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Lumberman’s shanty, Muskoka District, 1873, William Notman (Musée McCord Museum, Montreal) Although it was taken of an earlier shanty than the Bahen lumber camp, this photograph illustrates what the Bahen site – and others like it – probably looked like. Hutcheson family descendant Marcia Julian notes, “The structure seems to fit the remains of the foundation of the logging camp located on the most north-westerly bay of Hutcheson Bay, built by James Bahen sometime between 1895 and 1904. We always wondered why there was quite a dug-out foundation and very short walls. Seeing this picture makes perfect sense. There are also two foundation remains on the site – one smaller than the other, which could be an out-building.” http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-80963 |
One of the families from Durham County to follow the Methodist Minister Reverend Robert Norton Hill, who had settled on Peninsula Lake in 1869, was John Bahen. The settlers were enticed by free tracts of land – up to 200 acres with the criterion that each owner possess a minimum age of 18. Such was the case with the Bahen family of four sons and four daughters, who arrived in the area in 1879. Each received grants of property at the west end of Rebecca Lake, with an original family homestead close to Benson Lake, off the River Road. One of the daughters, Eva, married John Barager and settled two lots in 1900. Descendants of the Barager family still run a hunting camp on the property.
James Bahen, a younger son of John Bahen, was the original owner of Lots 10 and 11, Concession 7, on the north shore of Hutcheson Bay, and Lot 11, Concession 8. He was granted the property from the Crown in 1895 and owned it until 1904. He had a small sawmill on his property just to the east of Rebecca Creek, the tributary that connects Bella and Rebecca to the Big East River system. A log dam was built at the mouth of the creek in order to raise the waterline for logging. A sluice was dug out to channel the water to run the saw, and evidence of the channel exists today on the east side of the property. The original frame building stood there until it was rebuilt by the owner in 1989.
In addition, there was a small logging camp at the northern end of the most western bay. Evidence of the foundation and the cast iron parts of an old wood stove can still be seen. The camp was later used, occasionally, by the Hutcheson family for sugaring maple syrup.
The Bahen family logged the three properties for nine years and lived at the family homestead near Benson Lake. The sawmill provided the lumber from the logs. W. E. Hutcheson purchased James Bahen’s lots in 1906 for a summer retreat, the first “cottage” on the lakes, which the family christened “Rebecca Lodge.”
Sources:
Hutcheson, George F., Head and Tales (Bracebridge: Herald-Gazette Press, 1972).
Hutcheson Family, personal communications and stories.
Mansell, W. Dan, and Carolyn Paterson, eds., Pioneer Glimpses from Sinclair Township, Muskoka (Peterborough: asiOtus Natural Heritage Consultants, Barbara Paterson Papers, 2015).
Muskoka Land Registry, Bracebridge.