January 28, 2005 Another Look Back at the Deer Hunt

I received more response from my brief article and two photos on the deer hunt in October than anything else I have written recently.  The following are some items or interest I acquired after the last article. 

Balsam Creek 

You may recall an article about some lost drawings that were identified as being done by artist Chris Schouten.  One of the set of 4 originals was not found but Chris had a print on file which he sent me recently and is shown here.  The drawing is from an old photo taken after the hunt at Balsam Creek on Hwy 63 on the way to Temiskaming Quebec. 

Drawing of hunters after the hunt at Balsam Creek on Hwy 63.  Chris Schouten drawing.

Nipissing Township 

I received a touching piece of nostalgia and some fascinating photographs from Eileen Floyd (Bashak) a descendent of the Floyd Family, one of the early families in Nipissing Township in the 1870s.  (For more information on the Floyd Family see the book Pioneer Days in Nipissing Township).  Eileen was working on some family history when she found some notes made by her mother Margaret about the deer hunt in Nipissing a hundred years ago.  Margaret died in 1985 and Eileen was born there but moved away.  Eileen’s grandfather Jack Floyd was a farmer and fire ranger.  Sand Lake is N.W. of Nipissing Village.  Margaret wrote  “Our own production supplied us with a plentiful diet with the exception of sugar, flour, tea and some dried fruits, salt, soda etc.  We made our own soap with lye leached from the wood ashes.  There was always an old barrel with ashes for this purpose.  For our winter meat supply there was always the yearly deer hunt. 

Photo of Sand Lake Hunt Club in Nipissing Township in 1904.  Floyd Family photo.

My first memories of the Hunt are even before any “outsiders” came and it became a sporting event.  Although we had beef and pork, chickens, ducks and geese of our own stock, the deer hunt provided variety and a guaranteed supply for the winter.  It also provided the only holiday the men took in the year. 

It took weeks of preparation.  Dad always hunted at Sand Lake where he had a lumber camp when I was a baby.  Weeks before the hunt, the guns were got out and ammunition stocked up.  Supplies were checked and assembled.  The log camp had been built and remained from year to year.  The old hunt box remained in our shed loft from year to year.  In it was the necessary cutlery, tin plates, shanty dishes and some pots and teapots.  The box would come down and all was washed.  The women would bake cakes and cookies and blankets would be packed in packsacks.  All the stocks of food would be assembled. 

Members of the Sand Lake Hunt Club showing the success of their hunt 100 years ago.  Floyd Family photo.

Then on the morning before the season opened, the members (The Sand Lake Hunt Club) would assemble, many of them with their hounds.  The hounds were the only animals on the farms that did absolutely nothing all year except in the deer season.  There was much competition among the owners as to the merits of each hound (not dog).  The wagons would assemble and the total male population able to move would drive off with canoes loaded on top as they could only drive so far.  It was a mark of male maturity to be able to go to the hunt.  My brother Stuart went when he was 8 years old.  They returned with the booty in two weeks and we were assured our meat supply.  It was certainly then a matter of when – not if- we got our quota. 

I remember when my Dad died I was 18 (November 1923).  Dad had been ill all summer and did not go to the hunt, but the members of the club brought us his deer and my brother Jim and I skinned it.  He was 13.  We neither had skinned anything bigger than a rabbit.