August 9, 2002 Tom Thomson in our Neck of the Woods

Last week I wrote about Tom Thomson’s popularity today, 85 years after his death and 125 years (last Monday) after his birth. I mentioned the activity in South River at their Arts Festival celebrating his achievements. Today I want to look at his presence in the South River area, and east through Kawawaymog (Round) Lake and into and across the north side of the park.

The main street of South River, with the New Queen’s Hotel where Tom Thomson often stayed when in town (on immediate left front). South River Machar Library.

Thomson’s chronology (by Joan Murray) in the new Tom Thomson book that serves as the catalogue for his current major exhibition in Ottawa (and Toronto next summer) pin points some critical dates in this area. The chronology states that Thomson was on Manitou and North Tea Lakes in the north west corner of Algonquin Park in 1913 for the first time, where he met Tom Wattie the Park Ranger. Thomson established a deep relationship with Wattie and his family in South River and visited them several times later in South River, at their camp on an island in Kawawaymog, and at Wattie’s headquarters just inside the park boundary on North Tea Lake. Ottelyn Addison in her book on Thomson notes that "the two men got along well together" and that "no one could beat Thomson’ s partridge stew and dumplings." There are also references to Thomson picking up boards for his sketches at the Standard Chemical Company sawmill in South River.

In August 1914 Thomson came up the French River, across Lake Nipissing and along the South River to Algonquin Park through South River. In 1915 he bought a new chestnut canoe, silk tent, etc. and was again in the area, ending up in South River around Labour Day. While in South River he stayed at the New Queen’s Hotel where he wrote a couple of often duplicated letters to his patron Dr. MacCallum. In 1916 he took a Fire Ranger job at Achray Station on the east side of the park and traveled to Couchon and Aura Lee Lakes, all close to the Canadian Northern Railway. He did not do much sketching that summer, but did do some at Couchon and Aura Lee. As mentioned last week, several of his best known paintings were done in the Achray area, including his best known "Jack Pine."

Thomson traveled a lot as a part of his Fire Ranger job, and followed J.R. Booth’s lumbermen on the Petawawa River, where he did some painting that included log dams, an alligator, and sketches of pointer boats leading to my favorite Thomson painting "The Pointers," a large painting that he did in the winter in his studio in Toronto. Last week I mentioned the restoration of the cabin he stayed in at Achray in 1916 that is now a mini-museum. The Friends of Algonquin Park are developing a short trail at Achray, where Thomson painted his painting the "Jack Pine" and will feature an interpretive panel describing his activity in the area. In 1917, the year he died, Thomson did not access the north side of the park at all.

With my interest in the Canadian Northern Railway (CnoR) —which later became the CNR—I was surprised that none of the trestles, stations and beautiful sites along the rail line were not included in his paintings. John Wadland, in his notes to his chapter "Tom Thomson Places" in the current book, made the same point. Because of Thomson’s mobility I suspect he used the CNoR and the Grand Trunk through the south side of the park on occasion. Wadland makes another interesting point relative to Thomson’s travels when he says Thomson "would certainly have known the Dufonds from his extensive travels through the northwestern section of the park where he loved to sketch and fish."

Moving back to South River, I recently had a conversation with Rhoda Wattie, wife of Gord Wattie who was one of Park Ranger Tom Wattie’s family of three sons and three daughters. Gord, who was born in 1905 (and died last year at age 95) remembered Thomson visiting with the family on several occasions. Apparently Thomson sorted through some of his sketches and wanted some burned, which Tom Wattie did. I also spoke with Ken Cooper, whose mother Mrs. Albert "Tootsie" Cooper was one of Tom Wattie’s daughters. She was a teenager when Thomson was around and was given three of his paintings for helping him with some work. Ken told me that Gord Wattie was something of a collector, and shortly before he died gave some Tom Thomson artifacts that he had held all these years to the Algonquin Park archives. These artifacts included a tent, a sleeping bag, a fold-up cot, a cast iron cooking pot, and some rain gear. The sleeping bag had the name Thomson written on it. Algonquin Park told me recently that the notes provided in connection with the artifacts indicated that Thomson was planning a trip to Temagami with Gord Wattie in 1917 and had shipped the gear to him in anticipation of that rendezvous.

Ken’s mother ended up with three Thomson sketches which she later sold, and two are included in the show in Ottawa and in the new book, with notes indicating that she was the original owner. One of these paintings, "The Tent," was painted on the island on Kawawamog Lake, and may be the tent recently given to Algonquin Park. "Round Lake, Mud Bay," a painting showing a flight of geese, another one of Mrs. Cooper’s original paintings, is also included in the exhibition and book.

As mentioned last week, Tom’s route from South River to Kawawaymog is being retraced starting today in a South River Arts Festival workshop run by Jill Boschulte. I spoke to Greg Waters, current chairman of the Forgotten Trails at the Northern Edge retreat centre where the workshop will be centered, and he tells me that Forgotten Trails, with the help of a Canada Trust "Friends of the Environment" grant and many volunteers are opening the canoe and portage route where Thomson traveled from the South River to Kawawaymog through Twenty Seven, Denis, and Maryjane Lakes. It will be renamed and signed as the Tom Thomson Canoe and Portage Route. Passing through South River on my way home I noticed a street named Tom Thomson Lane.

In a recent discussion with South River railwayman Dan Ruttan—who will turn ninety one this month—he told me about his family’s brief connection with Tom Thomson when his dad Charlie Ruttan was Sectionman at Canoe Lake when Tom Thomson first arrived there in 1912 when Dan was one year old. The story is actually repeated in Audrey Saunders classic book on Algonquin Park, where Charlie is reported to have said when he saw Thomson that he was "some sort of queer fool, dabbing bits of paint on a piece of board. Saunders also mentions Charlie’s sixteen year old sister who spoke to Thomson on one occasion when he had a few sketches lined up and exclaimed, "Why, that’s the way the alders were a week ago!" Dan had correspondence from Ottelyn Addison, mentioned above, and he showed me a photograph she had given him showing Thomson’s tent, drawing his attention to the fish hanging on the door ready for breakfast in the morning.

Tom Thomson’s tent with fish hanging on door for breakfast. Dan Ruttan/Ottelyn Addison photo

I tried to get permission to reproduce a copy of the tent painting but got the runaround, so you’ll have to look it up in the books I’ve mentioned here. I was reminded of a line from the acerbic Harold Town’s introduction to Tom Thomson: The Silence and the Storm where he said: "Painting is a pariah waiting to be told by art authorities where to stand and beg so as not to interfere with the flow of commerce in the marketplace."