A life on Baptiste Lake
Dan Peel remembers Forest View Lodge and the beginnings of Group of Seven
by Ken Andrews
Campfires by the shore. Breathtaking night skies. Fishing so abundant that pickerel were once caught from the dock. Vacationers who love the lake and its ambience.
Dan Peel should know. For more than 55 years he has seen it all at Forest View Lodge and its successor, the Group of Seven.
And he probably knows the property better than almost anyone - certainly for the longest time. "I think I know just about every square inch," Dan says.
Responsible today for clearing snow on the roads at the Group of Seven in the winter, Dan in fact grew up on the property: his family owned Forest View Lodge where the Group of Seven cottages now stand. At Forest View, from a young age, Dan got his start learning almost any property task and trade. Later, he built the Group of Seven cottages themselves after John Puffer purchased the property.
Dan's family's roots in fact run deep in the area. His great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland along with other Irish families to settle in the Highland Grove area in the 1870s, attracted by government land grants to boost Canada's population.
In 1877, Dan's great-grandfather began homesteading what became the 'Peel Farm' north of Highland Grove. A road sign, "Peel Road," visible on Loop Road north of the village, leads to the farm.
"The farming was brutal," Dan says, as it was in much of the area north of Highway 7 where the land gradually transitioned to the Laurentian Shield. The scratchy, shallow, rocky soil hardly lent itself to productive farming.
Part of the Peel family moved to Saskatchewan for a better life. A famous photo exists of local families leaving the Highland Grove railway station to journey west, with local families gathered at the station to wave goodbye.
The railroad in those days occupied what is now South Baptiste Lake Road, while the road to Bancroft in the area ran along what is now Airport Road, south of the village off Loop Road.
Dan's grandfather was among those who left Highland Grove to homestead in Carrot River, Saskatchewan, where Dan's father was born.
Years later, post-World War II Ontario was booming. Attracted by the growing auto sector, Dan's father and his family moved to Windsor to once again better the family's prospects. Dan himself was born in Windsor.
But Highland Grove was never far away for the Peel family, and they travelled often to visit family there. In post-war Ontario, the changing recreational character of the region offered economic opportunities as well, and entrepreneurial local residents came to play an important role.
Forest View Lodge, which occupied the site of the current Group of Seven, was one such addition to the Highland Grove area. The Lodge was conceived and built by a local farmer, Ken Lewis, whose property was nearby and who sought to broaden his prospects.
Ken's roots in the community were deep too. His father George in fact was married to Clara Peel, Dan's great-aunt whose family farm was close to the Lewis'.
Born in 1905, Ken inherited hundreds of acres in the area in 1945, including a parcel of Crown land that George had purchased on Baptiste Lake close to the farm. Ken came to transform the property into Forest View Lodge, which existed for about 60 years before being redeveloped as the Group of Seven.
The Lewis farm on which Ken grew up was located on Clarke Road just north of Forest View Road and due west of present-day Group of Seven. Entrance to the Lewis farm, still visible to this day, was on the first lane north of Forest View Road. The massive original barn still stands, and a stone pillar continues to distinguish the property's entrance. Impressive stonework, in fact, became a distinguishing feature of the future Forest View Lodge.
Ken purchased additional crown land in 1952 including the island across from the property, all for $60.75. Eventually Ken sold the island to the present owners in 1970.
As part of the massive lake-adjacent property he owned - for the most part undeveloped and comprising some 80 acres - Ken also owned the property south of the current Group of Seven including what is now the "Hacienda" property situated on a small peninsula. North of the Group of Seven, Ken also owned property down the hill on the current Forest View Road, which eventually was developed into homes and cottages.
Back in the 1940s, with the massive amount of land available together with limited prospects from farming, Ken had looked to broaden his prospects. His initial solution was to establish a riding stable on the farm he named "Forest View Stables," designed to attract tourists by offering horseback riding, fishing and camping.
