Burnt River

The Burnt River Limestone Quarry

In 1876, the Victoria Railway reached Burnt River, which made it possible to export stone and also created a market for stone for its construction and subsequent repairs. South of the village, an outcrop of limestone, called Pinery Ledge made quarrying practical—decades before the advent of hydraulic equipment. At that time, Alexander Rettie opened the Burnt River quarry, which was later acquired and significantly expanded by Sam Suddaby. At its peak in the early twentieth century, it employed up to 50 men, making it one of the village’s largest employers. Houses were built to accommodate the many workers, including boarding houses with 12 to 14 beds. Mrs. Plevin was the cook.

It was said that the top layer, ‘blue limestone,’ was 30 inches thick and “cut like butter.” When it was said that it cut like butter, the work was done using hand tools and explosives. Jim Rettie and Robert Wilson were both killed in dynamite blasts. The next layer down, “red limestone” was cut into blocks, which were used to build the Lindsay Jail, Toronto Post Office, Crego’s Creek Trestle on the Victoria Railway and abutments for the IB&O Railway Bridge at Howland Junction. The dust from the explosions was collected by hand to make cement. Smaller stones were also gathered, put through a stone crusher, and sold as crushed stone. At one point, fourteen carloads of stone were shipped to Toronto each day. Imagine how much back breaking work that was! ...

The Quarry Closes

... Suddaby sold the business to Britnell and Company, who operated the site until 1924, when it was transferred to a Hagersville crushed stone company. The new owners closed the quarry to reduce competition with their principal location. The site was abandoned, but remained a point of interest for local residents. In the mid-twentieth century many local children went to the site to play, as the buildings deteriorated. The forests have regrown around the quarry and the site of the excavation now forms an interesting looking pond, but is private property, hence no longer a place to visit.

S.S. # 8: The Burnt River School

From the mid-nineteenth until the mid-twentieth century, schooling was based upon local (township or village) school boards operating school sections, designed so that there was a school within walking distance of (practically) every child. At Rettie’s Crossing (now Burnt River) the original log school was located across the road from the present-day cemetery. Though it was replaced by a frame school, by 1900, 108 students were enrolled, all taught in a single room by one teacher. It was so crowded that there were even desks up against the blackboards!

When the new school was constructed in 1900, one of the village’s largest employers was the stone quarry, located just south of the village on the railway line. Having this convenient source made stone a practical building material. Constructed just north of the village, the new stone school was a striking building in the age of wooden construction. Built to accommodate 100 students, it had 5 rows, each containing 8 double desks. The school taught agriculture from 1919 until the 1930s. In 1933, the Burnt River Women’s Institute raised funds to help cover the cost of a music teacher—which then became a regular part of the curriculum. Though enrolment had declined by about 1/5 when the stone quarry closed, an addition on the front of the building in 1935 allowed it to accommodate continuation classes (now called secondary school). The next year, indoor plumbing obviated the need for students to use an outhouse, even in winter.

With the advent of school bussing circa 1950, it became possible to create centralized schools. In 1951, the Victoria County District High School Board formed and quickly amalgamated all of the northern continuation schools into Fenelon Falls High School. By the 1960s, it was also becoming the norm to bus public school students to village schools, as neighbourhood one room schools were closing. The stone school was replaced by a new three-room structure on the main street. In 1989, the Victoria County District School Board ordered further consolidation, as all northern students would be taught at Coboconk or Kirkfield. The last class graduated from Burnt River Public School in 1991, then the building became the post office, library and eventually the fire station. Though the library closed, both the stone school and its successor still stand. The stone school is now a private residence.

Holliday’s Hideaway

Dave Nicholls farmed on the north half of Lot 14, Concession 8, the east side of Four Mile Lake until the 1920s, when he moved to Toronto to work as a stationary engineer. Renting the land to neighbour Fred Palmer and the farmhouse out to others, he would return home for holidays in the summer, parking his cabin trailer on the lakeshore. Gordon Hunter would help him keep his wooden boat caulked, so that it was ready to go fishing when the Nicholls family returned to visit.

In 1938, Anna (Handley) and Fred Holliday purchased the property for $1,300 to open a tourist lodge called Holliday’s Hideaway. Anna and Fred had grown up in the community, but had moved around Ontario as they pursued various business ventures. Having operated a store with post office at Loring (South of Lake Nipissing), they decided to try operating a tourist lodge. In that era, many people would travel to the Kawarthas from the northeastern United States or cities in Ontario to stay at a lodge for a week or two. In that era, owning your own cottage and flying overseas for vacation was not common. Good fishing was one of the primary draws.

Anna and Fred had a lodge built on a hill overlooking the lake, at 5 Wembley Drive. It featured a verandah overlooking the lake, with a combined living and dining room, prominent fireplace, kitchen and bedroom. With a workshop to help with repairs Anna and Fred welcomed guests to stay in the nearby cabins. One was located on top of the hill, and two more were built on points reaching out into Four Mile Lake. They would subsequently sell a larger cottage to Canadian Line Materials Company, for corporate executives to enjoy a vacation. They were all housekeeping cottages, but were certainly rustic by modern standards.

Anna tended a huge garden to help supply the lodge and cooked all the meals with a helper. Her daughter Margaret (later married Clarence Allen—a longtime Fenelon Falls librarian) waited on the tables. Most guests chose to eat in the 12-person dining room. It was 75 cents for Sunday chicken dinner.

In the autumn of 1945, Anna and Fred sold Holliday’s Hideway to Arthur J. Child, who operated it as Chateau Wembley. The Hollidays would move to Fenelon Falls, where they owned the Hearthstone, lodge on the south shore of Cameron Lake—4 Redwing Avenue. In the 1960s, Doug Merritt converted the lodge into residence, while operating “Dug Out” marina. Doug subdivided the farm lot into cottage properties, which he called Avalon Park. He would later sell the lodge to Clayton and Rosemary Connell, who made it into a private residence.

