Sunday 28 January 2018

Back to the Canadian Camp -OFFICERS OF THE BOARD 1922

THE CANADIAN CAMP 1922
Officers:
President: G. Lenox Curtis, M.D. New York
Vice Presidents: Henry Van Dyke, D.D. Princeton
                           : Lieut. –Gen. Nelson A. Miles, Washington
                          : Major-Gen. Leonard Wood, Manila, P.I.
Secretary: H.T. Galpin, Ph.G. 57th W 57th St. N.Y.
Assist. Secretary: C.C. Chatfield, 88 Central Park W. , N.Y.
President of Philadelphia Branch:
William E.S. Dyer, Philadelphia
Deceased Officers:  Vice Presidents:
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt
Hon. Grover Cleveland
Rev. Leander T. Chamberlain,D.D.
Joseph Jefferson

Sunday 21 January 2018

NIPIGON LODGE RATES FOR 1937


NIPIGON LODGE (that was)

Fishing Rates 1937

Advertising Brochure circa 1937 (Courtesy of John McKirdy, 2018)

Nipigon Lodge  Orient Bay  Ontario

1937 Rates

Per Day: …$4.00 American Plan ( includes meals)

Per Week:…$24.00  American Plan

Single Meals : …$1.00

OUTFITTING

Provisions: also all equipment including tents, blankets, etc. – but NOT Fishing Tackle

Per Day: …$5.00   Per Week:…$31.50

Guide: … Per Day:…$4.00    Per Week:…$14.50

Board for guide:...Per Day…$1.00   Per Week…$7.00

Canoe: …Per Day…$1.00   Per Week…$7.00

Non-Resident Fishing License:   $5.50 per person OR  $8.00 per family

Motor Launch from Orient Bay to Virgin Falls:  $10.00 each way

For fishing trips on the Nipigon River, it is advisable to have two guides to a canoe;  canoes are large enough to accommodate two anglers and two guides.  In this way cost for each member of the party per week would be $66.50 plus Motor Launch and License.

Full line of Fishing Tackle available at the Lodge.

NIPIGON LODGE, 1937


NIPIGON LODGE – 1937 Brochure

Here…Anglers rendezvous with the Famed Nipigon Trout

Nipigon Lodge – Orient Bay, Ontario

One hundred miles east of Port Arthur (now combined with Fort William as “Thunder Bay”) on the Canadian National Railways ( this portion of line of CNR no longer exists)

NIPIGON LODGE…THE STARTING POINT FOR TRIPS WITH ROD AND PADDLE

 

NIPIGON LODGE , 100 miles East of Port Arthur on the Canadian National Railway, is a commodious log bungalow containing the Main Lodge, which has an attractive stone fireplace , and dining room seating 40 persons.  On either side, facing Orient Bay, are five four-room cabins, comfortably furnished, and equipped with all modern conveniences. Each cabin has a small sitting room where guests may meet to discuss the day’s luck or pass a pleasant hour preparing themselves for the thrills that are be.  There are toilet facilities in each cabin, also running cold water.  Hot water tanks connected to each stove, with which each cabin is equipped, supply heat on chilly nights.

Orient Bay Station,  located at the extreme southern end of a bay of the mighty Lake Nipigon, is reached from the East by the Canadian National Railways, or by automobile to Nipigon Village over 72 miles of partially paved roads with beautiful scenery, and thence by rail 37 miles.  Tourists from the East desiring to break the train journey, have the option of travelling on one of the comfortable boats of the Northern Navigation Division of the Canadian Steamship Line from Sarnia to Port Arthur.

For the trout fisherman the Nipigon District holds a multitude of thrills.  Here is the home of the famous “square-tail”, and the Nipigon River is the locale of more trout-fishing stories than any other stream in the world.  Here it is the anglers battle for the honour of winning the Nipigon Shield, awarded annually to the person who lands the heaviest speckled trout in accordance with the regulations governing this competition.  The main Nipigon River has been fished by anglers from all parts of the world,  and none has left it without enjoying the thrill that comes from landing fish which range anywhere from 4 pounds to the record of 14 and a half pounds.

Small - Mouth Black Bass fishing,  rivalling the splendid speckled trout fishing in the famous Nipigon River,  can be enjoyed in the Black Sturgeon Lake and River section of the Nipigon Forest Reserve.  This is practically virgin territory and offers a wide range of waters with an unlimited supply of bass up to six pounds in weight and which should have a special appeal to fly fishermen interested in this species of game fish.  The Black Sturgeon Lake area is situated immediately south and west of Lake Nipigon and is easily reached by motor launch from Orient Bay Station some 45 miles distant.

