Hidden Ontario

by Terry Boyle

  Upon his return McDonald did as the young girl said. He and a party of men located a flock of geese by the river. He drew a bead on the black goose in the flock. The strange bird cried out like a human when it was wounded and made its way to the reeds with a broken wing.

  Determinedly, John turned his footsteps toward the marsh, where the long, low, log house stood. One anxious look revealed all. There sat the old woman resting in a chair — and she had a broken arm. When she saw him, she pulled back.

  For John McDonald and his family, no spiritual manifestations were ever seen or heard of again. Fact, it would seem, is truly stranger than fiction.

  Bancroft

  They call it Eagle’s Nest, a sacred place once worshipped by those who paddled the York River and lived in harmony with nature. The land was clothed in pine, the ground covered in a rich brown carpet of needles that felt only the soft tread of a moccasined foot. The passage of time gave witness to the loss of peace once found here, at this eagle’s cliff, as the settlers’ axes hewed the town of Bancroft.

  In the northern part of Hastings County at the junction of Highway 28 and 62, approximately 104 kilometres (65 miles) northeast of Peterborough and 20 kilometres (12 miles) northwest of Belleville, is the town of Bancroft. It was originally named York Mills, because of the potential of the river, and then York River when the first post office was opened, May 1, 1861.

  Although the history of the district of Bancroft does not start until the 1850s, Hastings County was in the news as far back as 1792. It was Governor Simcoe who proclaimed that Upper Canada would be divided into 19 counties; the 11th one was Hastings. This name was chosen in honour of the family of Francis Rawdon-Hastings (1754–1826), a military leader and distinguished soldier during the American Revolution. His family took their name from the town of Hastings in Sussex, England. Francis Rawdon-Hastings became the marquis of Hastings in 1817.

  In order to settle Hastings County, officials needed to negotiate the right to the ownership of the land with the Natives. On November 5, 1818, Chief Pahtosh, the leader of the Chippewas in the area, along with other Native leaders, met with government officials to discuss the surrender of their territory. They agreed to surrender 1,951,000 acres of land to the government.

  The main street of Bancroft circa 1915.

  Archives of Ontario

  For the sale of this land the treaty read, “Every Native man, woman and child will receive the amount of 10 dollars in goods at the Montreal prices, so long as such man, woman or child shall live, but such annuity will cease and be discounted to be paid in right of any individual who may have died between the respective periods of payment, and the several individuals then living, only, shall be considered as entitled to receive the yearly payment of 10 dollars in goods as above stated.”

  The Native families diminished over the years until their paths in the forest were no longer visible and their sacred sites were lost to view.

  The first white settlers to arrive in the area were the Clarks, in 1853. Tragedy knocked at their door when the wife and daughter drowned in the river at the mouth of the creek that now flows under Highway 62. This creek was later named Clark Creek in honour of Bancroft’s first family of settlers.

  In the spring of 1855, hard on the heels of the first surveyor, two young Englishmen arrived, James Cleak and Alfred Barker. They were educated men, ready and willing to test their skills in this harsh new country. Cleak opened a store and became the first postmaster, but Barker’s fate remains unrecorded. Other early settlers included Henry Gaebel, Philip Harding, Thomas Sparrow, Patrick Kavanagh, the Vances, the Siddons, and the Sweets.

  The construction of Monck Road, named in honour of Governor-General Lord Monck, began in 1866. The road started at Lake Couchiching and proceeded east to the Rideau Lakes. Although it was primarily built to open up the back woods of Upper Canada, it also served as a military trail. The Monck Road played a very strategic role in the settlement of York River, since it, along with the Hastings and the Mississippi Colonization roads, brought more settlers to the northern townships of the country. By 1868 York River’s population had swelled to 89 families.

  It wasn’t long before the lumberjacks arrived to harvest the large stands of virgin forest. A lumber company, named Bronson and Weston, set up headquarters just east of present-day Bancroft. This company brought in hundreds of teams of horses to draw logs. In time, the Gilmour Lumber Company, the Rathburn Company, and the Eddy Company all worked limits in the area. The crews often worked together on the drives which started as the ice broke up. Many a man was drowned. One such river driver was laid to rest where the traffic lights now blink at the junction of Hastings and Bridge Streets and, as was the custom of the day, his boots marked the spot.