As provincial city dwellers post-war looked increasingly to take recreational advantage of Ontario's pristine lake country north of Lake Ontario, Ken branched out further. In the latter part of the 1940s, he began building cabins on what he called Forest View Lodge, now the site of the Group of Seven. The first cabin was constructed on the site where Cottage #4 is situated.
Each year the Lodge opened in the spring and closed in the fall. An ad promoting the Lodge advertised: "Fishing, Boating, Photography, Sand Beach, Hiking, Hunting, Riding Horses and Horseshoes."
Billed as "Forest View Ranch Cottages," a cottage for two people rented for $15 per week - or from $25 to $30 for four people!
For almost 60 years, Forest View Lodge thrived and was owned by five successive families: Ken and Dorothy Lewis, the original owners; Gordon and Eleanor Peel, Dan's parents, who owned the property from 1969 to 1974; Mervin and Inga Quigley; Ditmar Arff; and lastly Craig and Sue Walton.
The lake itself looked much different when the Lodge was built. There were still trees standing in the water - now dead - that had grown before the original York River and lake were flooded in the 1860s, doubling the lake's size in response to the timber industry's expansion and desire to move logs more efficiently through the many rivers and lakes of the area.
Eventually the trees collapsed or were cut down. And although Baptiste Lake boaters bemoan the many stumps throughout the lake, "there were far more back then than there are now," says Dan.
As Ken and Dorothy Lewis' business began to grow, and life at the lake became so attractive, the couple eventually sold their farm to the Langford family, which continues to own it, and moved to the Lodge full time.
Most Lodge visitors in its early years, Dan recalls, were Americans. "Ken and his wife visited Florida every year, and they promoted the Lodge while they were there. It had a lot of appeal to some Americans, especially those who loved to fish and were drawn by the pickerel and muskie."
Dan's parents, meanwhile, had often visited the Highland Grove area from Windsor to see family, and in 1969 they purchased Forest View Lodge from Ken, managing it until 1974. Dan himself became friends with the Lodge's many visitors over the years, and "to this day I'm still friends with some and keep in touch," he says.
After selling the Lodge to the Peels, Ken built a retirement residence for himself and his wife within sight of the Lodge at what is now Hacienda, visible to the south from Group of Seven. Hacienda, like the Lodge, features impressive stonework and walls.
In addition, Ken eventually sold the three properties he owned between the Lodge and Hacienda to Craig Walton, who eventually sold them himself.
As a young boy born in 1964, five years before his parents purchased the lodge in 1969, Dan grew up at the Lodge as part of a large family of brothers and sisters who helped out with the chores.
"I always looked forward to the beginning of summer and playing with the other kids who'd stay at the Lodge," Dan recalls.
"We'd get to know everyone and their families. Playing with the other kids, we'd run everywhere, swim, make forts in the bush, and row over to the island," he says. "I lived in shorts and ran around on bare feet all summer. By the end of the summer the bottom of my feet were like leather."
There were always parties and entertainment at the Lodge, and Dan's mother sang and played the piano and his father played the fiddle in the rec room, mainly old-time country music.
"Maple Sugar was my Dad's favourite," Dan fondly recalls. Guests would join along, bringing guitars and even a bass.
"We always had a lot of fun," Dan says, and the Lodge had a jukebox too, so music could be on the go at any given time.
Fishing was the main attraction at the Lodge. "The pickerel and muskie were far more plentiful then than they are now," Dan says. "You could even catch them off the dock."
Introduction of pike into the lake in the '90s changed the balance of fish in the lake, along with crappies that were added to the lake. The result was that the natural dominance of pickerel, muskie and bass declined, much to the dismay of fishermen.
As well as fishing, the Lodge offered recreational hunting. Ken Lewis and Dan's father organized and led hunting trips for the guests, both bear hunts in the spring and white-tail deer hunts in the fall.
The main lodge building itself was constructed by Ken Lewis where Group of Seven cottage #5 is located, along with 11 cabins or small cottages surrounding the lodge.