Follow the bluejay
To Holliday’s Hideaway
The fish bite every day
And you’ll enjoy your stay
At Holliday Lodge

Burnt River’s Skating Rink, 1948

In 1947-48, Burnt River residents built an outdoor hockey rink in the hollow just north of Ralph Sheehey’s house. In keeping with the community spirit of the times, the Sheehey family supplied the electricity for the lights and water to flood the rink. As a youngster, Bob Sheehey remembers helping his friends from the village to shovel off the rink.

Having a purpose-built rink opened a whole world of possibilities for the community. Villagers loved to get together for a pleasant skate. Soon after the rink was completed, the Burnt River Hockey team played there, and developed a fierce rivalry with Kinmount. Bob Sherman was remembered as one of its hardest hitters, and it caused a lasting sensation when Kinmount’s Garland Barkwell caught him with his head down.

Within a few years, the local skating rink had moved to Hodgson’s pond and within a decade the Burnt River team was playing out of Fenelon Falls’ arena. But artificial ice did not end the joys of skating in Burnt River, as community volunteers would later organize a popular new rink beside the community centre.

The Bow Lake Lumber Company – Dancey’s Mill

In 1932, Canadian National Railway station agent Stanley Dancey was transferred to Burnt River, which was then a small village surrounding the tracks. The community was coping with the Great Depression, a time when many businesses were struggling to survive, as most people purchased little beyond their necessities. Farmers were able to live largely off their fruits of their own labour. For many families, getting out logs in the winter was one of the few sources of income that they had.

Stan Dancey purchased the old steam powered mill that Burt Rettie had moved from Art Young’s corner (Roads #49 & #121) to Burnt River Village. He named it the Bow Lake Lumber Company, after the 800-acre property he owned in Haliburton County. Though he named it after his large forested tract, he was no lumber jack, and instead purchased lumber from his neighbours. Stan had an old green truck, with yellow lettering “Bow Lake Lumber Company,” that he used to haul logs to the mill. Once the chains were released that held the logs on the truck, they were rolled off—they did not have a hydraulic loader. A carriage conveyed the logs through the mill—seen in this photograph in front of the building. Walter Bacon and Gerard Burns managed the two teams of horses. Les Billings was employed in 1950 as sawyer, and lived in a house on the north side of the laneway—now the entrance to the community centre. His old shed still stands beside the baseball diamond. Herb Nicholls was also a sawyer for the Bow Lake Lumber Company.

Many of the logs at Dancey’s Mill were cut into railway ties, which were sold to the Canadian National Railway—the station was just down the road. Mr. Higgins was the inspector for the railway, who visited the mill to ensure that the produce was up to standard. In 1951, the mill burnt. Tom Eaton would work overnight, keeping the fire stoked, so that the boiler would not freeze and break. But that night, hot coals rolled out of the boiler and ignited the mill. Unfortunately, when this tragedy struck, Dancey’s insurance had lapsed, but he would rebuild the facility from the ground up. Carmen Pearce travelled to Sault Ste. Marie to acquire a diesel engine, which was repurposed from a boat.

Stanley Dancey operated the mill until he was debilitated by Parkinson’s disease. He passed the mill to his son Blake, who operated it into the 1960s. But by then, the railways were in decline, there was less demand for the produce and it closed. Blake sold the property, to become the Burnt River Somerville Community Centre.

Burnt River Telephone Company

In the late nineteenth century, electricity and the telephone became practical technologies that had the potential to become part of daily life in rural Ontario. The telegraph reached the Kawarthas before the telephone, and in Burnt River, like many other communities, telegraphs were sent from the railway station. Frequently used for business communications, they needed to be short (like text messages today) and were relatively expensive to send. Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, and in 1891, Fenelon Falls, Bobcaygeon and Lindsay residents agreed to support a Bell Telephone installation linking the three communities.

For the first few years, telephone was an expensive luxury, typically limited to larger businesses or wealthy individuals. But in the early twentieth century, ever more families aspired to have this convenience. The Bell Telephone Company was Canada’s largest and most famous operator, but could not afford to service every small community. Private telephone companies were common in rural Canada—by 1921, Ontario had 689 other phone companies.

After a series of public meetings, local residents bought shares in the Burnt River Telephone Company, allowing it to open in 1908. It initially operated out of Sam Suddaby’s house—he was the first operator, and his home also served as post office. By the end of the year, the company had established communications with Fenelon Falls and Kinmount. In 1911, the Burnt River Telephone company reached Baddow and Coboconk, crossing the Burnt River on the ingenious suspension bridge that William Wilson built out of page wire on the Third Concession (imagine what safety inspectors would say today!). Kinmount had its own, smaller telephone company had 33 customers at its peak, and the Rumney Settlement Telephone Company served 14 (named for a community on the east side of Shadow Lake).

It was a wonderful convenience to have a telephone, allowing neighbours to pick up a device and talk to each other (or eavesdrop on them!). Each home on a party line was supposed to recognize its own combination of long and short rings, but everyone knew not to say anything on the phone that you wouldn’t say to your neighbour’s face. To call someone on a different party line, they would make one long ring, to summon Burnt River Central. The caller would say, “my name is ________, I would like to talk to ________.” Then the operator would know to connect them to the other line, and ring the correct house.

The former Suddaby home was consumed in the Great Fire of Burnt River in 1944, and has since been replaced with a bungalow. After the Second World War, the company substantially expanded, with Verlie Chalmers as its well-known operator. For a few years, Burnt River Central was located in her home, which was across from the Anglican Church. In 1956, it moved to the home of Mrs. Jack Mark, where it would remain. By 1970, it operated 516 telephones in Somerville, Verulam, Galway, Snowdon and Lutterworth Townships. Bell Telephone had grown so it could serve practically every little community in Ontario was actively buying out competing companies. It was a struggle for small companies like the Burnt River Telephone Company to switch from manual exchanges to direct dial service. In 1967, the company directors voted unanimously to sell out to Bell, effective November 15, 1970.