  When rival lumber crews converged in Bancroft, the “fur” would fly. Each group had a champion strongman and, of course, a fight was always in order. The rules were simple. Each man carried a large stone to be tossed, like a gauntlet, to begin the fight. Once begun, anything went, and they fought till one lay helpless on the ground. It was then the privilege, or perhaps the obligation, of the victor to rake the fallen man’s face with his spiked boots and mark him for life as the beaten warrior. One assumes that the drink consumed during this revelry provided some anaesthetic benefits. Louie Brisette was one such river driver of long ago, who lost to a younger man, and was said to sport a heavy beard for the rest of his life.

  By 1872, York River was beginning to take on the appearance of a permanent settlement, albeit a rowdy one, and often likened to the wild west. However rough, the lumber industry did assist the growth of the village and the commerce that came to support the necessities of life. A Methodist Church opened for worship, a doctor arrived in 1888, and Sarah Cooper arrived to offer her services as a teacher.

  On October 15, 1879, the leading businessman of the community, Senator Billa Flint, changed the name of York River to Bancroft to honour his wife, Phoebe Bancroft.

  Although gold was discovered by Marcus Herbert Powell south of the town on August 15, 1866, on John Richardson’s farm in Eldorado, it wasn’t until 1897 that Bancroft gained attention and fame for its mineral deposits. In October of that year, R. Bradshaw discovered free-surface gold and gold fever struck Bancroft. One of the biggest winners in the draw was Mrs. J.B. Cleak’s chicken. One fine day in 1902 the bird was escorted to the chopping block and, strange as it seems, Mrs. Cleak discovered a gold nugget in the pullet’s crop.

  Bancroft became famous for its earth minerals. Because ancient glaciers had moved soil and rock to gradually expose the very heart of volcanic mountains, Bancroft was set to become the mineral capital of Canada. Approximately 1,600 minerals have been identified to date.

  In 1960 a mineral society was formed and the first rock show was held. An annual Rockhound Gemboree was the result, and Canada’s largest mineral and gem show is still held each year from Thursday to Sunday before the civic holiday Monday in August. People can discover minerals firsthand in the countryside by way of a guided mineral trip any Tuesday or Thursday during July and August.

  Nevertheless, for many, the most historic and sacred site in Bancroft remains Eagle’s Nest. It is a place of mystery and beauty. It was here that the great eagles nested and here that the Natives prayed. No one is quite sure when the eagles left. What is recorded is the incident of 1883. Screams from outdoors brought Mr. and Mrs. Gaebel outside to witness a great eagle trying to carry off a small child who had been playing. They attacked the eagle with a broom and rake before it finally gave up its prey. A decision was made by the Gaebels and their neighbours to rid the village of eagles. Eggs were removed from the nest, the eagles disappeared temporarily, and there were no sightings again until 1902. In January 1918, the Bancroft Times recorded that a young man named Sararas had shot an eagle measuring two metres (six feet) from wing tip to wing tip. He displayed it at the butcher shop of the game warden, James McCaw, who attempted to sell it. In the 1930s the tree in which the eagles had nested
toppled to the ground.

  Nature is as rugged as ever in Bancroft and, with or without eagles at Eagle’s Nest, the vista is beautiful and the minerals are as abundant as ever.

  The Bay Monster and the Shadow

  Folklore, myths, and legends begin as traditional narratives, but over time, as they are told and retold, stories tend to become archetypes — symbols for the truths of our existence, the external and internal, our landscapes and ourselves.

  To believe in these stories was to experience the symbolic power of the supernatural, which, contrary to much modern thought, was rife with knowledge and valuable lessons. These stories are still here with us. All you have to do is feel their truth ... and see.

