The Castle On White Otter Lake

The Castle On White Otter Lake That rustic, old log castle Stands facing the lake. Built by hand, by one man To acknowledge his presence, In a changing world, he felt He could not participate in. And so chose to live like a hermit,1 On the shores of White Otter Lake.2 Time and wave action Eroded granite into sand, To create beaches. And rising water levels As a result of a sluice dam Built for the Spring log drive, Shaped the shoreline, a disaster! Because the waters held back Were never enough To float logs through the chutes, Down the Big Turtle River To the Shevlin-Clarke3 sawmill In Fort Frances. And so a plan was hatched To get the logs to the sawmill by another route. A steam lift was incorporated On the portage between the lakes To raise the logs over from White Otter Into Clearwater West Lake. Then, a tug boat and boom were used To pull the logs across Clearwater West To where a ‘Shay’ design locomotive4 Waited to be loaded on the southern shore To haul them to Turtle Lake. From where the logs were floated, Down to the Seine River; (A branch of the Arctic Watershed System) Continuing the log drive To the Fort Frances sawmill. The castle was built Using platforms and winches, And block and tackle lifting devices. Red Pines were felled and dragged; Hewed square, Then eased into place and chinked. Windows and other wares needed Were transported by canoe, Over portages from Ignace. The castle stands: Three stories high; Four as the tower rises; On a twenty-four by twenty-eight foot Perimeter base. Legend has it Jimmy McQuat said; “You couldn’t call this no shack!” And would refer to his log cabin as “Stirling Castle by the Sea!” For come evening The waters of the lake Would shimmer in silvery hues With loons in front Wailing out tremolo notes; As one gazes south, From the castle, On White Otter Lake. In front of the castle at his wish; Is the grave site of Jimmy McQuat; Squatter, pioneer, eccentric. Who in the Fall fell overboard While fishing, And got entangled in the net and drowned. The body was recovered The following Spring By Ministry Forestry Rangers and buried. And on the marker it reads, here lies, “Jimmy McQuat, 1855 to 1918” Of White Otter Lake. *** Notes: 1) James Alexander McQuat (1855-1918): Jimmy McQuat was born in Argenteuil County, Lower Canada (Quebec), and as an adult in his forties, moved to Emo in Northwestern, Ontario, where he took up farming and prospecting. Later, he would abandon this lifestyle, and in 1903 chose a more hermit like way of living and settled down in a cabin he built on the shores of White Otter Lake, where he lived off the land, trapping and selling furs for income. Jimmy McQuat began to work on his dream home and finished it in 1915. 2) White Otter Lake: White Otter Lake is located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. 3) Shevlin-Clarke Logging Company: The Shevlin-Clarke Logging Company operated (at that time) Canada’s largest pine sawmill in Fort Frances, Ontario, from 1911 to 1940. In 1912, the logging company began harvesting Turtle River/White Otter forest area. 4) Shevlin-Clarke Lumber Company (SLC) Shay locomotive: The 'Shay' locomotive was a geared steam locomotive built to Ephraim Shay’s patents in the Lima plant in Lima, Ohio. It was a Class B, 2 truck, 3 steam cylinder engine with a smoke tube boiler (truck-wheel set bogie chassis). It was acquired by SLC in 1912 and used to haul logs from Clearwater West Lake to Turtle Lake from 1913 to 1924. 'Shay' locomotivers were known as sidewinders or stemwinders because of their side-mounted drive shafts that drove all the wheels, thereby providing traction to pull heavy loads.