe if the guy built a cabin out there, they'd have to give him one.

temagami bucks depopulaton trend

the latest census figures from statistics canada show temagami posting its first population gain in a generation. in 2006, 934 people called temagami home, compared to 893 in 2001, a rise of 4.6%. that's not far from the national rate of 5.4% or the provincial rate of 6.6%. the 2001 census, by comparison, showed a drop of over 13% in the previous 5 years.

latchford recorded impressive gains, posting a 21.2% increase, up to 446 from 368. however, the rest of the temiskaming district is still a story of depopulation, losing 3.1% overall.

why was temagami able to buck the depopulation trend? this census was conducted in early may, 2006, 6 months after temagami forest products laid off 40 workers and shut its doors for good. some of temagami's rise no doubt reflects these mill workers, some of whom have since moved away. however, many of these former workers still live in temagami. many others never moved to temagami in the first place. so one cannot point to the mill as having temporarily boosted temagami's population. rather, retirees, some of them former cottagers and some completely new to the area, have driven this growth. many have moved into new houses in the cassels lake subdivision, while others have moved permanently into cottages on lake temagami, along the highway corridor, or in town. i predict that the net lake subdivision (temagami bays estates) will give a similar boost to temagami's population over the next 5 years. all of this retirement growth has been without the active encouragement of the municipality.

people move to temagami for the clean air, the open spaces, the fishing, the hiking. they do not move here for hardscrabble industrial jobs. if we can post these kinds of numbers while all the effort is going toward boosting industry, imagine what the municipality of temagami could do if it actually promoted retirement living here?

statistics canada community index

square island bear dance

from frank g. speck, myths and folk-lore of the timiskaming algonquin and timagami ojibwa, canada geological survey, memoir 71, ottawa, 1915.

the duck dance (ci'ci'pci'mo'o) is another performance of which the timagami are quite fond. it seems to have been influenced by european dances. the orchestra consists, generally, of a violin upon which some old reel or hornpipe or french jig is played. formerly, they used the drum. the dance begins with two files of partners, the men on one side and the women on the other, side by side. all facing the musician, they begin walking backward and forward together. after doing this three or four times, the men swerve to their right and the women to their left, circle around and meet again at the head of the line. then the partners hold hands, forming a bridge, and the couple behind passes under the bridge, takes position in front of the next couple, also holding hands, while the next couple then has to pass under two hand bridges and fall in place before the preceding ones. the whole company resumes its original position in this way by passing under the bridge and forming a new link in its lower end. this circling and bridging is done several times. the next figure changes altogether. from the parallel line formation side by side the first couple faces right about and starts to thread in, first to the right and then left of each of the other couples as they in turn come to the head of the line and follow the first couple toward the rear. the whole movement simply becomes a swerving chain figure in which each couple alternately passes to the right and to the left of the one coming toward it. sometimes a modern waltz turn or two is introduced between these movements. on the whole, this is said to come from the native duck dance in which the object was to represent the movements of a flock of drakes and ducks. at the end of the dance the performers all quack two or three times. this is purely a pleasure dance.

n'daki menan's atanarjuat

once a hunter was so quick of foot that when he shot his arrow at a beaver plunging into the lake from the shore, he would run down, catch the beaver by the tail before the arrow got to it, and hold it until the arrow struck. he was a fast runner indeed.

- related by aleck paul, second chief of timagami band, to frank speck, myths and folk-lore of the timiskaming algonquin and timagami ojibwa, gsc memoir 71, no. 9, anthropological series, 1915.

early 20th century maps

the geological survey of canada published these maps of temagami between 1904 and 1910. if you look closely, you will see portages, pre-dam lake levels, fur trading posts, indian cabins and more. they are .pdf files and too large to post here.

geological map of the northeast arm and vermilion iron ranges, lake temagami, district of nipissing, ontario. barlow, a e; leroy, o e, 1904. geological survey of canada, multicoloured geological map, 852.

geological map of the area between timagami and rabbit lakes, district of nipissing, ontario. young, g a; barlow, a e, 1907. geological survey of canada, multicoloured geological map, 944.

lake timiskaming mining region, ontario and quebec. richard, l n, 1910. geological survey of canada, "a" series map, 18a.

lake timiskaming sheet, no 138, nipissing district, ontario and pontiac county, quebec. barlow, a e, 1908. geological survey of canada, multicoloured geological map, 59.