Downtown Burnt River, circa 1908

In the early twentieth century, Burnt River was a village that had grown up around the railway, servicing the surrounding farm communities. The export of limestone from the quarry and logging were two major local industries. The railway station was located on the east side of the main street. The square building in the distance is Wright’s General Store and the red brick building in the centre of this original photograph was also a general store.

It is thought that Joseph Eyres built this brick general store north of the railway in 1884, and it passed through several owners. Robert S. Frost operated this store from 1907 to 1920, when he sold it to Thomas and Annie Suddaby. They operated the store until 1935, passing it to Charles F. McNeil, who in turn sold out to John and June Handley. One customer remembers frequently visiting to buy B-B Bats—rectangular taffy lollipops.

The next house to the north, belonged to Sam Suddaby, who operated a store and the Burnt River Post Office on site. Sam was also the local Justice of the Peace. Starting in 1908, it also housed the office and switchboard of the newly-founded Burnt River Telephone Exchange. Suddaby was postmaster until 1921, when Elsie Sheehey took over, operating out of his home, just south of the Eyres-Frost-Suddaby-McNeil-Handley Store (obscured in this picture). The three buildings in the foreground perished in the Great Fire of 1944, but Elsie Sheehey’s was saved by wetting the roof during the conflagration.

After the fire, bungalows were built in place of the two storey homes and stores that once stood there. Burnt River did retain a business section for decades afterwards. The house on the right subsequently became Marion and Chester Godwin’s home and store. Chester worked at Handley Lumber in Fenelon Falls, so it was often Marion who looked after the shop. Today, Burnt River’s general stores are becoming a distant memory.

The Great Fire, 1944

Early in the afternoon on October 19, 1944, a fire started in Sheehey’s service station. At that time, the local fire fighters had nothing like the equipment that we take for granted today. Burnt River did not have a pumper truck, though neighbouring communities would help—once they could arrive. Villagers worked desperately, carrying buckets from the nearby swamp, but there was only so much they could do. At this time, roofs were typically sheeted with boards, covered with cedar shingles—which made great kindling. Once a few embers blew onto the roof, it could ignite the whole building.

Everyone in town helped as best they could, often by running into a building and carrying out what they could or by throwing water on nearby buildings to prevent them from catching on fire. The fire consumed Sheehey’s building, but not the gas pumps, Les Billing’s home (sawyer for the Bow Lake Lumber Company), John & June Handley’s home/store (see original photograph) and Stan & Rose Dancey’s home. The inferno was only stopped because the train arrived on the scene late in the afternoon and could pump out its boiler to contain the conflagration north of the tracks. Sheehey’s house, located beside the railway was saved–the villagers had held back the flames until the train arrived by wetting the roof with towels. ...

Aftermath of the Fire

... Sometimes after a great fire, settlements rebuild better than they were before. As had happened in Kinmount when it survived a great fire two years earlier, this would not be the case in Burnt River. In both villages, a large proportion of commercial activity flowed through the railway. With the advent of automobiles, people could drive to larger centres to conduct their business. In Burnt River, two of the village’s three stores were gone. Handley’s had been a beautiful brick building. As had happened in Kinmount, the buildings were built in the aftermath would not be as magnificent. At this time, if any insurance was held at all, it typically only covered a portion of the loss. Was it really worth rebuilding on the same scale? The Godwin family would operate a store north of the tracks after the fire, and the general store south of the tracks lasted until it burned in 1995.

Today, Burnt River is a very different village than it was on the morning of October 19, 1944. Today, newcomers to Burnt River would find it hard to imagine families spending practically their whole lives in this small community. The days when families would get by, cutting the trees on their lots so they could earn a little money, to buy flour and sugar at the general store are long gone. Could a village like Burnt River support three stores with two gas bars? A lot changed that afternoon and Burnt River would never be quite the same again.

Burnt River Flood, 1991

Much of the time, the Burnt River is a relatively shallow and placid watercourse, as it drains a significant proportion of Victoria, Peterborough and Haliburton Counties. But once every few years, the water level surges to an astounding degree. In those moments, it can be hard to believe the volumes of water that flow towards Cameron Lake.

Water levels on the Burnt River watershed have been carefully managed since the nineteenth century. Originally, lumber companies manipulated the waterway to produce deluges that could sweep their log booms downstream. In the twentieth century, this watershed has been managed to allow year-round navigation on the Trent-Severn Waterway—which would not be possible without holding back large quantities of water to maintain water levels in Summer and Autumn. Today, most people take precise hydrological management for granted—that the Burnt River will not rise and fall, and that the lakes will always contain just the right amount of water. This is a very unnatural state of affairs. Despite the infrastructure that has been developed, there is only so much that can be done.

The river flooded in 1976, but the spring of 1991 is often described as the worst flood in living memory—some claim it was even worse than the 1928 disaster that inundated downtown Kinmount, and caused much damage downstream. An unusually abrupt thaw caused the Burnt River to suddenly rise on April 9. In Kinmount, the river was starting to overflow its banks, threatening to flood the village, while eroding the shores around the dam. In an era where everyone expects precise water level management, the Ministry of Natural Resources faced a difficult choice: Should they allow Kinmount to flood or release the water downstream? They used sandbags to plug the eroded channels around the dam, and opened the dam, releasing some of the reservoir that was forming at the settlement. Was there any solution where there would not be significant flooding somewhere?

By April 11, the Burnt River had significantly overflowed its banks near the village of Burnt River. In some places where the river was typically 40 or 50 metres wide, it was then more than a kilometre in width. At Burnt River, roads on all sides of the village were inundated, fields and lawns were under water and at least 50 homes or cottages flooded. By then, water levels north of Kinmount were receding, but they were continuing to rise further south. At its peak, the river was 14 feet above its typical level. The original image here, shows the Burnt River, downstream of the village, with the old railway bridge (now the Victoria Rail trail) in the distance. ...