For those who are not anglers, or to whom fishing is but an incident of the holiday, there are many attractions.  There are scenic canoe trips in all directions from Nipigon Lodge.  There are numerous motor-boat trips which the visitor can make, so that he may cover a different territory each day during his stay, spending the night , if he so desires, under canvas on the shores of tumbling river or placid lake.  These are days when the ennui of city life is forgotten, when appetites reach enormous proportions and when sleep is welcome and restful.  Indian guides handle canoes and equipment, set up camps, and prepare meals, leaving nothing for the visitor to do but enjoy himself as he desires.

Close to Nipigon Lodge, 100 yards from Orient Bay Station, is located the headquarters of Wm. McKirdy and Sons General Storekeepers and Sportsmen’s Outfitters, where “Jack” McKirdy may be found prepared to supply at reasonable rates complete camping equipment, guides, supplies, licenses and tackle, for trips of either long or short duration.  He will assist in arranging ypur fishing or hunting trips and enable you to obtain the best possible results.

(In 1937) Any Canadian National Railways Agent will make you reservation, or you may write to:

The MANAGER, Nipigon Lodge, Orient Bay, Ontario 

The Canadian Camp Dinner Head Table, 1922

The Canadian Camp, 1922 Dinner – Head Table
The Canadian Camp Dinner , March 3, 1922 N.Y.C.
1.  Mr. John Emery McLean, Chairman Dinner Committee
2.  Mr. Charles M. Urban, Urban Motion Pictures Inc.
3.  Mr.  John G. McKirdy, Canadian Guide (that’s our Nipigon McKirdy!)
4.  Dr. Robert T. Morris, Chairman Advisory Board
5.  Dr. J. DeHart Bruen, Belvedere N.J.
6.  Mr. Neil McDougall, Canadian National Railways, Port Arthur ( Ontario… also Lake Nipigon area)
7.  Mr. Horace D. Ashton, Explorers Club, New York
8.  Mr. Wm. E.S. Dyer, President Philadelphia Branch
9.  Mr. C. Price-Green, Canadian National Railways , Toronto
10.                   Rev. Allen MacRossie, Toastmaster
11.                   Dr. G. Lenox Curtis, President
12.                   Hon. E. M. MacDonald, R.C.M.P. Pictou, N.S.
13.                   Lieut.-Gen. Nelson A. Miles, U.S.A. Washington
14.                   Mr. Melville E. Stone, Associated Press
15.                   Hon. Mr. Justice F.R. Latchford, Toronto
16.                   Mr. Herbert L. Bridgeman, Brooklyn Standard Union
17.                   Major A. P. Simmonds, Lecturer and Explorer, New York
18.                   Thomas Travis, PhD, Canadian Pacific Railway
19.                   Mr. Sam Harris, Pres. Ontario S.G. and F. Prot. Association
20.                   Hon. Stephen T. Mather, Director National Park Service, Washington
21.                   Dr. H.T. Galpin, Secretary

Sunday 14 January 2018

OUTDOORS the poem by Frank Oastler for the Canadian Camp 1922


From the Canadian Camp Menu , 1922

Poem by: Frank H. Oastler M.D.

Dedicated to the Canadian Camp

“Outdoors”

Oh, give me a bit of the great outdoors

Is all that I ask of you,

Where I may do whatever I like

And like whatever I do.

Where the sky is the boundary up above

And the earth is the measure below,

And the trail starts on where the sun comes up

And ends where the sun sinks low.

Where the wind blows sweet as a baby’s breath,

And the sun shines bright as its eyes,

And the showers come and the showers go

As the tears when the little one cries.

And the brook runs merrily through the glade,

Singing its gladdening song,

And the pine trees murmur their soothing sighs,

Still bearing that song along.

Yes, carry me back to the lake’s white shores,

With its deer and its lily pad,

Where the loon calls out ‘mid the moonbeams bright

Through the mist on the waters sad.

Let me hear once more the elk’s far cry

As it sweeps through the forest deep,

Where silence hangs as over the dead

At rest in eternal sleep.

I’ll pitch my tent by some lonesome pine,

By the rippling water’s edge,

With the great outdoors as my garden,

And the willows ‘round as my hedge.