lake nipissing sheet, nipissing district, ontario, pontiac county, quebec. barlow, a e, 1908. geological survey of canada, multicoloured geological map, 606.

frank panabaker, temagami's painter

a contemporary of the group of seven, frank panabaker (1904-1992) painted several times in temagami. unfortunately, i've been unable to find any images on the web of these paintings. one painting i'd particularly like to see is the red pines of lake temagami at manor hill fine art. following are some panabaker scenes from georgian bay.

can anyone place this quote?

i heard this many a year ago, but have been unable to find a source. if you know who originally said this, would you please leave a comment?

when I say the word temagami I feel like I’ve sung a song.

your dose of horses#!t for the week

you might like to see this redneck, bambi-killer attack on earthroots. you know you're making a difference and having an impact when someone cyber-squats on your domain and attacks you. keep up the good work, earthroots!

while you're at it, here's the real earthroots webpage.

are diamonds this girl's best friend?

on the subject of the economic future of temagami, our options are limited. i do believe that the forestry option is off the table for at least a generation. all of temagami's mills from the 1950's onward have closed, never to reopen, including the temagami forest products birch mill. that mill was a monumental waste of 10 years, where nearly all of the municipal council's economic development efforts went into that. as for tourism, i honestly don't see a major increase in the numbers anytime soon. true, visitor days will continue to increase slowly, with blips from things like flu outbreaks, u.s. government policy or road blockades. i do see hook and bullet tourism decreasing slowly while ecotourism increases slowly to offset those losses. what else is there? cottage and new home development will probably increase in importance to become a medium-size player. government and retail services won't create economic development on their own, they will simply respond to the growth in other areas.

so i see us in a generation of enhanced status quo, with one big wild card.

diamonds.

if any one development has the potential to knock us out of our rut of enhanced status quo, it is diamonds. temagami lies along the same geological formation on which de beers is developing the victor diamond mine west of attawapiskat.

at least two companies, tres-or and temex, are conducting advanced exploration in temagami. tres-or is working two properties, one near bay lake and the other near rib lake, while temex is working near wilson lake.

adroit resources provides a good overview of the diamond potential in temagami here.

would a diamond mine be a good thing for temagami? as an open pit, it would be a blight on the landscape, every bit as bad as the sherman mine. it would increase access pressure for motorized recreation elsewhere in the region. it wouldn't do anything to speed or slow timber extraction. it would raise property values and bring families into the nipissing-temagami-temiskaming shores area. housing development would increase, particularly on the lakes lining highway 11. municipal tax revenues would soar.

for another 25 years, temagami would be a rich little town, until the diamonds have all been dug up. i have no illusions however that the town would be able to use this windfall to secure its long term future.

why temagami should be a national park: reason #2

95% of temagami is public land. without having to purchase or expropriate land from private holders, creating a new park is a comparative breeze. park planners in other jurisdictions would kill for such a golden opportunity.

why temagami should be a national park: reason #1

but will they re-open temagami's mnr office?

osprey news is reporting that ontario pc leader john tory is advocating a decentralization of government ministries from big cities to rural and northern areas. "tory promised to decentralize the provincial government bureaucracy by setting a target for meaningful decentralization, say ten per cent, and move government offices from toronto into the regions. 'we can give a real shot in the arm by adding these jobs to smaller regional economies,' he said."

don't forget that this is the same ontario pc party that centralized government ministries from rural and northern areas to the big cities in the mid-1990s under mike "the axe" harris. the contempt of the pc party toward ontario's people is simply astounding. do they think we forgot that they closed temagami's mnr office in 1995, throwing over 50 jobs out of town and moving them to north bay?

north bay nugget

story of a hunter

there were two men living in a camp with two women and the rest of the band. on a cold day in winter one of the men said he was going to track a moose, and left on his snowshoes. he said he would be back by night. he was gone all day and by night he had not returned, so his wife began to think that possibly he had shot a moose, but, as he had taken his axe with him, he might have cut himself in some way. they waited until morning and then, taking up his trail, they tracked him to where he had shot a moose and farther on to where he had skinned it. the meat was there but the skin was gone. looking around they saw a fire not far off. when they reached the fire they discovered that the hunter had rolled himself up in the green hide to sleep, and during the night it had frozen around him and he had been unable to get out. they thawed out the skin and all went back to camp.