Burnt River Floods, 1991 and 2026

A comparison of the 1991 and 2026 floods south of Burnt River village

Burnt River Beach During the Flood, 1991

At Burnt River’s beach park, the water rose to the top of the outhouses, while overflowing the road near the adjacent bridge. Residents were trapped in their homes and were rescued by the Ontario Provincial Police using boats and four-wheel drive vehicles. The Burnt River Somerville Centre housed evacuated families. Furniture, propane tanks, picnic tables, decks and docks were floating down the river. One farmer had a bridge over the river on his laneway—which was inundated with 10 feet of water, so he parked his car on the road and used a rowboat to reach his home—he was prepared for the crisis. Fenelon Falls’ Canadian Tire was kept busy delivering sump pumps. Many wells were flooded, making them unsafe. Many roads, especially small cottage roads, became impassable and some washed out. In some areas, such as Cedar Plank Cottages, electrical service had to be discontinued for safety reasons.

The flood was a shocking event for the community and people began to ask how it had happened. Rumours began to circulate that a dam had broken, which was refuted with an official press release. In the aftermath, many angry citizens attended a public meeting at the Burnt River Somerville Centre. They sought to have it declared a disaster and were concerned that even if disaster relief was granted, it would only help permanent residents. Some were inclined to believe that human errors had caused the flood, which might have helped with insurance claims on policies where “Acts of God” were excluded. The residents demanded a public inquiry. But at the end of the day, what would it take to stop the Burnt River from rising?

Flooding on East Line Road, 1991 and 2026

Since 1991 there have been more memorable floods on the Burnt River. In 2026, Minden declared a state of emergency as the flooding on the Gull and Burnt Rivers attracted national media coverage. The fire department had to perform at least one evacuation in the vicinity. At Burnt River, the water levels did not reach the same levels as 1991, but they were still high enough to turn many local structures into islands in the Burnt River.

Burnt River Station

Burnt River grew as a railway town and its business section was in close proximity to the station. Work began on building the Victoria Railway in 1874, it reached Burnt River in 1876, and was operating from Lindsay to Haliburton by 1878. The railway created demand for building stone and rail ties as it was being built—both commodities that could be produced in abundance around Burnt River. Once it was complete, it made it practical to economically export stone, lumber, posts and farm produce from the region.

Burnt River’s first railway station was a small flag stop, located where the railway intersected the road to Coboconk (now #43), called Rettie’s Station after the family who owned the adjacent farm. Rettie’s Station included a large wood yard, which often stored storing posts, rail ties and pulp wood. The section foreman lived on the west side of the tracks, about a mile north of the village, with freight sheds at that site. In that era, as farms were being cleared, it was common practice to burn all the felled vegetation that was not either readily saleable or usable on the farm. Dave Nichols set a fire on Lot 13, Concession 7, which a westerly wind fanned into a blaze that consumed the foreman’s house, office and freight sheds. Then in 1888, Rettie’s Station, with 600 cords of pulp wood was also destroyed by fire.

As the railway rebuilt, they decided to combine the station and freight yard at a central location half way in between. Alexander Rettie Sr. protested, but to no avail. The station continued to be called Rettie’s Station until 1896—when the hamlet became known as Burnt River (Kinmount had previously used the name, until it received its current name as a post office town in 1859). In the years that followed, the community grew around this new, consolidated transportation hub.

The Victoria Railway merged into the Midland Railway, then the Grand Trunk Railway, before being absorbed into the Canadian National Railway in 1923. Up to the mid twentieth century, it remained the primary means of long-distance travel to and from the community, and of shipping freight. Many of the visitors who came to stay at Holliday’s Hideaway or a cottage took the train—there was a special train on Friday evening in summer, with a Sunday evening return to the city. Drivers would meet travellers at the station to take them to their destination.

Bob Hanthorn served as section foreman from 1926 until 1942, when he was transferred to Fenelon Falls—and would later retire to a farm just south of the village. The Canadian National Railway transferred station agent Stanley Dancey from Campbellcroft to Burnt River in 1932. He would also operate a sawmill in the village—the Bow Lake Lumber Company, largely producing material for the railway. Charles Hodgson was a conductor for many years, while his sons Reg, Tom and Bonnar, as well as grandson Roger worked on the railway too. Fred Godwin and Hughie Sheehey were section hands, while Jack Rettie was a maintenance mechanic in the Lindsay Round House. ...

Last Train Through Burnt River, 1960

Automobiles were becoming common in the 1920s and 1930s. After the Second World War, roads and vehicles improved, as snowplowing became the norm—allowing cars and trucks to become practically universal as a mode of transportation. As traffic declined on the railway, its demise became inevitable. The last scheduled passenger train rolled through Burnt River in September 1960. To mark the occasion, Miss Kellar took her class from Burnt River’s School to Haliburton—as is shown in the original image. Volumes of freight also declined, and when the line washed out north of Howland Junction in 1978, the northern end of the line closed. When the McLaren’s Creek bridge burned in 1980, it was not worth rebuilding, and the tracks were lifted. When the station closed, Carmen Wood purchased the building, dismantled it and used the material for buildings on his farm. Doug Godwin purchased the lot to add to his adjacent property. In the 1990s, the old railway line was reincarnated as the Victoria Rail Trail.

The Wilson House

The Wilson house is one of the older buildings in Burnt River and is thought to date from the 1890s. In the original photograph it is shown with the blacksmith shop that operated next door. Bob Wilson married Maggie Cain, and together they had a daughter, Helen. Maggie sold baked goods and operated an ice cream parlour that was much enjoyed by her community. Bob worked at the Burnt River Quarry, which was then one of the village’s largest employers, but unfortunately was killed in a 1921 dynamite accident. Maggie and Helen remained in the village for a few years, but then moved to Toronto.

In 1926, Alma and Dave Wood married and moved into the former Wilson house, where Alma served as Burnt River’s postmistress. It was a very convenient location, being immediately beside the train station, in an era when it carried the post. In 1948 she built a new house across the road, where John & June Handley’s general store and home had once stood, prior to the Great Fire. At that time, she sold the former Wilson house to Doug and Joyce Godwin, who would live there until they passed away in the mid 1990s.