And, surrounded by pretty flowers

That perfume the gentle breeze,

I’ll idle away the whole long day

In the shade of my old pine trees.

And I’ll watch on yonder mountain

The colors change with the day,

And I’ll follow each shadow a-creeping

So silently over the way.

And then give thanks to the God above

And in gratitude I’ll pause,

And I’ll love, not hate, each care that comes

In that great big home – Outdoors.

The Canadian Camp Menu cover names, 1922


The Canadian Camp Builders, 1922 Menu cover

Albert Operti;  Rev. Leander T. Chamberlain D.D. ;  Major – General A. W. Greely;  J. E. Dalrymple;  Dr. H. T. Galpin;  Lieut-Gen Nelson A. Miles;  Ernest Thompson Seton;   Brig-Gen David L. Brainard;  Luther Burbank D. Sc.;  Hon. Theodore Roosevelt;   Dr. G. Lenox Curtis Pres.;  Wm. E. S. Dyer;  Hon.  Grover Cleveland;  Rear-Adm’l Robley D. Evans; 

Hon. Dr. Henry Van Dyke D.D.;  Gov-Gen Leonard Wood;  Joseph Jefferson;  Rear-Adm’l Robert E. Peary;  Rear-Adm’l Wm. S. Sims;  Rev. J.C. Allen D.D.;  George M. Bosworth;  Lord Kitchener;  Hon. Charles N. Herried;  John Burroughs;  Capt. Emerson Hough;  Charles Hallock;  Hon. Justice F.R. Latchford;  Rev. J. DeHart Bruen;  Robert Bell;

Hon. Charles S. Osborn;  Capt J. E. Bernier;  Buffalo Charles J. Jones;  Dr. George Bird Grinnell;  Dr. F.A. Lucas;  Hon. Justice J. W. Longley;  Herbert L. Bridgeman;  L. Fred Brown;  Hon. George H. Graham;  James A. Cruikshank;  Hon. Walter F. Foster;  Edward James Cattell;  C.E.E. Ussher;  Dr. John D. Quackenbos;  L. D. Armstrong;

John Emery McLean;  John Murray Gibbon;  Kenneth Lockwood;  W. Harry Allen;  C. Price Green;  Dr. T. Kennard Thomson;  Hon. Stephen T. Mather;  W. A. Whiting; Henry W. Van Waggenen;  Dr. Charles H. Riggs;  James K. Hackett.

The Canadian Camp Menu cover 1922

I will work on getting the names of these fellows up shortly.
 

The Canadian Camp 1922

TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF THE CANADIAN CAMP
Motel Astor
March third, Nineteen Hundred Twenty-two
New York
Featuring our Camp Builders on the cover of the program.
 
