Lynx Images, Brutal Experiences, Great Lakes, Georgian Bay, Ghosts of the Bay, Alone in the Night, Enchanted Summers, North Channel & St. Mary's River, Muskoka, Ontario, Lighthouses, Ghost Towns, Shipwrecks, Toronto, Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Now a summer paradise for many, Georgian Bay has a long history, not all of it so idyllic. The pre-cambrian rocks record the region’s turbulent birth. The human history of the Bay includes numerous waves of settlement: first by various First Nations, then missionaries; fur traders; War of 1812 military personnel; fishermen; loggers; ship’s crewmen; and homesteaders. Each group had its particular struggles -- whether warring with another, or enduring cruel working conditions -- but there was one they all shared: a dependence on waters which were often unpredictable and unkind.
The war between the Iroquois and the Huron was so brutal that to avoid complete genocide the Hurons
fled from Georgian Bay. Some joined other tribal groups, some moved to Quebec and created the
settlement of Lorretteville (adjacent picture). Splinter groups settled in Kansas and Oklahoma after
years of wandering.
-Baldwin Room, Metro Toronto Reference Library |
Robert Bruce, the Hermit of the Bruce Caves. While working in a local mine, the shaft collapsed and
trapped Bruce. Outraged when he overheard the foreman decide to leave him for dead, his reaction once
freed was to retreat from society. The caves he lived in during the early 1900s bear his name.
-Metro Toronto Reference Library |
One of the Great Lakes’ biggest tragedies was the loss of the steamer Asia in the hurricane of September
14, 1882. It was late fall and the ship was overloaded with passengers, livestock and supplies. Only
two of the over 120 passengers survived: the teenagers Dunkan Tinkiss and Christy Anne Morrison. The
couple drifted for days in a lifeboat full of corpses. In this photograph, Morrison poses as the Asia’s
only female survivor.
-Archives of Ontario |
The Asia story...For the story of the lightkeeper accused of robbing the
Asia’s dead from the bookBack to main ...How to order
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