  A ready connection our sacred landscape and the knowledge and power of life around us is through the stories of First Nations, particularly the stories passed down locally from our own early Natives.

  “They [the Ojibwa Indians of Parry Island] lived much nearer to nature than most white men, and they looked with a different eye on the trees and the rocks, the water and the sky,” wrote Diamond Jenness of the National Museum of Canada in 1929. “They were less materialistic, more spiritually minded, than Europeans, for they did not picture any great chasm separating mankind from the rest of creation, but interpreted everything around them in much the same terms as they interpreted their own selves.”

  While researching for his report, titled The Ojibwa Indians of Parry Island, Their Social and Religious Life, Jenness learned that —according to the Ojibwa — man consisted of three parts, a corporeal body (wiyo) that decays and disappeared after death, a soul (udjitchog) that travels after death to the land of souls in the west, ruled by Nanibush, and a shadow (udjibbom) that roams about on earth but generally remains near the grave.

  In Jenness’s words, “The soul is located in the heart and is capable of travelling outside the body for brief periods, although if it remains separate too long the body will die ... The soul is the intelligent part of man’s being. The soul is also the seat of the will.”

  The shadow is slightly more indefinite than the soul. It is located in the brain, but like the soul, the shadow often operates apart from the body. Jenness elaborates:

  In life, it [the shadow] is the ‘eyes’ of the soul, as it were, awakening the latter to perception and knowledge ... When a man is travelling, his shadow goes before or behind him. Normally it is in front, nearer to his destination. There are times when a man feels that someone is watching him, or is near him, although he can see no one, it is his shadow that is warning him, trying to awaken his soul to perceive the danger.

  The shadow is invisible, but sometimes it allows itself to be seen with the same appearance as the body. This is why you often think you see someone who is actually miles away.

  In 1929, Wasauksing (Parry Island) resident Francis Pegahmagabow shared this story about the shadow: “My two boys met me at the wharf yesterday evening and accompanied me to my house. Sometime before our arrival, my sister-in-law looked out of the window and saw the elder boy pass by. It was really his shadow that she saw, not the boy himself, for we must have been nearly a mile away at the time.”

  Many Ojibwa living on Parry Island in the 1920s still believed that all objects had life, and life was synonymous with power. Just as man’s power comes from his intelligence, his soul, so does the power of the animal, the tree, and the stone.

  Mr. Pegahmagabow explained, “Long ago the manidos or supernatural powers gathered somewhere and summoned a few Indians through dreams, giving them power to fly through the air to the meeting place ... The Indians [their souls] travelled thither, and the manidos taught them about the supernatural world and the powers they had received from the Great Spirit. Then, they sent the Indians home again.”

  The Parry Island Ojibwa found authority for their belief in a world of supernatural beings around them, beings who are part of the natural order of the universe no less than man himself, whom they resemble in the possession of intelligence and emotions. Like man, they too are male or female and in some cases have families of their own. Some are friendly to the Native peoples, others are hostile. According to the museum report of 1929, there are manidos everywhere, or there were until the white man came, for today, the Indians say, most of them have moved away.

  According to Jenness, “Occasionally, the Parry Islanders speak of a Maji Manido. Bad Spirit, referring either to some lesser being malevolent to man, most commonly the great serpent or water spirit. Apparently, the chief enemies to man are the water-serpents, which can travel underground and steal away a man’s soul. If lightning strikes a tree near a native person’s wigwam it is the thunder-manido driving away some water-spirit that is stealing through the ground to attack the man or his family. The leader of all water-serpents is Nzagima.”

  One needed to be very careful to protect the soul, Jenness points out. “Until quite recently, and perhaps even now in certain families, adolescent boys and girls were compelled to fast for a period in order to obtain a vision and blessing from some manido,” he noted. “Parents gave their children special warning against a visitation from the great serpent, which might appear to them in the form of a man and offer its aid and blessing. A boy or girl who dreamed they received a visit from a snake should reject its blessing and inform their father, who would bid their return and seek a second visitation, since the evil serpent never repeats its overtures once they have been rejected. If then, a snake appears in another dream the boy or girl may safely accept its blessing. But if he incautiously accepts a blessing from the evil serpent he will deeply rue it afterwards, for sooner or later he and his family will have to feed it with their souls and die.”