Red Cross Booth

During the Great War (1914-1918) residents of Burnt River operated a Red Cross Booth beside Bob and Maggie Wilson’s bake shop and ice cream parlour. The Red Cross raised money to help mitigate the ghastly human costs of the war—wounded soldiers, the devastation of much large areas of Europe and refugees. Many Burnt River residents did what they could to help, especially women, who knitted socks, scarves and sweaters for soldiers serving overseas. In the original photograph, the building in the background is the freight shed from the Railway Station.

Wright’s General Store

In 1900, Burnt River was a railway town that was prosperous enough to support multiple stores. The local quarry, forest industries and agriculture were all important sources of employment and exports. That year, Dave Chalmers Sr. and family opened a general store south of the train tracks, on the west side of the main street. The Chalmers Family had previously lived near Kinmount.

In 1910, George and Sarah Wright of Bobcaygeon purchased the business, and would live on site. They were active members of the Methodist (United) Church, which was located across the road—George served as Sunday School superintendent. In their early years of operating the business, they sold dry goods, groceries, meat, work clothes, boots, drugs, remedies, cigarettes, tobacco, coal oil and paint. Before long, the first automobiles started to appear in Burnt River, and by 1917 the store featured gas pumps and sold ice cream, illustrated by the image of George Wright standing beside a Ford, that was parked in front of his store. The building also served as an inn and boarding house—with eight rooms for rent. The Wright family served meals for $1, and many quarry workers ate there over the years. ...

Wright's Store Through the Years

... By the time that the quarry sold in 1924, and soon closed, the rush to export the local old-growth pines had also ended. Once the Great Depression began, many local residents scarcely had enough to get by, and the store also faced challenging times. In 1941, George suddenly died while delivering groceries to a remote home on Four Mile Lake. Sarah continued the business with the help of her son, Roddy, wife Eva (Barr) and their family, until her declining health forced her to pass the business to Roddy. ...

Wright's Service Station and Chatterbox Snack Bar

... In the second generation, Wright’s continued to be a country store—complete with cattle pasturing in the field behind. In keeping with the customs of general stores, merchandise was displayed at sales counters. There were jars containing beans, macaroni and other foods for sale. A customer would come in and place an order, for instance for a pound each of flour and peas—in contrast to the supermarkets that reached larger centres in the 1950s, where customers helped themselves from display shelves. Roddy expanded the business with another building next door, which served as a White Rose gas station. In 1947, Roddy & Eva added the Chatterbox snack bar to the service station, which their daughter, Rhoda, often helped to staff. It was popular with local youth.

Wright’s General Store was one of Burnt River’s favourite places to socialize. Many farm families looked forward to visiting the store, as it was their chance to catch up on the neighbourhood gossip. Many families brought goods like butter and eggs to barter. Village residents would fondly remember square dancing in the street in front of Wright’s. Roddy was much appreciated for playing his fiddle at community gatherings, including the dances at the Orange Hall.

In May 1966, Sarah passed away, then later that year Roddy and Eva retired to Lindsay. Joe Doherty purchased the business, rechristened as the Burnt River General Store. Helen Lowry was its next owner, and the business would have many different proprietors in its final years. Wayne Belshaw and his brother acquired the business in 1994, only to have it burn on the Civic Holiday weekend of the next year. Though the general store had been a huge part of village life for nearly a century, it would not be rebuilt. But many long-time local residents would never forget the times that they spent at Wright’s Store.

White Rose Gas Bar on East Line Road

When George and Sarah Wright had purchased a general store on the main street of Burnt River in 1910, it was a town organized around the railway. As their son was growing up, automobiles were rapidly becoming the prevalent mode of transportation, and Burnt River village would be bypassed as the new Fenelon Falls to Kinmount Road was built (named Highway 121 in 1955). The earlier route had passed directly through the village: Fenelon Falls to Nelson’s Coners; through Baddow on Northline Road; then east to Burnt River village; north up the main street and through the Pinery and Watson’s Siding to the Monck Road; then east into Kinmount. As motorists drove around the village, many did not think to stop.

Roddy married Eva Barr, whose uncle (Dave Steel) owned land on the new route. In the late 1930s, Roddy purchased a lot (now the corner of County Roads 44 and 121) to build a White Rose Gas Station, with cabins which tourists could rent (just south of the gas station on the side of the road). He built a small house on site, which was set up so the front could be used as a snack bar. In many ways, it offered similar services to their main street store—just located on the emerging transportation route. Eva’s mother, Jenny, helped to operate it as a seasonal business in 1941 and 1942. Jenny was a very capable woman, who acted as a practical nurse and midwife for the community.

Around 1943, Roddy decided that operating both businesses at the same time was excessive, so he sold the newer service station and store to Wesley and Cora Switzer, who had recently returned to Burnt River, after living in St. Catherines. In the early 1950s, they passed the business to their daughter Velma and her husband Ab MacDuff. In 1952, the house burned, and Wesley rebuilt it, then sold the business to Wilbur Duvall. By the 1960s, Wilbur had decided to close the business, and moved away, selling it as a home to his son Bob and wife Dorothy (Lamb).

In 1964, Milton Switzer and his wife Marina (Barr) returned to Burnt River from Lindsay, buying a lot on the corner of Burnt River Road and Highway 121, south of the village, which they converted into a new gas station and convenience store. It would be Burnt River’s final service station, which operated until 1986, when Milton was permanently hospitalized. Marina sold the business to Randy and Teija Thurston, who converted it into a private home.

Sheehey’s Gas Station

Ralph and Margaret Sheehey opened gas station on the main street of Burnt River, on the lot beside their home in 1937. At the time, automobiles were still becoming commonplace, and many families still relied on their faithful team of horses, especially in winter, because rural roads were not consistently plowed. Though automobiles were far less common than they are today, Burnt River had two gas stations—the other operated by the Wright family.

