TOM THOMSON by Ralph Bice Guest Columnist Part 3

Ralph penned this article when he was 77 years of age.

Many times I have heard people state that Tom Thomson was a member of the Group of Seven, and be very insistent about it. His end was in 1917, and that group was not formed until 1920. The members were all friends, and they dedicated it to his memory. I had good fortune to know one of the members, and this because he was a cousin of a famous surgeon who fished in the Park, and who was the doctor who removed my appendix. I believe I saw him three different summers, but our talk was mostly fishing, and he along with many more people wondered what would happen to the Park now there was a road, and being used by so many people. This was 40 years ago. Wonder what he would think now, I do remember him when asked, that in the future Thomson paintings would be very valuable, as he had produced a new style that was a decided improvement. And he must have been right.

Like so many others, Thomson did not live to enjoy his fame. He would be glad to know that there is a cairn erected to his memory on Canoe Lake, and I believe a service held there every year to commemorate his passing. There are so few of us left who were in the Park at that time, and it does not matter, but to many it was sort of felt that more thought could be given others who had had so much to do with the forming and making Algonquin Park as it is today, or perhaps was 20 years ago. So many I might mention but the first would be Mrs. Ed Coulson.

(Readers may find more such tales, often in their own words, of the folk who pioneered Algonquin Park in my book “the ALGONQUIN CENTENNIAL SERIES” available at Ashlie’s book store in Bancroft, The Old Hastings Mercantile & Gallery in Ormsby and at the Visitors’ Centre in Algonquin Provincial Park. –Ed.)

She does have an island named after her, Molly’s Island in Smoke Lake, but you never hear otherwise. She started the first tourist camp, she managed Highland Inn and then Algonquin Hotel, along with her husband Ed Coulson, one of the early Park Rangers and one who cut many of the first portages. Also Ed’s sister, Aunt Annie, who with her knowledge of the woods helped many campers. But Mrs. Coulson helped so many and as a nurse took the place of a doctor many times. Too, I may be a bit biased, but she certainly was a mother to the few of us teenaged guides and we can never forget.

But back to Thomson. I was not an admirer of his way of life, and decidedly not an art critic. After all, what could you expect of an old trapper who does not even like the Mona Lisa? But a great many people do, the decided majority, so I must be wrong. But if his paintings please so many, and his legend enjoyed by many who came into the world years after his passing, why can we not just forget forever all the mystery and remember the more pleasant things; enjoy his paintings; and instead f squabbling just say “Thank you, Tom Thomson. Rest in Peace.”

Ralph Bice photo – Toronto Library; Trapper Bice – pastforward.ca.