A COMMEMORATIVE WORD OF WELCOME
Twenty years ago tonight, in Madison Square Gardens, New York, the Canadian Camp Fire Club – gave its initial dinner.  Almost 350 men and women, lovers of the Canadian wilds, were present, and enthusiastically indorsed the proposal that the membership be increased to 1000, which number was attained the following year.  The roll has now reached about 4000, and includes most of the  best known sportsmen, naturalists, explorers and scientists in the United States and Canada and a few across the seas.
At that first banquet we sat in our camp togs, each looking the part of a regular huntsman, feasting on our “kills”, as it were, in the very heart of the Canadian bush, for we were surrounded by evergreen and birch trees.  Among the decorations and accessories were an artificial lake and a number of wild animals and waterfowl, while two-score Ojibway Indians, in bark canoes, entertained us with aquatic sports and a scene from Longfellow’s “Hiawatha”.
It was a most unusual function and a novel innovation in the social life of New York.  That it was also a most enjoyable success is attested by the progress, popularity, achievements, and rapid growth of our organization during the last two decades.  Attending to-night’s dinner are quite a number of those who sat around our camp-fire on that historic occasion, and many who are able to boast that they have never missed a single dinner of the Camp, although in some cases attendance has involved many hundreds of miles of travel.
Since our last gathering (February, 1921) the Advisory Board has lost three members by death – Admiral Brattenburg, John Burroughs, and Louis A. Jette.  Among other members of note who have recently died was Sir Ernest H. Shackleton.  These names are sufficient in themselves to suggest the importance of our work, its educational value to our urban citizenship, its contribution to science and exploration, and the distinguished character of the Camp’s constituency. All four were loyal supporters of the organization and their advice and counsel will be seriously missed.
Listed in the following pages will be found the names of a number of invited guests – persons of real eminence in the fields of literature, statesmanship, transportation, and the learned professions – to whom a cordial invitation is also extended to become active members of the Camp.  This applies with equal urgency to those ladies and gentlemen who are present to partake of the hospitality of individual members;  for both sexes are equally eligible, and applications from the younger generation are especially desired. No initiation fee is charged, and no dues are collected, although testamentary bequests and voluntary donations to the trust fund for development and maintenance of the organization, and the procurement of the very best slides and motion pictures of suitable type and real educational value, are invited to cope with the perpetual need.
The importance of such an institution as the Canadian Camp in fostering a rational love for “God’s great outdoors” and inculcating the ideals of generosity, humaneness, square dealing, and true brotherhood that characterize sportsmanship of the genuine sort was early and vividly recognized by the officers and members whose portraits appear on the front cover page of this Menu. They realized what it would men to future generations of city dwellers to bring the woods and streams, the denizens of the forest, the flora of the broad expanse of Nature, the sports and healthful pastimes of the outer world, to their very back doors – through the camera and the utterances of real lovers of life in its natural setting assembled at regular intervals by such an organization as this.
The Camp has demonstrated that true sportsmanship has no elements of cruelty; its insistence upon legislative measures for the protection of wild game has led to the creation of bird sanctuaries in various parts of the country and in a few states prohibition of the use of torturing mechanical devices by brutal trappers.  It urges rational and humane methods for the extermination of pests and predatory animals, and scientific regulations of hunting and the national fisheries.
The aesthetic side of our American life is not neglected by the Canadian Camp.  The growing number of patriots who are interesting themselves in the preservation of our great National Parks in all their wild beauty have our enthusiastic co-operation.  We oppose the selfishness that would despoil the venerable redwoods and colossal sequoias of the Pacific Coast not less than the sordid ambition to harness for commercial purposes the inspiring waterfalls that help to make the people’s playgrounds a paradise.
An intellectual topic not directly related to the “sporting” interests of the Camp is always a valuable feature of our assemblies.  Last year it was “Anglo-Saxonism”, a subject that is of even more vital significance in 1922 as a result of recent happenings in Washington.  For this reason it will be discussed to-night by our guest of honor and toastmaster – a distinguished Canadian and an eminent American citizen. These gentlemen are in full accord with the “platform” of the Canadian Camp – the welding of a closer bond of union between the English-speaking races in general and the United States and Great Britain in particular, in the interest of world progress and civilization.
Our membership, therefore, is made up of Nature-lovers of practical bent and of sympathetic relationship not only with all races but with every living species;  of men and women whose instincts and natural impulses accord with the beautiful poem that our valued co-worker, Dr. Oastler, has contributed to this menu – “Outdoors”.
Without the hearty co-operation and energetic support of the officers and committee members, past and present, that he has received without stint during the last twenty years, the efforts of the Camp’s Founder and President would have been wholly futile;  and he takes this opportunity to tender his sincerest thanks and make public acknowledgement of his indebtedness to them for their splendid assistance.
A word of appreciation is also due to the Winchester Arms Company, whose large and magnificent “Sportsmen’s Headquarters” on Fifth Avenue were so generously placed at our disposal of the Dinner Committee for the preliminary work in connection with this function.
It was at the suggestion of the Committee and the Advisory Board that this brief review of the history and purpose of the Canadian Camp is printed as part of the Menu’s contents instead of being delivered in the usual form as an introductory address from the speaker’s table – the thought being that many of our members might wish to preserve it among the mementoes of deeper significance and wider individual interest.  G. Lenox Curtis
(So this Menu has come down through the years as a memento from  attendee John G. McKirdy, Canadian Guide – to his son John and thus to the Nipigon Historical Museum Archives in January 2018.)
 

Saturday 13 January 2018

VIRGIN FALLS HYDRO EMPLOYEES FAREWELL DINNER

From John McKirdy January 10, 2018
 
The dinner menu from the Farewell Dinner for the Virgin Falls Hydro Employees August 28, 1926.
 
 
Virgin Falls Hydro Employees
Farewell Dinner
August 28th , 1926
MENU
Duncan’s Cocktails
Virgin Celery and Olives
Learoyds in the Soup
Damned Trout
Roast McKirdy’s Chicken
MacDougall Sauce
Beans a la Mitchell
Speckled Spuds
Dixon’s Salad
I’ll Scream --- with Wayfarers
Cheese it Now
Coffee and Mumm
God Save the Poor Fish