Sheehey’s service station burned in the great fire on October 19, 1944, but was soon rebuilt. Though contemporaries would call this Shell station a garage, repairs were not done on site, though it did have an air compressor and one room variety store. Ralph was a Somerville Township Road Superintendent, often taking him from home during the day, so Margaret would watch from her kitchen window next door, and head over if a customer pulled up at the pumps.

Cousin Gloria Hutchison recalled, “I remember many times going to the service station shop, which was located just behind the two gas pumps and purchasing a chocolate bar, which cost 10 cents at the time. My dad would have his car gas tank filled up for a total of $2.00. The small shop provided oil and other necessary automotive products on one side, and had a soda fountain with the stools that were fashionable at the time on the other side of the entrance door. The shop certainly was a gathering place for everyone in Burnt River.” Ralph retired from pumping gas in 1975, then later sold the property to his son Reg, who added on to the small store, converting it into a bungalow, that he later sold to his brother Bob.

Burnt River Community Centre

For much of the twentieth century, Burnt River’s churches and Orange Lodge served as community halls, hosting dinners, movies, dances, weddings, funerals and many other events. In 1972, the Burnt River and District Recreation Association began working towards constructing a purpose-built community centre. It purchased the Bow Lake Lumber Company sawmill site, which was operated by Stanley, then Blake Dancey. Local students spent their summers working to improve the park, making it suitable for games like baseball. Somerville Township, Wintario and many donors contributed to constructing the Burnt River Community Centre, allowing it to open in 1983. The site has changed little since Erick Watson took this aerial photograph in April 1991.

Hodgson's Bridge - East Line

The first bridge across the Burnt River was Rettie’s Bridge, a wooden structure built in 1865, south of the present-day village—named for the pioneering family that lived nearby. For a period of time, the nascent settlement was beside this crossing, and shared its name with this structure. With just this bridge across the Burnt River, access could be circuitous when travelling to the north. By the 1880s, a floating bridge spanned the Burnt River on the East Line, between concessions 6 and 7 of Somerville Township, beside Jim Nichols’ saw mill. Though floating bridges were easier to build, they tended to sink as vehicles crossed, and had to be maintained as they were battered by ice, floods and log drives.

In 1894, Hodgson’s Bridge, a wooden truss replaced the floating bridge. In 1928, the Burnt River had its worst flood in recorded history, causing the Kinmount dam to burst, sending a deluge downstream. Beulah Hanthorn (Robson) recalled, “when the high water forced the Kinmount Dam to give way, the river overflowed in many low places inundating farmers’ fields. Debris and water built up against the wooden bridge on the East line until the bridge gave away and the long timbers floated southward with the rushing water. Older boys caught several long timbers and secured them to the bank. After the flood waters subsided to a normal level these timbers were properly fastened to the shoreline and stretched out on the water.” Having been destroyed by the flood, Hodgson’s Bridge needed to be replaced, but in the depths of the Great Depression, a used steel bridge was more affordable, so it rolled into town on the railway, allowing it to open to traffic in 1931. ...

The images show the construction of Hodgson's Bridge (1894) and Charles O. Hodgson on the Used Steel Bridge (1931) in 1952.

East Line Bridge

... The 1931 used steel bridge was in turn replaced by a steel and concrete bridge, which opened on June 15, 1967 (under construction in historic photograph). All the students from Burnt River’s Public School walked out to witness the ceremonies. It would survive the floods of 1976 and 1991, providing access to the village for generations to come.

Handley's Bridge

As farm families were moving to south-central Ontario to take up agricultural lots, if a lot was divided by a watercourse, it would often form a natural barrier, with separate families living on each side. But Joseph Handley Sr. was not a typical pioneer farmer. He was a very enterprising man, who operated a sawmill, and as he took the timber off a lot, he would put cattle on. Lots 14 and 15, Concession 5 (on a sharp bend in the Burnt River, south of the village) were among his acquisitions and straddled both the Victoria Railway and river. To facilitate access to the other side of the river, he built a floating bridge, which could be moved out of the way when log drives came through. It was an economical option, in an era when floating bridges were even employed on roadways. They tended to sink while crossing, so one had to keep moving.

In 1902, Joe Sr. commissioned Joseph Brisbin to construct a 200-foot wooden bridge spanning the river joining the two parts of Lot 14. Unlike its predecessor, it was designed to accommodate wagons, as well as livestock. Though other Somerville residents built bridges to facilitate public traffic, having a private bridge that was substantial enough to carry a horse and wagon was quite unusual. The bridge lasted into the 1940s, and by then the world had changed. His son, Joe Jr. was operating a lumber business, driving around the countryside to pick up logs, and shipping produce to distant markets. Though the day came when it was no longer worth repairing, Handley’s Bridge would long be remembered by Burnt River residents.

Handley's Mill

Joseph Handley Sr. settled near Burnt River in 1877, being one of the community’s early settlers. While many pioneers were primarily interested in agriculture, Joe Sr. made a business of harvesting timber, then using the cleared lots for agriculture. In 1918, his son Joe Jr. opened a shingle mill at Burnt River. By then, the era of harvesting the old growth pine trees had ended, but many other species could be found in the cutover forests. Most buildings in that era had cedar shingle roofs, and there were plenty of cedar trees in the surrounding forests to meet this need.

Once the ground was frozen it was no longer possible to do field work, so many farmers spent the winter working in the woods—cutting firewood, posts, tankbark or logs. The logs were hauled with horse and sleigh to Joe Jr.’s shingle mill, where they were cut into knot-free blocks that were 16 inches long, then sawn into thin slabs. These slabs were trimmed of any bark, producing a cedar shake, that would be used to shingle a roof. This process made two bi-products: Excelsior resembled curly straw and was used for packing fragile merchandise for shipping. Snipes were the slivers of bark taken from the edge of shingles, which was excellent kindling.

