Written By Ella Austin Scollick
Grand Island is one of a few large, prominent islands in the Kawartha Lakes region. Over the years, residents of Rosedale have enjoyed watching countless beautiful sunsets looking out over Grand Island. Located 9.5 kilometres southwest of Coboconk, the island is just over 2 kilometres long and almost the same width, containing about 1200 acres of land. In centuries past it was larger. The construction of the Trent-Severn Waterway raised water levels by 5 feet, flooding 300 acres on Grand Island, while creating Greenies Island to its southwest. Previously known as Cameron’s Island or Hooey’s Island, it has a unique and unusual history.
Circa 1500, the area around Balsam Lake was home to communities that archaeologists refer to as Iroquoians. Based on the artefacts that have been left behind, it is thought that they had a close relationship with contemporary Iroquoian groups living in the St. Lawrence Valley. They lived in palisaded villages of longhouses. They were agricultural communities that grew corn, hunted and fished.
The Kawartha Lakes region is a long way from deposits of copper that could be easily exploited. Occasionally, ancient copper tools are found in the region, but before 1700 most tools were made from bone or stone. Chert, a sedimentary rock consisting primarily of silica (SiO2) formed from skeletons of marine plankton, was a preferred material for knapping (chipping pieces of stone away to form) stone tools. Only a few deposits of chert were exploited in southern Ontario, and one of them occurred on Grand Island and Indian Point.
By the seventeenth century, the Iroquoians had moved to the region now commonly called Huronia (Wendake). They would later become known as Wendats (or Hurons), and were dispersed during a war with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). In the seventeenth century, Michi Saagiig (Mississaugas, Ojibwas) migrated south from villages around Lake Huron and Lake Superior to south-central Ontario. By the nineteenth century, the present site of Rosedale was a Michi Saagiig campsite. In the 1830s-1840s, missionaries led an unsuccessful attempt to create a model agricultural village on Indian Point (being an Alvar, there was little to no soil!). As European settlement was beginning in the region, there was evidence of previous human habitation in numerous locations on Grand Island. But at that time, archaeology was not the professional discipline that it is today, and little information was gleaned from the items that were found. There was much human activity on and around Grand Island, but many mysteries remain relating to how the island was used in centuries past.
In 1818, the Crown produced a treaty that which local Michi Saagiig chiefs were asked to place their marks on. It was a negotiation where the two parties spoke different languages, much was likely lost in translation. Contemporary documents suggest that the local villages did not believe that they were surrendering the islands for colonial settlement, though the document was subsequently interpreted that way, ultimately leading to a new treaty in 1923 and a more recent Supreme Court case.
In 1856, the Crown sold Grand Island to James Wallis, who was a land speculator, owning Fenelon Falls, Rosedale, and many other lots in the area. The Hooey family purchased it in 1864. They cleared some fields, planted vineyards, raised the first barn and built the first cabin on Grand Island. In 1886 a widowed Mrs. Hooey advertised “The Island in Balsam Lake”, also known as “Grand” or “Hooey’s” Island for sale in a local newspaper. It sold in 1888, and various owners succeeded the Hooey’s, such as the Smiths and Williams. The changes they would make were not as significant as those that the Hooeys had made in creating the farm.
In 1902 the Island was bought by Findley McDougall, John Brandon, and Henry Austin. These prominent businessmen were well known as the owners of a Fenelon Falls grist mill, and as exporters of farm produce. Looking to expand their cattle shipping and livestock ventures they purchased the island for farmland. As their partnership was known as the Syndicate, the farm on Grand Island soon became known as the Syndicate Farm.
In 1906 Henry Austin and his wife Sarah Jane assumed the ownership and management of the island from McDougall and Brandon. Shortly after in 1908 Henry died and his son William Edgar Austin took over the care of the farm. The tradition of passing down Grand Island and the duties of the farm have continued over the years and the Island went on to William E.’s sons William (Mac) MacKenzie, Charles, and Darrel Austin, and is now looked after by Mac’s son William (Bill) Brian Austin.
While part of Grand Island was converted into agricultural fields, other parts remained forested. In 1913, a dry summer made local forests unusually combustible, and in August a Great Fire began. Though not geographically contiguous, it tore through 175,840 acres primarily located north of the Trent-Severn Waterway—being one of the largest fires in Ontario’s history. The Lindsay Post reported: “A party went up to Grand Island on Tuesday to fight the flames there, which have already swept 500 acres of timbered land, and also consumed 100 cords of cut wood. Mr. W. Austin’s loss is already considerable, and unless rain comes soon to check the fires, and help the crops and other vegetation which are suffering from the long-continued drought, his loss and that of many others may assume serious proportion.”
Over the years, there has been much logging on Grand Island. Necessary to clear the fields, later on, trees were harvested to provide firewood for the farmhouses and cabins located on the island. One day in 1942, logging was interrupted by the first attack of what was said to be a “phantom bear” on the island by an article in The Lindsay Post. The bear was said to have “such an uncanny knack . . . of reappearing when least expected”. Eventually, a hunt was organised though the bear continued to evade any chasers. In the mid to late 1900s, logs from Grand Island were taken over the frozen lake by sled to the mill for Allen Wood Products, who produced many of their toys from the timber.
The Grand Island farm created by the Hooey Family, remains somewhat in use to this day. The orchard and vineyard maintenance seems to have ended with the Hooeys, but hay was cut on the island until about 1965. For generations, cattle were pastured and housed on the island. When Henry Austin, McDougall, and Brandon bought the island it was to expand their cattle shipping business. Around 1952, Bill Austin recalls “fifteen or so cows were in the barn down by the house and they milked them every day and took the cream to Fenelon Falls… When it came time to milk the cows in the afternoon, grandma (Jessie MacKenzie) would send the old dog skipper out to bring the cows back. She’d say ‘Skipper take Billy and go get the cows,’ the dog was trusted with me too and we both went and got the cows.”
The Austin family continues to pasture cattle on the island to this day. The cows must be barged over the water every spring and back across every fall. This requires a fair amount of coordination. First, the cattle trucks arrive at the Austin’s landing in Rosedale, the barge arrives at the dock and is properly moored. Then the first cattle truck is attached to an enclosed ramp leading onto the barge, the first load of cattle is put onto the barge and sent to the island and the cattle are offloaded. The return trip in the fall is much the same however it includes the rounding up of the cattle, which can sometimes take weeks if there are stragglers. When the barge is not being used for cattle, it is hauling construction material to other islands in Balsam Lake.
Today, Grand Island consists of several cleared fields, with cottages along the lakeshore, alongside wetlands, with maple and cedar forests. For over 120 years, the Austin family have enjoyed their time on Grand Island. But much as it has changed as the decades have passed, it still consists of farms, forests and habitations. It still is a local landmark as boats pass through the gateway into Balsam Lake.
This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum.
If you want to make a donation to the museum, you can e-transfer to: [email protected] or mail a cheque to :
Maryboro Lodge Museum
Box 179
50 Oak Street
Fenelon Falls, ON
K0M 1N0