  John Manatuwaba, a 70-year-old Ojibwa in 1929, recalled a family who fed their souls to the serpent: “A Parry Island couple had three children, two boys who died very young and a child that died at birth. Two years ago the serpent swallowed the man’s soul. The woman then confessed that in her girlhood she had accepted a blessing from the evil serpent.”

  “I recall the tales about the water-serpent,” stated a First Nations resident of Parry Island today. “It was told to us to keep the kids from going out in deep water. This kept the children safe.

  “I have heard that the water-serpent lives in Three Mile Lake and travels underground to Hay Bay. It was told to us that when a south wind blows and the water becomes murky the serpent is moving in the water.”

  According to another First Nations resident, a group of young children encountered the water spirit in the 1950s on Parry Island. The creature was snake-like and had legs. It could travel through the forest as well as the water.

  One Native elder on the island, when asked about the water spirit, reinforced the belief that the creature is actually a spirit.

  There are other spirits that inhabit the district, such as the little people called the Memegwesi. They are friendly manidos, or rather a band or family of manidos. They may play pranks on the people, but never harm them. In the early part of the last century, a Parry Island native on his way to Depot Harbour saw a Memegwesi going down a creek. It had the outline of a man, but only its face was visible, the body being concealed beneath a huge growth of whiskers.

  John Manatuwaba, recalled this encounter with the Memegwesi: “At the north end of Parry Sound, in what white men call Split Rock Channel, there is a crag known to the Indians as Memegwesi’s Crag. Some natives once set night lines there, but their trout were always stolen.”

  At last one of the men sat up all night to watch for the thief. At dawn he saw a stone boat manned by two Memegwesi approaching, one a woman, the other bearded like a monkey. The watcher awakened his companions and they pursued the stone boat, which turned around and called to the Indians, “Now you know who stole your trout. Whenever you want calmer weather give us some tobacco, for this is our home.” The boat and its occupants then entered the crag and disappeared.

  Jenness also discovered that there are two kinds of invisible Indians, both clos
ely akin to manidos. “One kind has no name, the other is called bagudzinishinabe or ‘Little Wild Indian.’ To see an individual of either kind confers the blessing of attaining old age.”

  The bagudzinishinabe are dwarfs that do no harm, Jenness found, but play innumerable pranks on human beings. Though small, no larger in fact than a little child, they are immensely strong. Sometimes they shake the poles of a wigwam, or throw pebbles on its roof; or they steal a knife from a man’s side and hide it in his lodge. Often a person will eat and eat and still feel unsatisfied. He wonders how he can eat so much and still be hungry, but the dwarfs, unseen, are stealing the food from his dish.

  Occasionally, you hear the reports of their guns, but cannot see either the dwarfs or their tracks. Yet, Francis Pegahmagabow stated that he once saw their tracks, “like those of a tiny baby,” on a muddy road on Parry Island. A few years ago a Native person camping on the island awoke in the morning to discover tiny, child-like tracks alongside her tent.

  In 1976, a Rosseau area resident who was studying with Native elders encountered the little people.

  “This one day I was in a beechnut forest south of Algonquin Park and I had stopped to eat some nuts,” he said. “Afterwards I sat down in a glade near a babbling brook. I dozed off.

  “Suddenly I woke up and caught a glimpse of a creature about 10 feet away. At that moment it ducked behind a tree. Both of us were surprised to see each other. Then another creature appeared in the distance followed by another one to my right. I had never seen such a creature in my life. They were short, approximately two feet tall. Short mousy brown hair covered their entire body. They stood upright on their hind legs. Their front legs were shorter. I recall their long rabbit-like ears that hung straight down their back. I had the feeling their ears could rise up like a rabbit in an alert position. The creature’s eyes were set in the front of their face. The eyes were quite expressive. The nose was flat. They had no tail.