Introduction

The Kahshe Lake History Project’s Archives

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arranged and introduced

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by Clare Henderson

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The Healing Waters of Kahshe Lake contains many stories of cottaging families as well as a more comprehensive history of this area of Muskoka. In collecting the material for the two volumes of Healing Waters, I ran across several documents that did not fit the concept of a print history. However, they are very interesting because they tell the inside story of life on and around Kahshe Lake from early on until recent times.

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What is an archive? A collection of original documents and photographs that tell us much about aspects of life in the past.

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What is a blog? A web log is a page on a web site that allows documents and photographs to be uploaded to it. A blog is accessible by anyone from any computer with Internet access. Anyone can leave comments on any of the postings.

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A blog is an excellent way of publishing an archive.

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The materials in these archives have been generously loaned to us by residents of Kahshe Lake so we can make them available on the web for future generations to read and view and see what life on the lake was like in earlier times.

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These are, of course, fragments of a much larger picture. The story of the development of Kahshe Lake is large and complex. If you have documents and pictures that you are willing to share with others, please send them to us.

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Maps, documents, letters, old photos can be included. In fact anything that can be scanned, even in part, is fodder for an archive.

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To contact me, e-mail archives@kahshelake.ca

An Alligator in Kahshe Lake

Oh, no! you say. Alligators in Muskoka!

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Well, it's true. There used to be many alligators in the lake. Not the biting kind, of course --that was left to the mosquitoes-- the pushing kind.

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An alligator Muskoka style is a flat-bottomed, steam-powered boat used to push logs around and get to the end of the lake where the saw mills were.

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They are called alligators because they had a steam winch at the front end of the boat used to drag itself across land to the next lake or river. Hook onto a tree, winch the boat along. Hook another...

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It took a lot of winching.

Land Survey -Eleanor Gray

Original 1931 Lot Survey

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Eleanor Gray, an avid Kahshe Lake cottager, still has the survey of the first little lot that her grandfather Jack Bradley built his cottage on. It is a treasured keepsake and hangs framed on her cottage wall. Eleanor is the daughter of Betty Bradley and the first cousin of both Bob Bradley and Mike Whaling.