CIRCLE "C" RANCH, PENETANGUISHENE
This section, like a museum, is a work in progress
for the next while, as I install some thoughts, photos and history .
The Martin family is an old Canadian family that has long roots that trace back to France. Our forefathers arrived here with Samuel de Champlain, as engineers and such.
They became courier de bois, the romantic but rugged individuals who ran and paddled the forests, rivers and lakes of New France and Upper Canada. The Courier de Bois was important in the early Canadian economy, exploring, settling, harvesting and transporting trade goods on foot or by canoe settling in the Penetang area about 1615.
Many of the residents of Penetanguishene came to this country on the same boats as the Martins, with Champlain. They all seemed to settle in around the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron.
Much of Awenda Provincial Park belonged to the Martin family. I have early memories of Awenda Provincial Park. I remember falling through the ice in the swamp, spattered with the tracks because it was "a deer yard", when I was a child.
Massassauga Provincial Park had been, for years, my paddling playground. I was disturbed to hear that a park was planned. The name long-considered was Blackstone Provincial Park.
Somewhat in the middle of Massassauga Park is Sans Souci Island. My family owned the grocery store there.
As well, on Vanderdassen Island, my uncle Laval (whose name lives on in my son)and aunt Isobel ran a lodge called Valabel Lodge. I used to paddle two hours each way to pick up the mail.
I had many an interesting time in the Bay with that little 12 Chestnut cedar and canvas canoe. I can tell you stories.
But the history of the Martin family is forever stored in the Parry Sound Museum, the Penetang Museum, and in several books. The stories of the severe storms on the Bay, shipwrecks, and infinite tales of other adventures were simply a part of the every day life of the Martins on Georgian Bay.
Our family ran fleets of tugboats to the Lakehead, now Thunder Bay, and ran many a logging camp " up the shore ". My grandfather was a Great Lakes Captain, and piloted a tour boat, the Penetang 88, as well as being a guide for wealthy Toronto people. There were guns stacked behind every door, it seemed, but this was the every day life of this family who lived by their wits and smarts in a land so harsh of wind, sea and shore.
The Marine Heritage of the Martin Family
The marine underpinnings of the Martin family and Penetang are captured in the beautiful stained glass window of the great cathedral St. Anne's Memorial Church (built 1886), shown here. Is it any wonder that I love the Bay, the rivers, the lakes of the hinterland?
I sing songs by Champlain's shipmate descendants, my friends, and of course my own songs about the Bay. These are some of the names of those fellow explorer pioneers: Charlebois, the Robitailles, the Martins, the Labatts.
Read the martyrdom of the founding Fathers of St. Anne's Memorial Church.
SEE ALSO: ONE OF MY MANY EXPERIENCES ON THE BAY - "High Sea Adventure In Ontario"
PROUD CANADIAN HERITAGE SINCE 1600's
