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A remaining building, probably 1930s on the lumber camp clearing known as “Old Bill’s” clearing (Barbara Paterson Collection) |
The clearing on First Sandy beach, once the site of the Bethune lumber camp and later that of Hugh Taylor Hill, became known as “Old Bill’s” clearing after fire ranger Bill Young, who stayed at the camp during the fire season in the 1920s and into the 1930s. He hiked daily to the fire tower that then stood on the high ground east of Heck’s Lake to survey for bush fires – a serious threat to timber stands.
Although by no means the only incident, the fires that had raged through Sisted, Chaffey, Sinclair, and Brunel Townships in May 1914 were particularly serious, destroying settlers’ timber (and homes) as well as timber limits and an East River log dump belonging to the Muskoka Wood Company. “The Muskoka Wood Co. on Monday lost their saw mill at Axe Lake,” reported the Forester, “together with a large amount of winter equipment. The fire was spreading over portions of their limits and their camps are being threatened. One set of camps has in fact been destroyed, and unless conditions improve at once, there is not much hope that others can be saved.” The extensive damage caused by bush fires made fire patrol a crucial concern.
By the 1920s, when he was working for the Bethune Lumber Company, Bill Young was in his sixties – probably the reason for the nickname. Young had settled in Chaffey Township in the Williamsport area. A few stories of his career while he was fire ranger indicate that he was an avid fisherman and never missed the annual deer hunt. In an “exciting bear-hunting experience” in November 1922, he set a trap and then encountered the furious bear, but had to return the next day with an adequate rifle. “If that trap had failed me, there’d be no Bill Young here to tell this tale,” he told the Forester. Young sold at least a portion of his lots to Clifton and Betsy Dyer of Detroit (Dyer Memorial property) for their cabin site in 1936.
“‘Old Bill’ as Bill Young is affectionately called among many of his friends, had a birthday this week,” wrote a columnist in the Forester in March 1940. “He is now 81 years old. It must be many years since Mr. Young settled on a farm near the Big East, beyond Williamsport, but even today, there is a trout hole in the Sand Bank Rapids that still not only bears Bill’s name, but is still productive water for speckled trout fishermen.”
Sources:
Barbara Paterson Papers.
Huntsville Forester, “Forest Fires Are Raging,” May 21, 1914, p. 1; “Wm. Young’s Preliminary Canter,” November 16, 1922, p. 1; “Around Town” by Paul H. Rice, March 7, 1940, p. 1; “Clifton Dyer: Noted Detroit Lawyer and Creator Local Memorial Dies,” June 4, 1959, p. 1