On January 18, 1924, Joe Jr. was transporting the carriage track, trimmers, edger and cut off saw from an abandoned mill he owned on the Third Concession of Somerville to add a sawmill to the shingle mill that was located beside his house. As his team crested the ledge hill south of Burnt River, he could see the smoke in the distance as his house was in flames. A spark from his furnace had ignited the pile of snipes from the shingle mill. The fire spread first to his white brick house and then to the shingle mill. The house was completely destroyed, but the boiler and steam engine survived on the cement pad from the shingle mill. Joe Jr. used these to rebuild, as he persisted in the face of this tragedy to move the sawmill to Burnt River. He had good help in completing the mill: Carpenter Angus Campbell, millwright Bill Rettie and engineer Owen Rettie.

When the new sawmill was completed, the logs continued to be brought in winter by horse and sleigh—in that era, it was easiest to move heavy loads on packed snow, rather than on rough, muddy roads, especially through forests. Over the course of the winter, the logs came into the yard, which could then be sawn for the rest of the year. Once the yard was full, they would be piled along the ditch, from the corner of the main street to the beaver meadow. Before the advent of hydraulic machinery, all these logs either had to be lifted by hand, or swung up a ramp using horses. After Christmas, the mill sawed the logs in the yard first, creating space to stack the lumber, mill slabs and edgings produced. ...

Handley's Mill (continued)

... Joe Jr.’s business continued to grow in the 1930s, as he acquired Fred Chambers’ Fenelon Falls planing mill and his first tractor trailer in 1936. During the Great Depression, cutting logs was a very important source of employment for local families, as trucking became the norm. Because rural roads were not reliably plowed in winter, trucking often had to wait until spring. His employees would drive around the countryside buying logs from local farmers. Cedar posts and pulp wood were also commonly produced, and piled in Charlie Hodgson’s field for export, right beside Burnt River Station. Cedar posts were readily saleable, but had to be peeled first. Many Burnt River boys worked on this laborious job, earning one cent per post. Joe Jr. continued to cut his own logs, with Ernie Anstey and his son Clifford as lumberjacks.

The sawmill had a cookhouse and bunkhouse to accommodate the men working there. Peggy (Handley) Rettie recalled: “When the whistle at the mill blew, the cook knew the meal had to be on the table. The tradition of the monastic rule of silence meal time is obscured in the past, but not one word was said except perhaps, "pass the bread". The workers would eat big meals... meat, potatoes and corn syrup... in fifteen minutes. Eat and get out was the rule. The pork came, not in the form of roasts and chops, which would have required refrigeration, but salted, cured bellies, packed in boxes. This fat pork was used to fuel the men, because strenuous exercise in cold weather causes the human constitution to crave fat. Some of the pork was also bought from the farmers in the district. Chester Godwin recalled being given the job of helping Ray to kill and butcher a large sow that had been purchased from Joe Handley's brother, Robert. It weighed well over 600 lbs, and the only way the boys could scald it to remove the bristles was to lay sacks over it, and then pour hot water over all. The diet of the lumberjack was soon to become less dependent on fat port, however. With refrigeration there was fresh meat, vegetables, and even apple and raisin pie. Warm raisin pie, with corn syrup, was a specialty. Mmmm, good!”

Joe Jr.’s son John drove the tractor trailer to Toronto, where the Wirebound Box Company bought poplar lumber, while pine was shipped to the Laidlaw Lumber Company. Ray Handley drove the other truck delivering the mill slabs to the Coboconk lime kilns, hauling eight cords per load. When Chester Godwin became a driver in 1937, John switched to operating the Fenelon Falls business. Joe Jr. passed away in 1945, and the business was operated by his widow, Mattie, before passing to his two sons. Ray, alongside his lifelong best friend Chester Godwin, operated Handley Lumber in Fenelon Falls, while John carried on the Burnt River sawmill. Like his father, John had a devastating fire to overcome: His home and main street store were consumed in the Great Fire of Burnt River on October 19, 1944.

The postwar boom ushered in a new era of prosperity and the old ways of life in Burnt River were changing. As most families came to have an automobile and winter snowplowing became the norm, ever more families had off-farm employment, and younger generations tended not to spend their winters in the woods, cutting logs as had been customary in previous generations. Stamped lumber became the norm for construction, and it tended to be produced in much larger, more mechanized operations located in areas where the forests were much more abundant. Stamped spruce lumber could be imported for less than local logs could be sawn. The Burnt River sawmill ceased to operate, while Handley Lumber shifted to selling imported lumber, rather than retailing local produce. John died of cancer in 1980, and his brother Ray continued to operate the Fenelon Falls business until he died in 1999. Handley Lumber is now in its fourth generation, operated by Joe Jr.’s great-grandson, Chris.

St. Luke's Anglican Church

As European immigrants moved to the forests south-central Ontario in the nineteenth century, churches were typically among the first institutions. As the first churches opened, many of these settlements had neither a chapel nor a minister and had to make do with what they had. Some were served by travelling preachers, others employed lay readers, which were typically an educated local resident. Until a chapel could be constructed—which might take several years—private homes, schools and other community buildings often served as a makeshift church. The Rettie Family were the first settlers of the community that would later become known as Burnt River (then Rettie’s Bridge) in the 1860s.

The community’s first church services were held in the log schoolhouse on Lot 13, Concession 5 of Somerville, under the auspices of the Methodist Church, with Rev. Tapscott, the Baptist Minister from Fenelon Falls conducting the services. In 1888, Nancy McIntyre donated land to construct the Methodist Church on the main street. If anyone had wanted to attend an Anglican Church, the nearest chapel was St. Peter’s Bury’s Green, which would have taken about an hour and half or two hours by horse and wagon/buggy/sleigh.

Robert Maconachie was a British civil servant, who had worked for many years in India. When he retired, he decided to move to Canada with his wife and three children to become a gentleman farmer—for generations owning farmland had been associated with social standing in Britain. Robert purchased 675 acres of what was said to be farmland in Somerville Township from an English land agency, sight unseen. He commissioned a red brick manor house and gatehouse to be completed before he arrived in 1895.

