Ambitious mission to explore and preserve the land in Chapleau region from Lake Huron to James Bay undertaken in early 20th century by Canadian Camp Club

James Bay Lake Huron Canoe Routes Ian Macdonald 2016

Note: Ian Macdonald and Michael McMullen take a look at the ambitious mission of the Canadian Camp Club, a New York City-based group of wealthy outdoorsmen at turn of 20th Century. An interesting read. Thanks Ian and Michael.

Ian Macdonald and Michael McMullen

At the turn of the 20th Century, there were attempts by private sector groups to preserve the environment in various parts of the United States and Canada. One of the more interesting, but less known chapters of the history of the Chapleau region, involves a New York City-based group of wealthy outdoorsmen called the Canadian Camp Club, which was created in 1905. Indeed, President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States was a member.

The ambitious mission of this club included the acquisition of large tracts of land along the 450-mile network of rivers and lakes stretching from Lake Huron to James Bay. The plan was that this land, including native settlements, would be preserved in a natural state with a series of modest camp facilities built along the route for the private use of club members. This well intended task ultimately proved far beyond the practical means of the group to achieve. The only facility that was actually ever built was a large camp on what is now called Basswood Lake near Thessalon, Ontario adjacent to the Mississagi River.

Canadian Camp Club at Basswood Lake ON eary 1930s

The Canadian Camp Club through promoting this part of Northern Ontario amongst their membership inadvertently led to creation of an invaluable photographic record of the region in 1905 including traditional native culture that was rapidly disappearing. A number of canoe trips were well documented and published in detail by major outdoors magazines of the day, including Shields Magazine and Forest and Stream. Additional records were provided by private individuals like Dr. Howard Kelly of Baltimore, Maryland, who along with his family, made trips in 1905 and 1906 travelling from the CPR siding at Winnebago near present day Sultan, south up the Wakami River, portaging over the height of land and down the Wenebegon and Mississagi Rivers to Blind River on Lake Huron. Dr. Kelly kept a meticulous record of these trips describing and photographing Ojibwe encampments and artifacts showing many different aspects of traditional Ojibwe culture.

Kelly Canoe trip party at Winnebago siding 1905 Dr Howard Kelly

Dr. J. Seymour Emans had also travelled from the same departure point at Winnebago two months earlier than the Kelly group in 1905 and his journey was documented in detail in Shields Magazine. Dr. Emans took a slightly different route than Dr. Kelly, photographing the remains of the old Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) post at Green Lake, native life and early logging activity along the way.  The trip from Winnebago to Thessalon on Lake Huron began on August 8, 1905 and took fifteen days.

HBC Post at Green Lake ON 1905. Dr J Seymour Emans in Shield Magazine

Robert T. Morris in 1905 embarked on a canoe journey also originating at Winnebago, but travelled north down the Wakami River. The first leg of the trip was to the HBC post at Flying Post on Groundhog Lake and then on the Groundhog, Mattagami and Moose Rivers to Moose Factory on James Bay. The entire canoe journey from Winnebago to Moose Factory and return took two and a half months. The journey was documented in detail in the June 9, 1906 and June 16, 1906 issues of Forest and Stream. These two descriptive and insightful articles describing the varying landscape of the Hudson Bay watershed, native life, early surveying activity and the way of life at the HBC posts at Flying Post and Moose Factory.

The most familiar examples of private sector engagement with conservation and preservation today would be groups like Ducks Unlimited. In 1937, Publisher Joseph Knapp, Robert Winthrop, and a small group of conservation philanthropists decided to focus on the decreasing waterfowl populations and the habitat necessary to sustain them in Canada, and formed Ducks Unlimited Inc. As of January 1, 2018, the organization indicated that its habitat conservation programs have conserved 14.1 million acres in North America of which 6.4 million acres are in Canada, and influenced another 152.4 million acres in Canada through agreements.

The debate associated with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has served to raise the level of public awareness of the value of traditional Indigenous culture and their involvement with the land. The University of Manitoba, for instance, which presently houses the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at their Fort Garry campus in Winnipeg, recently developed a set of principles and guidelines derived from traditional native culture that shape policy decisions for that institution’s future strategic planning and development of University lands. Significant amongst these recommendations is a commitment to the natural environment and sustainability including conservation, preservation and restoration of local species and ecosystems wherever possible. ]

Additional guidelines require striking a balance between public access to natural areas and maintaining their qualities as natural habitat. The guidelines also make reference to an indigenous way of being that looks seven generations forward and seven generations back while being rooted in our present generation. This approach encourages planning to become more holistic in nature encouraging longer term planning recognizing that planning objectives may not be realized in our lifetimes, but will have effects on future generations.

The Photograph taken by Dr. Howard Kelly in this article is the property of the Kelly family. Dr. Kelly’s original journal has been donated to, and is located , the Chesney Medical Archives of John Hopkins University.