LAKE ST. PETER PROVINCIAL PARK 2024-01-21
During 1973-75 the Cashel Junior Rangers spent time carrying out maintenance programs at Lake St. Peter P.P. – from painting to cleaning up….I recall one day we were so very hot that after we finished painting for the day we just ran into the lake to cool off. We were so wet from sweat we couldn’t get any more saturated. George Tully was in charge of maintenance at that time.
In the early 90s my eldest son worked there for Ron Speck, Park Super. Robin and I would mountain bike the back trails of the park and that is when we became aware of yet another hermit who lived alone in the bush known as Old Joe. Old Joe is the fifth such individual that I know of.
Another, a WW1 veteran, so I’m told, lived near Gravenhurst at Loon Lake in a shack. On occasion I would see him hiking into town. Yet another who just came to my attention was a man who avoided WW1 conscription by living at the Blue Seas near Limerick Lake. The fifth became a prolific outdoor writer who lived near South Magnetewan. He was a draft dodger. John Wadland, now retired History Professor at Trent U., told of visiting him with his grandfather when John was a youngster. In the summer artists would gather around and they formed a small community. On the few occasions that I canoed through the area I never met him. He apparently used to check the train tracks in exchange for food and supplies. There was a natural spring by the train tracks, a refreshingly cool drink on a hot summer’s day. A writing acquaintance at Outdoor Canada, Gus Richar, was trying to collect his articles. We lost contact so I never learned how successful an endeavour this became.
However, the one I know of best is Nelson Jeffrey. If you search for “The Man of the Forest” in my website (thetimetraveller.ca) you will find much more about Nelson. As for Joe I have no idea of any connection to WW1.
Some Background
Lake St. Peter Provincial Park was designated a Recreational Park in 1956. It is located off highway 127, 45 kilometres north of Bancroft on the way to Algonquin Provincial Park. Logging was the economic driver and basis for settlement and development of the area beginning around 1860. Group of 7 members A.Y.Jackson and A.J.Casson visited the area in the 1930s to paint landscapes. I recall seeing an aging A.Y. Jackson at the McMichael Collection in Kleinberg, Ontario not long before his passing.
Darius Card had a mill on Mink Lake, possibly near where the boat launch is located. Friend Murray Locke used to hunt deer and his camp stayed at the mill site which closed for The hunt. They travelled by wagon and team. One day while at the Lake St. Peter Dump, now called a landfill or transfer station, I met an octogenarian from Texas. In those days the site was well and neatly maintained unlike to-day. I asked how it was that someone from Texas was there?
“I was born here,” he told me. Turns out he was a son of Darius. He had a career in the U.S.A.F. and flew B-52 bombers. I recall seeing them fly over Temagami’s Diamond Lake in the late 60s, sometimes accompanied by jets, when I was guiding for Camp Kandalore in the vicinity.
JOE GOULAH April 4, 1877 – February 16, 1948
It appears that Joe Goulah first went west seeking his fortune and apparently succeeded but becoming prosperous took its toll and he returned to Ontario ‘burned out’. Some said that he was “off his rocker”. He eventually settled in what is now Lake St. Peter P.P. because it reminded him of Otter Creek, near Tweed, Ontario, where he was born and raised.
It is believed that he came to the area in the 1920s, an employee of the Rathbun Company and stayed after the lumbering operations were sold. He first lived on the shore of Upper Mink Lake in his cabin, “living the life of a hermit”, becoming self-reliant and caring for his 14 dogs, a raccoon, chickens and ducks. His cabin, 24 feet by 18 feet, which he built by himself, featured hand-hewn logs doweled to fit and hand-made rafters fitting perfectly to the roof. He fashioned neatly carved staces at the ends of his bed. He built a primitive grindstone from gears of a bicycle and chain. There was also a slat fence.
“Ole Joe” enjoyed the friendships of Lake St. Peter folk (previously called Porterville until 1940) and apparently responding to their concern for him due to his “helpless isolation” relocated to what is now the provincial park. (The source of this information said he relocated in the early 50s, clearly not possible as he died in 1948.)
Joe was known for his handmade Lutes and violins made from area maples and birches. “Ole Joe” would willingly play for his friends but would not permit anyone to touch his Lute as “the music was so sweet it would kill ya”. Mrs. Vivian Card recalled when Joe played for her class at the Lake St. Peter school, presently the community centre, accompanying his “somewhat off-key playing with an equally off-key singing, producing the weirdest sound you ever heard.”
Joe also received mail from throughout Ontario. He remained an ‘independent individual’. When too old to trap, hunt and fish Joe turned to making hand-made axe handles that were used exclusively by local lumber companies. He also made miniature canoes and jewellery to support himself. Often he would just give it away and would be indebted to local stores for supplies.
Joe surrounded his cabin with pillars of stacked stone which to him were the Pearly Gates to Heaven which led to an open patch of ground which was his Garden of Eden.
The cabin was located at the end of a nature trail which began at a hill across from the Park’s campground.
I have a photocopy of a letter from the T.Eaton Co. stating that they had returned his watch on October 8, 1940 “too badly damaged to be repaired.” The letter was addressed to Lake St. Peter.
A badly water damaged letter from Bancroft dated October 18, 1933, addressed to Joseph Goulah Esq. , Porterville, Ontario informs Joe that in season it is legal to take partridge by throwing a stone but “it does seem a poor sport”. After the season it would not be legal. The writer offered to send Joe the requested GUN LICENSE upon receipt of age, height, weight, hair colour, and colour of eyes. He promised to get the license from the issuer as it is ‘nessary’. It was signed by someone in the Overseer Div.