Ralph Bice; an incomplete biography plus recollections
Ralph was born on March 2, 1900 at West Guilford to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bice, a Park Ranger. February 23, 1911 they moved to Kearney. Ralph began life as a guide in 1917 on August 4. In 1918 he built a trapping camp in McCraney. At age 25 he married Edna Merrifield of Port Arthur (now part of Thunder Bay). In 1930 Ralph was elected to the Kearney Public School Board. In 1933 Ralph went into business for himself. In 1936 he was elected to the Kearney Town Council and from 1939 – 1946 he was the Mayor of Kearney during which, in 1942, he started tourist camps at Kearney and Rain Lake, as well as a fishing camp at Eagle Lake, now called Butt. In 1945 he was a Master of the Masonic Algonquin Lodge at Emsdale. In 1948 Ralph was President of the Algonquin Park Guides Association and in 1949 President of the Ontario Trappers Association, then later a Director. In 1958 he wrote and published a book on the history of Kearney. At age 62 he helped form the Muskoka-Parry Sound Hunt Camps Association of which he served as President for 6 terms. A car accident that same year left him with one leg shorter than the other. From 1964-69 he was President of the Almaguin South Tourist Association. At the venerable age of 70 (Biblically three score and ten) he started his Almaguin News columns called “Along the Trail”.
In addition to such a resume Ralph was instrumental persuading the then Department of Lands and Forests to try zoning the trapping grounds which is now used throughout the province of Ontario, in the United States and perhaps globally? He was Director of the Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters for several years, a member of the North Bay Valley of the Ancient Order of Scottish Rite, and a member of Knox United Church. By 1978 he was father to 7 children, 22 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. On Sunday, July 16, 1978 Kearney, Ontario, celebrated Ralph Bice Day in “recognition of many years of dedication to Sportsmen, Trappers, Conservation and Community Service.”
During a meeting of the Regional Tourist Council Morry Barr mentioned his new venture as a newspaper man. “I suggested that it might help if he had an outdoor column.” Ralph heard nothing further until a few meetings later Morry said he had given it some thought and an outdoor column was a good suggestion. Then out of the blue Morry, not even asking, said that Ralph was going to write that column. “So, just for the thrill and fun of writing, I decided to tackle it.”
Bice often objected to people living in southern Ontario, some with very little knowledge of the woods, telling people “up here” what we should be doing. He also objected to young Bios (biologists) who thought they knew more than local citizens who have lived all their lives in the Kearney area.
On Trapping
“Most everyone knows that trapping was the first industry, or perhaps I should say occupation in Canada. There has been a great deal of anti-trapping sentiment over the last few years – films depicting the cruelty of leg-hold traps…it has been proved that these films were faked … they have stopped using these films and are working with the Ontario Trappers’ Association to improve the humane traps already in use by most trappers.”
However, some groups wanted to put a stop to trapping even though diseases will take many more animals than trappers. Some day the public may become a bit more educated in matters pertaining to the woods and the trappers can be placed in their proper and respectable place.
Ralph went on his first deer hunt in 1915 and shot his first deer. He took part in the deer hunt in Algonquin Park during the First World War hunting with his father who, at that time, was a Park Ranger. (Due to a shortage of meat the venison was shipped to southern Ontario.) “No one will ever see deer as plentiful as they were in the Park in those years.” Park Rangers were also to kill as many wolves as possible. “Dad decided we should go to Misty Lake and hunt there for a week.” We didn’t take much in the way of food as there was a supply of essentials always at these camps. Only thing, a party of timber cruisers had been there and almost all the flour had been used. Dad found some corn meal, mixed it with the flour that was left and some baking powder, almost like johnnycake and for supper he cut steaks from a small deer, nice and thick, and they were the full size of the frying pan. Believe we had two each, along with a johnnycake each, also frying pan size, and honey … a grand meal.
Trespassing
Why do so many not put any significance in a private sign or a lock? So many times you find a camp broken into and things missing. My gripes are against holiday people from southern Ontario who think there is nothing wrong breaking into a camp and using it. Only last spring a party of two had decided that a well-kept, posted, private camp would be a good place to camp and had pitched a tent there. They were quite offended when asked to move on. Just yesterday when I took a party to the camp on Rain Lake we found some people had pried off a screen, opened a window and were in out of the cold and wet. They too thought it was the thing to do and no doubt would have stayed there if we had not arrived. Nothing was missing but it was their attitude about camps in the woods the surprised me. Seems not so long ago we never bothered to lock camps in the woods. But people have changed. Often wonder, since these camps in the woods are built on land for which the camp owner pays both lease rental and property tax what would they say if the reverse were to happen and some of us from the woods broke into a house in the city. People get stranded there too.
The Railroad
It seems an awfully long time since trains ran between Kearney and Algonquin Park but really it is only fifteen years since the steel and ties were removed. There was a time when it was about the only way in or out. The rails were built here around 1893 and ran from Depot Harbour to Ottawa. The big traffic, and the road was built for that, was the grain from the west. When the rush was on grain trains “ran on the block”, which means only 20 minutes apart. It was first built by J.R. Booth as a logging road, taken over by the Grand Trunk and then by the CNR. The worst grade was between McCraney and Brule Lakes. At train level it was 1407 feet above sea level and the highest point on a railroad in Ontario.
The Teacher
R.A. Mann, who came to Kearney before the turn of the century, was a guide, trapper, prospector and Mayor of Kearney. He won the 1913 election by 7 votes. I think I learned more woods lore from him than even my father. We live in a house purchased from him, the oldest building in Kearney.
In the Morning
I have done two things I did not like doing almost every day of my life. First, I had to get out of bed in the morning and then again I had to go back to bed at night. For the greater part of my life most of my mornings occurred in the woods with fishing parties almost as soon as the ice went out, continuing until the fishing season ended. Then perhaps a couple of moose-hunting parties in the north, and then on the trap-line for most of the winter. I do not ever remember a winter that was not cold but the winter of 1923-24 was the tops. And we lived part of the time in a tent, with just an open fire, with the thermometer around fifty below. It seems harder to think about than it actually was and it was just part of the game.
Pancakes
(Source: The Detroit News, May 15, 1966)
There are approximately 500 lakes in Algonquin Park and Ralph Bice has fished all but half a dozen and has made 38 acres of pancakes. The crusty, gruff-spoken Bice will be celebrating his 50th year as a guide next year and while he’s proud of his reputation as a guide and fisherman, he is boastful when it comes to pancakes.
Lots of Snow
It is almost 60 years since I first guided. In the fall of 1925 I was working in the woods here at Kearney and when we went out to work on the morning of October 13th there was ten inches of snow and we still had some of it the following June.
Earliest Recollection
I recall my father, two of his brothers and my grandfather going on their twice-yearly trapping trip. They took a small bark canoe and all their luggage in two packs. A tea pail was tied in one end of the canoe, a frying pan and a small pail of pitch for canoe repairs in the other.
Embarrassing Moments
While demonstrating the proper way to handle an axe to about 50 boys at a camp the axe hit a large knot and the handle broke. At the first trapping course that we held at Elliot Lake, while skinning a beaver, the knife slipped and I put a small cut in the hide. In Dwight, while showing how to set a wolf trap the trap closed on the heel of my right hand, drawing blood. Then, the next week in Bracebridge, before 50 trappers I had just finished skinning a raccoon when the knife slipped and cut my finger requiring first aid … and I had been bragging at both classes that I had been skinning fur for more than 70 years!
For more Bice stories goto my website: www.thetimetraveller.ca.