October 5, 2001 Tourism on CNR’s Algonquin Route

Kish-kaduk Lodge on Cedar Lake. Cecile Waldriff photo.

Once Algonquin Park was established, it became important to get people to use it. A leasing system was established primarily along the two railways, and tourist lodges, children's camps and canoe tripping routes were established and advertised. Most of these things continue today in some form, except that there is little tourist accommodation in the northern section of the park on the old CNR line. Today as a part of my trip down memory lane (the abandoned CNR Algonquin route) I will look at some of the early tourist initiatives that did develop and are now gone.

The Wigwam Going from West to east, the Wigwam was an early project on the north shore of Lake Kioshkoqui, just west of Kiosk. The Wigwam was started by Percy Hill in the 1920s and featured a log lodge with a dining room and ten large war surplus tents on plank platforms along the water's edge. Army cots, mattresses and blankets were also used. And early park brochure encouraged people to drop off at the Kiosk train station and "experience real camp life with only the rough edges taken off," except for the food, "of which neither care nor expense have been spared." One could fish for speckled trout and salmon on the lake, and cruise the chain of delightful rivers and lakes of "unsurpassed natural beauty."

Carl Fraser, a North Bay insurance broker, and two friends bought a property across the lake from the Wigwam and used it for several years beginning in the late 1920s. When the Wigwam became available, they bought it as a cottage for personal use. It eventually became the Fraser property and remains so today, sixty-five years later, with the lodge used as a cottage by the Grace (Fraser) Hancock, and Lenore (Fraser) Bartlett families and other Fraser descendents. Grace and Lenore have provided a long history of Kiosk, beginning about the time that the Staniforth Lumber Company arrived. Tom Dunn, the Booth caretaker, and Carl Fraser, used to cut and store ice for summer use. Grace remembers the little Kiosk station, and having to run down the track with a lantern to flag the train to get it to stop.

Grace also remembers the canoes of the girls from the Glen Bernard camp, located on the north Shore of Tea Lake, and other camps. She recalls visits by park ranger, Ranger, and Tea Lake ranger Frank Robichaud. They became friends with fire watchman Fred Watt, and became good friends with the Staniforths and other people at the mill. Grace tells the story of the Wigwam's owner Percy Hill's ashes being buried on the pathway leading to the lodge, and of her family regularly saying "Good morning, Mr. Hill" or the like as they passed by.

Kish-kaduk At the station stop at Government Park, four miles west of Brent on the west end of Cedar Lake, was the Kish-kaduk Lodge, built by railway section foreman Ed Thomas in 1928. A large main lodge, with a dining facility and lounge, was surrounded by several two-room cabins (see photos). When Mr. Thomas died, his wife Rose, along with Jack Wilkinson, ran the operation. In later years it became an outfitter's store, servicing the area with canoes and camping supplies.