from frank g. speck, myths and folk-lore of the timiskaming algonquin and timagami ojibwa, canada geological survey, memoir 71, ottawa, 1915.

painting by robert bateman, winter sunset - moose.

plans for new non-motorized park

ontario parks has quietly moved ahead with development plans for one of temagami's provincial parks. the plans involve new campsites accessible only by trail or boat, for a park that caters to hikers and not to atv'ers. but (unfortunately) this isn't the park you're thinking of.

wjb greenwood park is a 265 ha recreation class park just south of latchford. it occupies the southern shoreline of bay lake, and currently consists of a few hiking trails winding through second growth birch and spruce forest. prodded by the town of latchford, who developed a business case for the park, ontario parks has begun developing a management plan for a, "unique park... [as] a hub for hikers. all campsites will be accessible only by foot or by boat." sod turning will be in july 2007. work will be done primarily by volunteers with the friends of greenwood park.

why is latchford bucking the trend of regional municipalities, led by elk lake, of opposing ecotourism and advocating for motorized access in parks? without making a big fuss, latchford (pop. 300) council has aimed its economic and tourism development sights squarely on hikers and other light travellers. i think latchford realizes, to their great benefit, that the hunting and fishing model of tourism is mature. every town in northern ontario has a gaggle of hook 'n bullet lodges nearby. latchford has very little of this, and has chosen not to compete but instead to carve out their own niche. they look at what they have that is special, and emphasize that, rather than emphasizing what they have that everyone else has too.

town of latchford - greenwood park
ontario parks - greenwood park
latchford area trails

on another note, please accept my apologies for yesterday's technical difficulties. i accidentally deleted wild temagami, but was able to rebuild most of it using saved files, memory and time. the only posts i've been unable to reconstuct are 'a road in a roadless wilderness' on atv use in the lady evelyn-smoothwater park, and 'who painted temagami's pictographs?' i'll do my best to reconstruct them soon.

help your neighbours

one of the most spectacular places in temagami isn't even in temagami. the kipawa river empties into lake temiskaming on the quebec shore, not too far south of the matabitchuan river. for those of you who haven't seen it, you really should, it's only a 45 minute drive from new liskeard or an hour's paddle from the matabitchuan.

the kipawa runs 16 km from lake kipawa to lake temiskaming. over that short length, it drops an astonishing 90 m. that makes for near continuous class 3 to class 5 whitewater, as well as the 30 m grand chutes, probably the tallest and highest volume waterfall in the area (at least since they dammed the notch on the montreal). the river is nearly pristine, with very little development and huge pines. kipawa is known in the whitewater playboating community as the best run in eastern north america, with a river rally hosted at the outlet every spring (june 23-24 this year). but its really a shame that the kipawa isn't known or celebrated in the wider temagami environmentalist community.

les amis de la riviere kipawa was formed in 1998 to counter threats from hydro development. they have become one of the most successful environmental groups in the area, partnering with outfitters, industry, paddlers and the municipality of laniel on a wide variety of projects, from the river rally to hiking trails. they've also become quite adept at using the courts to oppose hydro quebec's tabaret project, which would divert the river for electricity generation.

until very recently the only way to see the kipawa was the hard way (by boat), and to do that you needed some pretty solid whitewater skills. however, in 2001 les amis completed the 7 km kipawa river trail. from a trailhead on the access road, its an easy 10 minute walk to the grand chutes.

you can support les amis by attending a benefit concert in toronto, sat. march 31, or by becoming a member.

with friends like these

the temagami stewardship council works in partnership with the mnr to preserve, restore and improve the fishery and water quality of lake temagami and cross lake. the key word here is partnership. the tsc and the mnr are legal partners in resource management on temagami and cross. it appears that partnership has soured of late. this culminated yesterday in a letter to the editor of the north bay nugget by tsc chair gaye smith. mr. smith accused the mnr of using a staff position and funding to, "exert control and force the council to adopt its perceived model of 'stewardship.' when the tsc did not fall in line, [mnr] withdrew the support of the program.... this mnr tactic had worked previously with the lake nipissing and the wendaban stewardships."

