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| hidden mouth of the river |
May 11 – The river
& town of Blind River provide an interesting juxtaposition of its own
history and its 21st century commemorations of it.
The First
Peoples who lived here called this river Penewobecong, which means "smooth
rock” or “sloping". When French
explorers discovered it, they called it Blind River because the mouth was not
visible along their canoe route. It became part of a renowned voyageur fur
trading route, and a fur trading post was established by the North West Company
in 1789, but the fur trade slowed about 1820.
A number of trappers settled along the rivers flowing into Lake Huron,
and the settlement that grew at the mouth of this river also became known as
Blind River.
The abundant
timber along the Mississagi & Blind River watersheds spurred the
development of logging, and the protected estuary of the east arm of the Blind
River as well as the deep water offshore offered a good location for a sawmill. The first sawmill was built in 1853 beside
the mouth of the Blind River,
where later the Old Mill Motel was built.
After the discovery of copper a few miles away
at Bruce Mines, this sawmill provided timber and planks for the copper mine. By
1906 when Blind River had been incorporated as a town, a second larger sawmill
had been erected on the west arm of the river, where today the Blind River
Marine Park is located.
In 1929 a
state-of-the-art pine sawmill was built with an annual capacity of 120,000,000
board feet (280,000 m³) of lumber. It
was the largest white pine sawmill east of the Rocky Mountains. The Great Mississagi Fire of 1948 led to a
depletion of timber, difficult economic conditions and the eventual closing of
the mill in 1969. Blind River’s lumber
history is commemorated today in the Timber Village Museum.
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| uranium trioxide |
In 1955
uranium was discovered near Blind River, and mining for uranium began in the
area. In 1983 a uranium refinery was
built just west of Blind River, which processes uranium concentrates from all
over the world into uranium trioxide.
Boom Camp
Trails
Boom Camp Historic
Interpretive Park spans the Lake Huron coastal area from the Township of Huron
Shores to Shedden. The park is made up
of 3 main loops of multi-season trails passing through three distinct ecological
zones: coastal headlands, woodlands, & river delta wetlands. It includes visitor pavilions at the east and
west ends, and each loop contains interpretive signs located at key rest points
in each loop with messages in French, English and Ojibwa. The trails are
groomed for cross-country skiing in the winter and are available for hiking and
biking in the spring, summer and fall.
Nowhere on
the park’s website, though, is the term “boom camp” explained. I thought that it might refer to the nature
of most of the industries that come & go in this region, in a
boom-&-bust pattern. But it is much
more specific to the logging industry. Even
though I can’t find any other place where this term is used, I have inferred
that it is a work camp for men working on log booms. I live very near a lakeside city park named
Log Boom Park, but did not realize its significance here until I learned about
this one far away.
Logging
& the Booms
Log driving
is a means of moving logs from a forest to a sawmill downstream using the
current of a river. In the smaller,
wilder stretches of a river, masses of individual logs were driven down the
river like huge herds of cattle. In the
broader, slower stretches of a river, the logs might be bound together into
timber rafts.
In a
location with snowy winters, the yearly process typically began in the fall
when a small team of men hauled tools upstream into the chosen forest area,
chopped out a clearing, and constructed crude buildings for a logging camp. In the winter, a larger crew moved into the
camp & felled trees, cutting the trunks into 16-foot lengths, and hauling
the logs with oxen or horses over iced trails to the riverbank. There the logs
were decked onto "rollways." In the spring when snow thawed and water
levels rose, the logs were rolled into the river, and the drive commenced.
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| log drivers |
“To ensure that logs drifted freely along the river, men called "log drivers" or "river pigs" were needed to guide the logs. They watched the spots where logs were likely to jam, and when a jam started, tried to get to it quickly and dislodge the key logs before many logs stacked up. If they didn't, the river would keep piling on more logs, forming a partial dam which could raise the water level. Millions of board feet of lumber could back up for miles upriver, requiring weeks to break up, with some lumber possibly lost if it was shoved far enough into the shallows. So when the jam crew saw a jam start, they rushed to it and tried to break it up, using peaveys and possibly dynamite. This job required some understanding of physics, strong muscles, and extreme agility. The jam crew was an exceedingly dangerous occupation, with the drivers standing on the moving logs and running from one to another. Many drivers lost their lives by falling and being crushed by the logs.”[1]
A log boom
is a barrier placed in a river, designed to collect and or contain floating
logs timbered from nearby forests. As
the logs proceeded downstream, they encountered these booms in a manner that
allowed log drivers to control their progress, eventually guiding them to the
river mouth or sawmills. With several
firms driving on the same stream, it was necessary to direct the logs to their
owner's respective booms, with each log identified by its own timber mark, like
a cattle brand.
A log boom was also a
place where logs were collected, as at the mouth of a river, and anchored while
logs awaited their turn to go through the mill. During the spring melt, especially, large
blocks of ice commonly threatened booms, pushing free-flowing logs over the
structures. Significantly large chunks of ice could even gain enough power to
break through the boom altogether, freeing the logs and endangering
unsuspecting people and wildlife located downstream. Well-tended booms prevented these valuable
assets from escaping into open waters.
My virtual
bike trip has brought me to a place where actual travelers along the Trans-Canada
Highway were murdered at a roadside rest stop.
On June 28, 1991, near the town of Blind River, a man posing as a police
officer gained entry into the motor home of 3 travelers and shot them. Two of
the people died of their wounds. No one has ever been
charged in the murders, although the main suspect is a former Toronto police
officer convicted of other murders and currently serving two life sentences. This is a horrific reminder of the lesser but
real dangers that cyclists and campers face on the road.
info: Wikipedia.com
motel info
& image: http://www.oldmillmotel.ca/
logging
image: http://www.histoireforestiereoutaouais.ca/en/c4/#6
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