The Past Lives On…
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Coffee table made from the springs of the Sunset Farm Democrat by Lon Kimmel (Wendy Kimmel) |
Much of Sunset Farm has vanished, but at least one piece from the past has been given a new role. Evelyn Mansell Walton (1923-2003) remembered riding in an old Democrat, from the farm’s early days, from the cottage to the farm for homemade ice cream, probably in the early 1930s.
The Democrat – a wagon pulled by a team of two horses – sat for years next door to Sunset Cabin, the wood eventually rotting away, until Evelyn’s son Lon Kimmel salvaged the metalwork. At the forge at Muskoka Heritage Place, Lon made the springs into legs for a coffee table. The Democrat’s springs now support a lovely slab of yellow birch cut from the Mansell property.