tsc members are volunteers, who help mnr biologists with research projects on the health of the lake temagami fishery. upset at this bullying from the mnr, mr. smith asked, "who in their right mind would volunteer to do the work the mnr should be doing and not expect to be involved as a partner in the management of the local natural resources and the environment?" he finishes by saying that the tsc is only trying to do its best for the environment and, "we could use some help, not sabotage."

the nugget edited out the sabotage part. you can read the whole letter on the tsc's webpage under tsc news.

now, the mnr is proposing a partnership to manage backcountry portage and campsite maintenance and user information in temagami. nothing is carved in stone, but potential partners were listed in the preliminary plans. they included the municipality, temagami first nation, association of youth camps, tourism operators, friends of temagami, temagami lakes association, and surprise, surprise, their jilted partner, the tsc.

it appears as though the mnr brass really doesn't appreciate dedicated members of the public involving themselves in resource management. they only do it because they're forced to. if this is how the mnr treats its partners, these organizations should have a good tete-a-tete with gaye smith before signing on the dotted line.

where i want to be

limited edition 16"x21" pen and ink drawing by hap wilson, prints available for purchase from the artist at sunrise adventures. 50% of proceeds go to earthroots.

protect all of the wolf lake red pines

area of red pine old growth forest at wolf lake: 1600 ha
next largest contiguous stand of old growth red pine in the world: 473 ha (rabbit lake conservation reserve)
total area of old growth red pine in the world: 10 417 ha

15% of the world's old growth red pine surrounds wolf lake
and is unprotected

minister ramsay, protect this.

save temagami

our land is more valuable than your money. as long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will give life to men and animals. we cannot sell the lives of men and animals. we cannot sell this land.

- adapted from crowfoot, a sign bearing this quote marked the portage from lain to diamond in the 1990's

why temagami should be a national park: reason #1

there are no national parks in northeastern ontario.

national parks in ontario include bruce peninsula, georgian bay islands, point pelee, pukaskwa and st. lawrence islands.

kaw'wawm'inash'ing

bare feet on the ground
through the forest to be with
all my relations

a timeline for industrial firsts

time immemorial - teme-augama anishnabeg
1620-1640 european religion (jesuit missionaries visit the fringes of n'daki menan)
1679 fur trading (french post established at the mouth of the montreal and matabitchuan rivers)
1877 native land claims (chief tonene asks the federal government for a treaty)
1879 agriculture (chief tonene encourages his people to take up farming, fearing the white men would kill all the animals)
1880s prospecting (gold found on shore of lake temagami in 1887)
1890s recreational canoeing (particularly temagami, nonwakaming, and lady evelyn lakes)
1901 protected areas (temagami forest reserve established to protect the forest from settlers)
1901 forest fire fighting (rangers patrol the tfr)
1903 youth camping (camp keewaydin established on devil's island)
1904 rail transportation (temiskaming and northern ontario railway reaches temagami)
1904 steamboating (s.s. marie sails from the town of temagami)
1904 lodge-based tourism and cottaging
1906 mining (silver mine on the eastern flank of maple mountain)
1900s logging (started with the clearing of the railway, continued on an ad hoc basis along the rail corridor)
1914 park advocacy (provincial park proposal from associated boards of trade of ontario)
1973 environmental activism (save maple mountain committee formed to oppose ski resort)

what do you take from this?

sources vintage postcards.com
ottertooth
bruce hodgins and jamie benidickson's book, the temagami experience, university of toronto press, 1989

lake timagami bark canoe sketch

edwin tappan adney (1868-1950) and howard chapelle wrote the bark canoes and skin boats of north america (museums of history and technology, bulletin 230, washington, d.c., smithsonian institution, 1964).

adney and chapelle's book contains a sketch of a "fathom freight canoe from lake timagami, apparently a hybrid based on canvas canoes . . . . overall length 18'6." also shown is an ojibway paddle made of maple, without a ridge.

thanks to jim wheaton for this photograph of an ojibway rice harvest canoe, carved by adney. wheaton is writing a bibliography of adney. i'd love to know if adney carved a similar model of the temagami canoe. apparently he carved over 100 1/5 scale model canoes, which are housed at the mariners' museum, newport news, virginia. maybe i should have a wild temagami correspondent go to check.

technical difficulties

please accept my humblest apologies. my technological innocence has me in hot water, and i've deleted the old wild temagami. pray for me, i'm working with blogger tech support to rectify this problem. in the meantime, please enjoy some familiar photos.