Eel’s Lake History

Days Gone By: Remembering Ross Reynolds

In late August, 1975, my wife, Christina, and I, arrived by flat-bottomed boat powered by a 6 h.p. motor in Jed's Bay (across from Picnic Island) to view a 600 square foot, open, wood framed cottage for sale on a pine-filled peninsular with views to the lake or the back bay from every room. 
 
The cottage, then and now, was warm, cozy and rustic (similar to the cottage in the movie 'On Golden Pond') with rubbed pine floors, a Franklin Fireplace, 12 pane, hanging windows and a deerhead mounted on the wall. The cottage was designed and built by Ross Reynolds in 1947/48 with a 4 corner roof to withstand heavy snowfalls. To this day, 67 years later, visitors are amazed by the quality of construction and the freshness of the natural interior wood floors, walls and roof, i.e., the cottage was made for a wood burning fire and an early Gordon Lightfoot LP playing on the turntable.

Sanford Trotter recalls Ross Reynolds building in the neighbourhood of 40 original cottages on the lake.
 
Ross was an Apsley native who left us, at age 76,  25 years ago, and loved Eel's Lake initially as a hunter and fisherman and later as an extraordinary entrepreneur serving the lake and its growing community in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Ross built the first store on the lake located on the site of a hunting camp that became Reynolds' Marina, then, in 1959, Armstrong's Marina and today, under ownership and management by Carolyn Amoyette and her husband, Jeff Ball, Eel's Lake Cottages and Marina.

When you visited Reynold's Marina 'back in the day', you would find an affable couple, Betty and Ross Reynolds there to greet you with Betty organizing and running the store as the social hub of Eel's Lake. 

Rumour has it that back in 1956, a dead lake trout was discovered in Eel's Lake at a time when no trout had been introduced, legally, into the lake and none were present naturally. As the rumour circulated, it was suggested that Ross Reynolds and his good friend, Willard Budd (another Eel's Lake pioneer) had originally stocked the lake.

In the 50s and early 60s,the Reynolds enjoyed the company and camaraderie of interesting people in a good 'party' setting. Back then, on the site of the Purcell Family compound close to the Marina, there was a simple cottage known as 'Nameless Lodge' (or "Aimless Lodge" by many of its recurring guests) where journalists from The Globe & Mail and other news media gathered, travelling north from Toronto to escape the 'deadline' pressures of newspaper and City stress to relax. Gill Purcell was both a war correspondent and the General Manager of The Canadian Press. My (and our) good friend, Bill Sproat, recalls, as a child, the laughter emanating from Nameless Lodge and one of its guests, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, joining the 'members of the Lodge' for a few days respite during the 60s. Jeff Ball also recalls a very youthful Neil Young and newspaper titan, Roy Thompson, among others in public life, being guests, from time to time, at 'Nameless Lodge'. Ross chewed, more than he smoked, cigars and played the 'squeezebox' at these relaxed gatherings.

During the long, quiet winters, Ross Reynolds kept himself busy building sturdy flat-bottomed boats designed for fishing and safe travel on Eel's to the traditional, mainly water access cottages he built for early, seasonal settlers on the lake. Two of his original and uniquely designed boats remain on the lake: one fully restored and still used by Bill Sproat, and the other, unfortunately, stored for many years upside down on the open ground at The Homestead and no longer capable of being restored. Ross also trapped in the winter and operated a snow plow clearing the roads in the area. His son, Bert, recalls the snow his Dad plowed beside the road piling high to almost reach the bottom of the Hydro lines.

Bert also recalls his Dad carving out large blocks of ice from the lake and storing them, insulated with sawdust, in a  shed behind the original store. In addition to operating the Marina during the summer, and before Hydro arrived in the 50s and early 60s, Ross Reynolds arranged to transport cut blocks of ice, milk and supplies by boat to cottages where an icebox was the usual means of refrigeration for families on the lake.

As I think about it, Ross Reynolds did it all: he built original cottages on the lake, most likely stocked the lake with trout, built practical flat-bottom boats to serve cottagers and fishermen alike, built the original store and marina, in part, as a community gathering place, and kept your milk and beer cold in the summertime. About the only thing he can't be held responsible for is bringing Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Eel's Lake (just kidding).

Thank you, Ross.

- Sandy Kilgour

Days Gone By: Walter Kidd, the Eels Lake Outlaw

When you're sitting on the dock gazing out onto the lake, have you ever wondered what life was like before income tax (1917), lawyers (just before Shakespeare) and regulatory agencies like the TSW? Well, let me tell you a story.

Back in the 1880's, Walter Kidd, of Cardiff Township, who had been trained as a lawyer in England, chose wisely, in my view, to live in the backwoods of Haliburton County near Dyno Road and became an avid bushman hunting and trapping on and near Eel's and Silent Lakes, among others.

Long before John Lennon's poetry in song, 'Let it be' was more than just an inspiration, it was a respected way of life and enjoyment in the unspoiled wilderness of our area. However, in the 1890's, with the formation of Algonquin Park, bureaucracy was born when County game wardens emerged to enforce game laws with the introduction of deer hunting licences resulting in local hunters being fined $10 and having their guns confiscated.

Walter Kidd who, for a living, made mitts and mocassins from animal hides, felt strongly that the rights of an individual to hunt whenever he chose for the benefit of his family outweighed the government's desire to interfere with his livelihood.

So...not that dissimilar to the OPP today approaching a canoeist on Eel's Lake and creating the 'cartoon' of asking the paddler to produce a bailing device, presumably, to splash out an overturned canoe, game wardens camped out at Walter Kidd's gate until he appeared from a hunting trip. When the wardens produced a warrant for Kidd's arrest, Walter produced a rifle and required the wardens to tear the warrant in half, holding a gun to their heads while he forced them to eat the warrant. At that moment, quite possibly, Walter Kidd became 'Eel's Lake's" first fugitive from the law and, for decades, remained so, often living at home in the woods but frequently fleeing from Her Majesty's finest.

Walter blazed trees to taunt his pursuers with the message: " Kidd's in the bush; catch him if you can".

They never did, however, eventually, Walter grew old and tired of living as a fugitive, as did the wardens chasing him, and Walter negotiated a settlement to resolve the charges against him and paid a fine.

Walter Kidd, who was sometimes described as Haliburton County's Robin Hood, built a school for his family and neighbours . Kidd's School still exists today in Highland Grove (north of Eel's) as a museum to pioneer times in our area.

 - Sandy Kilgour