Day 122, Thursday Aug. 2, 2018, Exploring Cache Bay and Verner, Ont. We have a phone!

The town of Cache Bay is very small , but sits on the Bay of its name, which is a part of the Large Lake Nipissing.  The Lake is 873 Km squared in size. It is the largest lake in Ontario within the boundaries. This small city once was a bustling lumbering town and here is the background. It is not much different from many of the small towns around the lake. History "bugs" might enjoy this "look back" lesson tonight.

All around there is the summer flower...Fireweed.

Also are the great rocks from the Canadian Shield left by the glaciers. To build a home, houses have to be built around them.

  “Cache Bay has historically served as a logging and lumber town. Barnette and Mackie were the first logging operators in Cache Bay in the 1830's. Cockburn Lumber Company was eventually built in 1896 on the west side of the area now known as Cache Bay Trailer Park. This mill processed lumber from logging operations located along the Veuve River (LeBelle, 1998).
John Rudolphus Booth, a lumber baron, also operated in the area. Many of Booths lumberjacks cut centuries old trees and virgin pine forests that surrounded Lake Nipissing and the Sturgeon River. The logs were towed by steamboat to Callander, shipped by train to Mattawa and then sent down the Ottawa River to his saw mill near Ottawa. Mr. Booth bought up large tracts of land surrounding Cache Bay. Much of this land was sold to employees of the mill, and now makes up much of the private land that surrounds the conservation reserve today (LeBelle, 1998).
Twenty acres of shoreline was also sold to Davidson and Hay, a firm that set up a saw mill. This mill was taken over by Geo. Gordon Company, a company formed by Robert Booth and Robert Gordon, in July of 1901 after financial hardships incurred by a fire. This new company eventually bought up all of the property south of the railway along with Barnette and Mackie's original mill now owned by Nipissing Lumber Company. Gordon's lumber yards were considered one of the best locations for drying pine lumber in the province because of the prevailing southwesterly winds that cross the bay. The town grew and by 1905 there were 178 buildings located in and around Cache Bay (LeBelle, 1998).
Following the Great Depression, the Geo. Gordon Lumber Company ran their saw mill and planer operation night and day to meet the existing demand. Many of the wood shavings that were normally burned in the operation had to be disposed of in Cache Bay, because of the limited capacity of the boiler room. These shavings rotted and helped produce some of the nutrient rich areas that are vegetated today (LeBelle, 1998). Further nutrient inputs were achieved by agricultural use and the emptying of outhouse boxes into the Cache Bay. Fortunately the emptying of human waste directly into the Bay was abandoned for environmental and health reasons.”

And from the author of its history comes these remarks.
“The town of Cache Bay was named Cache from the Indian word Hidden. The railroad was built through Cache Bay in 1883. The first settlers here were in 1884, when the firm of Barnet & Mackie, lumbermen under the mining act, and built a depot for their bush business and in the summer of 1885 built a house office storehouse, barns and other buildings; also a lumber shanty witch stood where the old planning mill rout stands. The old office is still standing on the hill. The house a short distance east of same. The only way to get in was by railroad or by water. The first family to occupy the depot was the John Jessup family. He was an old employee of the Barnet & Mackie Co. from their depot on the Bonneckere River.”

This is a very French speaking area and probably about 50% of the people speak French. Many signs are posted in both languages, French and English . We are not very far from the border of Quebec.

There you have it!  We did find some birds today and a few that we had not seen in many days. The side roads near both Cache Bay and Verner. The  BLUE VIREOS, YELLOW WARBLERS AND DUSKY FLYCATCHERS  were abundant as the young have now fledged and are on their own pretty much.  There were also ROSE BREASTED and  BLACK HEADED GROSBEAKS, and a  few CEDAR WAXWINGS  among others.  Our count was low, but many were families of birds five or six at a time.

Statuary in a Park along Q 17. Not real taxidermy but statues.

A second one in the same park near Lake Elliott.

More Canadian Shield Rocks.

 St John the Baptiste R.C church in Verner

We ended the day by buying a phone that would work calling the USA from Canada and traveled to North Bay, down the road about 22 miles to do that.  Our USA phone was not compatible with the Canadian system.

The smoke before sunset.  Scheduled toreturn tomorrow.

At sunset it shows the thickness much more clearly Today was quite clear.

 This evening I had a good exchange with both my neighbor ,Pat and his wife and found that many Canadians (their input) are really so put out by our President , that many have cancelled any trips  going to the USA. They really consider him a terrible example of what American stands for. "We have always been USA's friends and he is making it very hard to continue that friendship".

Tomorrow we will head east again this time for the town of  Renfrew. It is about a 4 hour drive with stops.