PICTURES FROM THE PAST: LAKE PENAGE NEAR SUDBURY,ONTARIO FRANK’S CAMP & WALTER

Yesterday we had the carpets cleaned in our house.

 

John H. from the Canal Winchester branch of Stanley Steemer did a great job.(a little plug for Stanley Steemer) Linda and I had to move a lot of small stuff and in so doing I ran across a couple pictures from my youth. In the early and mid 60’s I had the opportunity to spend some real quality time in Canada helping to build Frank’s camp.

This picture was probably taken in 1965 or 1966. Finnish sauna on left (before porch was added) storage shed in middle and main cabin on right. The cabin is located about eight miles by water or ice from Penage Bay Marina (take a second and click on this link) I knew all the people mentioned in this article;  Gemmell's, Sutinen family, Bill Blanchard,Vic and Judy Erola, and Louis Dozzi. I had the opportunity to have a camp dinner with Vic and Judy Erola one time. Judy later became Minister of Mines in the Canadian government. This would be equivalent to a cabinet position in the U.S. Anyway, on this winter trip we installed a fuel oil stove in the main cabin. For one night the only heat was from the wood burning fireplace(no heat). The temp that night got to 30 degrees below 0. The Canadian Ale froze and for breakfast the eggs had to be peeled like they were hard boiled before we could cook them. Remember no electricity,no cell phones etc. etc. and pretty much pre snowmobile or snow machine. We hitched a ride to the cabin in a Unimog:

There was just enough room for us the fuel oil stove and the Canadian ale. A couple evenings later we were invited to Walters for dinner.

Walter BellChambers lived on the lake year round and being pre everything except snowshoes didn’t get a lot of visitors in the winter. Living about  ten miles from the landing made for a pretty good hike especially in the winter. Walter had most of his supplies brought in by boat prior to freeze-up. In the 40’s Walter was the personal guide to the Fruehauf's of trucking and trailer fame. The Fruehauf’s camp was in Killarney,Ontario and is now known as killarney mountain lodge. Walter commuted by float plane between Killarney and Lake Penage. Walter was a great cook. That night we had POT ROAST AND ALL THE FIXINS cooked on a wood burning stove, a sauna,and a lot of Canadian ale. On the wall of the main room was a black bear “rug”. One winter Walter had shot the bear when it broke into his cabin.  Several years later Walter died of a heart attack on his back porch in the middle of winter. Gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “frozen stiff”. Walter was quite a character; he never stopped talking and telling stories about the lake and his guiding trips. As I remember in particular he liked the trips to Bass Lake and Silver Peak.

 

This is a picture of “Frank’s Camp” taken in 2006. Frank is no longer with us nor does the camp belong to any of his remaining family and that is a shame..

LAKE PENAGE OR LAKE PANACHE MORE THAN ONE SPELLING. This summer hope to be camping on the French River and then around North Bay Ontario.

There are to be no comments about the uneven sidewalk and steps in front of my house. Thanks Joe Todd

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