October 22, 2004 Oh Deer, Oh Deer: Hunting 100 years ago

I don’t have my usual column this week but would like to share in this hunting season a couple of 100 year old photos of hunting then.  The pictures will evoke different responses from different people but will provide a little perspective on our hunting heritage. 

This photograph of a group of men and boys was taken at Fosters Hunt club in 1904.

The first photo is Foster’s Hunt Club in 1904.  Bill Foster was a logging entrepreneur in Trout Creek and later moved into Chisholm Township where he moved his camp four times eventually ending up on the new CNR line in 1915.  His third camp was at the back of the property I own today.  His last property was known as Foster’s Mill or Fossmill and was eventually taken over by the Fassett Lumber Company which ran it for over a decade.  The Fossmill Story is recorded in an award winning book of the same name that my son and I wrote in 1999.  Foster is the man in the centre with the gun raised next to the young boy.  Foster later moved to North Bay as a car dealer and his son became a well known dentist. 

The Wasa Lilly houseboat was oned by Tom Darling, the manager of J.R. Booth's operation at Wasi Falls.

The second photo shows the Wasa Lilly houseboat owned by Tom Darling the Manager of J.R. Booth’s operation at Wasi Falls on Lake Nipissing.  The private boat was towed all over the lake including this hunting trip in 1905.  The boat was eventually beached on Darling Island in Callander Bay where it served as a cottage for many years. 

With good hunting practices there are still plenty of deer today a century later.