While he lived in England, Robert was a lay reader in the Church of England, and it was very important to him to have an Anglican Church in his new community. Beginning in 1896, he organized divine services in the Orange Hall (which was immediately beside the Methodist Church), while hosting Sunday School and some community events in his manor home. Children remembered visiting the Maconachie home to see their first Christmas tree, which featured lit candles—as was fashionable in that era. Children would receive an orange or a small book as a Christmas present—which would have been very special in Burnt River in the Victorian era. That year, he received his formal qualifications to serve as a lay reader in Canada, and was supervised by the Anglican minister at Fenelon Falls and Bury’s Green, the Reverend William Farncomb.

Becoming a gentleman farmer in the woods north of Burnt River did not turn out as well as Robert had hoped and he returned to England, but his three sons remained in Canada. They followed in his footsteps: One became a civil servant, the other two attended the agricultural college at Guelph. Trained in agriculture, Rowland, also became a lay reader, taking over his father’s position in 1899. He would later go back to school and become an Anglican minister, and would preach at Lindsay. The manor house burned, and the bricks were salvaged to build a house near Fenelon Falls (later occupied by Barry Jenkins). The gatehouse was moved to become a cottage on Four Mile Lake. In 1929, the estate became part of the Victoria County Forest—the Somerville Tract or Pinery.

Before Ronald left for England, he began the process of building a chapel which Rowland would continue. In that era, most rural churches were frame buildings with wood siding. Some churches were made of brick. But Burnt River’s Anglican Church would be like the old churches of England, with solid stone walls. Parishioner Sam Suddaby owned the stone quarry on the railway south of the village and William Shuttleworth was a stonemason. Joseph Handley Sr. was the community’s sawmiller. When these four men worked together, great things were possible. Sam Suddaby designed the 37x25 foot building, with a 10x18 entry hall and vestry. The building would cost more than $750, which was a considerable sum in that era. John Hodgson donated the land.

A bee was arranged, and within a few days, the limestone was cut at Suddaby’s quarry and drawn to the site using horse and wagon. The committee hired Richard Carr, a master stonemason from Irondale to build the chapel. This skilled tradesman took the time to cut and shape the limestone blocks before laying them. It has been said that he was doing a better job than the congregation could afford, so the work was finished by a local tradesman, likely William Shuttleworth. The difference between the two masons’ work is apparent when looking at the building—the stones near the top and on the back of the church are rougher, and not as uniformly cut. But this distinction is part of what makes the church special. Constructed in 1903, it was officially opened in May 1904.

St. Luke’s Anglican Church was a cozy little stone church, heated with a wood stove and lit with coal oil lamps. Heating the church, filling and cleaning the lamps was laborious. In the 1920s, gasoline lights were hung from the ceiling, which could be filled at Wright’s Service Station. Electric lights were introduced in 1936.

When St. Luke’s Anglican Church opened, families would either walk or bring their horses to church. A driving shed was needed to accommodate the equines, which was completed by 1920. The second story was a parish hall, finished with hardwood panelling, that included a stage and a rudimentary kitchen. Along with the Orange Lodge, this parish hall hosted Sunday School and many community events, including events hosted by the United (formerly Methodist Church)—social events, card parties, wedding showers, meetings of community groups, and quilting bees. Ladies endured the heat as they cooked many meals on the woodstove. In 1935, it briefly hosted Continuation Classes (Grades 9 and 10) until the addition was completed at the Public School.

In 1955, once practically every family had an automobile, the first storey of the driving shed was converted into a larger community hall, with a more modern kitchen and seating for 75. At that time, the old air circulating wood stove from the church moved to the hall, as the chapel upgraded to oil heat. After the Burnt River Somerville Community Centre opened in 1983, many activities moved to the new facility, and the old church hall fell into disrepair. In 2001, it was disassembled and moved to Buckhorn, where it became a healing lodge and respite centre.

Originally, St. Luke’s Anglican Church was built in a traditional English Style, with parishioners entering at the front of the church, on the south side. In 1967, it was redesigned with entry at the back of the church, which created a centre aisle—it was said a young bride would not be married there without a centre aisle to walk down. The new entrance was made of limestone to match the original building.

Until 2007, the church did not have indoor washrooms—relying on an outhouse behind the building. To add washrooms, Peter Rea designed another addition—he would also do the carpentry work. As the old wall was being taken down, his brother Ernie saved the stones and relaid them on the road side. Because stone was no longer produced at the local quarry, Erick Watson ordered the closest matching commercially sold stone that he find, which was produced in Quebec. The design incorporated a cross, made from smoother stone, with the date engraved by Lindsay Monuments.

Many volunteers were needed to maintain a church in a small community like Burnt River. For generations, families faithfully attended Sunday service, and did their part to keep the organization going. One of the first church groups was the Willing Workers (later Women’s Auxiliary, Ladies Aid, Anglican Church Women), who hosted countless events, preparing many meals over the years. In the 1930s, the church asked each member to set one hen, raise the chicks, then donate them for a Thanksgiving Fowl Supper. The event was well advertised, and was an important fundraiser. In 1938 tickets were 40 cents for adults and 20 cents for children. The Women’s Auxiliary also hosted an annual Garden Party, where visitors could be told their fortune by reading tea leaves and churn ice cream. Many parishioners looked forward to seeing the children sing and dance at the May Pole for the church’s anniversary in May. For more than 50 years, Ada Handley taught Sunday School, and organized many youth activities, including Sunday School Picnics to Four Mile Lake.

When Robert Maconachie commissioned an ill-fated estate in the woods north of Burnt River, few would have realized how this venture would ultimately shape the community. It just happened that this lay reader was moving to a village, whose largest employer was a stone quarry that had the materials to build a beautiful little stone church, like so many found across the English countryside. Though his stay in Canada was short, the community took up his cause and built a unique chapel that would become a huge part of social life in the close-knit village of Burnt River.