By Glenn Walker
KAWARTHA LAKES-I met Guy Scott when I went on a tour that he was giving of the old abandoned mines near Irondale. It soon became apparent what a special person he was. He had an understanding of the Kinmount region, past and present, that I doubt anyone will ever match.
Guy loved to learn and explore. The characters of the region’s past were just as alive to him as the people that he knew today. His knowledge spanned a remarkably large region, which he called the Ottawa-Huron Tract, reflecting the nineteenth century name for the area running from Georgian Bay to the Ottawa River on the fringe of the Canadian Shield.
Nobody knew this region quite like Guy Scott.
Being a young historian, I got to know Guy Scott as I learned from him. He really enjoyed touring me around the Kinmount region, going to ghost towns and showing me the historic sites of the region. I was always the sort of person that was inclined to stand back and observe what was happening. Guy was the opposite—wherever we went, he would walk right up to whoever was there and start a conversation. He would march into just about any place. I was always afraid that we were going to get yelled at. So often, the property owner would look grumpy when they saw me, but then “Oh, it’s Guy Scott!” Wherever we went it seemed that everyone knew and appreciated Guy Scott.
Guy taught me that the unique skill of a politician was the ability to walk into a room and have everyone feel better because you are there. He told me that he knew some people who had that skill, but he was not one of them. This was one thing that Guy was wrong about, because I would have a hard time thinking of anyone that so many people knew and loved. This seemed to be true wherever we went. I never saw anyone who didn’t like Guy Scott. He truly was a local legend of the most positive kind.
It is hard to imagine Kinmount without him.
The acorn does not fall far from the tree. Guy’s parents were both unforgettable Kinmount characters. They operated a general store just north of the village’s bridge. Guy liked to tell the story of how one day the butcher couldn’t come in, so Bill was right there to help. He spent the morning talking to everyone who came into the store, and found the time to cut about six pieces of meat… then gave each one away. It really was Betty who ran the business, while Bill became the Member of Parliament.
Bill loved horses, and he was very much at home in small towns and farming communities. It seemed that just about every rural family in the district knew Bill Scott. Guy inherited his father’s place as someone who seemed to know everyone and everything about the region. He built on that by studying his region’s history in depth.
Bill Scott worked tirelessly to help community organizations, particularly the Kinmount Fair. In the 1970s, he helped to bring Tommy Hunter to the fair, as it received national media exposure. The fair became a remarkably successful event for a small village on the edge of the Canadian Shield. Guy followed in his father’s footsteps, volunteering for the fair as he also recorded its history. Guy was instrumental to many local organizations, including the Kinmount Gazette and Kinmount Heritage Centre. When asked, I never heard Guy say that he wouldn’t help. He was happy to serve on just about any committee that would improve the lives of people in his region.
Guy was a natural as a teacher and a prolific historian. In 1987, he published History of Kinmount: A Community on the Fringe, and would go on to publish many other volumes on the region. He often said that he came across as much material on Kinmount and region after he published the book as he had before. With his typical generosity, he shared each interesting tidbit through the Kinmount Gazette.
For everything that he accomplished, I never knew Guy to make it a situation be about him. He was very happy to share, and happy to have others build upon his work. He contributed anything that he had written to Maryboro Lodge Museum, as we were happy to share with him. Over the years, I wrote stories on many of the same topics that he had covered. He enjoyed reprinting my stories in the Kinmount Gazette (with drone photographs!) as we shared his work. Whenever I published one of Guy’s
stories, I knew it would have a following. When I published both his story and my own on the same subject, I often found that more people appreciated Guy’s telling of a story than mine.
As a writer, Guy represented how many people in the region saw themselves. He had a very authentic voice and was a fantastic storyteller. He was quick to see the humour or irony in any situation, and loved larger than life characters.
He enjoyed telling the story about how one local resident showed off his
lumberjack skills by riding a log into Hopkins Camp; Marks’ store during the Great Kinmount flood of 1928.
He loved talking about how the ghost of Sir William Mackenzie protects the Kinmount train station—for all the fires and floods the community has endured, the train station survived it all.
He always appreciated the opportunity to tell the tales of local characters like Biddy Young (tough, outspoken Bolsover barkeeper) or Bill Dunbar (Boyd shanty boss and Kinmount hotel keeper). Guy was an unforgettable character himself, but one whose defining trait was how much he cared for his community. For Guy, the world centred around Kinmount. More than anyone else, he knew just how important Kinmount had been over the years. His body of work will continue to define the village for generations to come.
Guy was never someone who liked to take credit, and often just explained that his family had operated the store in Kinmount—when his father was the Member of Parliament from 1965 to 1993 and his sister is in the midst of an equally successful career in the provincial legislature! He was the sprit of Kinmount, but he was very unassuming at the same time.
Guy Scott was a person who meant so much to so many people. It was easy to take for granted that you could ask Guy about something, because he was always willing to help. In recent years, Guy’s health took a turn for the worse and it was hard for him not to be able to drive, explore and tell the stories that he was so good at sharing. But he was always there for you, even as his health was becoming a struggle.
For many people it is hard to imagine Guy not being around any more. We are fortunate for having had the opportunity to get to know him, and for the legacy that he shared with us all.
Guy Scott passed away on April 15th