The cabins, each of which were given an Indigenous name such as Algonquin or Iroquois, were equipped with their own cooking facilities, and consisted of three, four or five bedrooms. A cabin on the point by the current cottage #7 and another were distinguished by an overhang extending over the water.
On the flat grounds where current Group of Seven cottages 1, 2 and 3 are situated was a campground which comprised about 50 camp sites with water and hydro facilities. The current Group of Seven office near the entrance to cottages 1-4 once served as washrooms and showers for the campers.
Altogether, between the campsites, cabins and lodge renters, there could be a couple of hundred people at Forest View Lodge at any given time.
Campers tended to rent for the entire summer, while cabins were rented by the week. Parking was available for about 30 cars on the flat ground behind cottage 7 where a septic tank is now located.
The parking lot also served cottagers across the lake in Hay Bay who at the time, before the North Baptiste Lake Road was built, had no road access to their cottages.
Outside the Lodge, at the back of what is now cottage 5, a gas pump served boaters and car owners.
At lakeside, a large concrete dock about 10 feet wide was situated where the current main dock is located. The dock extended into the lake with a boathouse at the end which housed supplies such as boat motors and lifejackets.
"We even had a deck on top where people could sunbathe," Dan recalls.
Boats were everywhere at the Lodge, with a series of small docks spread out along the waterfront to serve camper and cottager needs.
The Lodge itself featured a big kitchen, a recreation room with a large deck, and a store on the main floor.
Underneath in the basement was the "Snake Pit" bar, and upstairs were seven bedrooms which served as a residence for those who owned the lodge, including the Peel family, along with rooms rented to single visitors.
Over time the recreation room in the Lodge came to serve as a dining room when the Waltons owned the Lodge. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served to Lodge visitors and groups visiting from Bancroft for a special event or celebration, for example, as well as to campers and cottagers who preferred a meal in the Lodge as an alternative to their own cooking facilities.
Dan's parents sold the Lodge in 1974 to a German couple, Mervin and Inga Quigley, who attracted many visitors to the Lodge from Germany.
The Quigleys subsequently sold the Lodge to another German, Ditmar Arff, who hired Dan as an employee at the Lodge to help with maintaining the boats, raking leaves in the fall, yard maintenance, plumbing, and of course cutting grass in the summer.
"It took forever to do the grass," Dan recalls. "I had a push mower, after all, not a ride-around! Once I finished, I had to start the grass all over again because it had taken so long to cut it."
Dan's parents meanwhile moved to a home further north down Forest View Road where Dan continues to live today. His brother Gord owns another home nearby. The first houses and cottages in that section of the road were built in the 1940s.
The final Lodge owners were Craig and Sue Walton, who purchased the Lodge in the mid-1980s. Eventually it was acquired by John Puffer who developed the Group of Seven.
Getting to Forest View Lodge when Ken Lewis originally built it was much different until the early 1970s. While Forest View Road runs, as it currently does, east from Clarke Road, connecting with Rangers Road and proceeding to the lake, the section of the current road which turns north from the "Four Corners" (the intersection of Forest View, Ranger, and Jogi roads) wasn't built until the early 1970s.
The original road to Forest View Lodge instead was a deeded, private road that ran east from Clarke Road by the original Lewis farm towards the lake, emerging at what is now the Group of Seven entrance to Cottages 5 and 6. Look closely, in fact, and the old road remains visible across the road, now grass-covered but clearly in the form of a road.
"Being a private road, we had to do all the maintenance," Dan recalls.
And when bad weather hit, Dan and his siblings sometimes had to walk the entire road from the Lodge to Clarke Road to catch the school bus to Cardiff and, subsequently, to Bird's Creek.
The original road into the Lodge, now serving cottages 5 and 6, swung to the right close to where the Group of Seven garbage bins are situated. It led to the current cottage 4 on a road no longer used but which serves now as a walkway. The road extended all the way to the lake to serve boat-launchers, winding down what is now the path from cottage 4 to the lake.
The road also swung in front of the main lodge building where the current cottage 5 is located and up past cottage 6, hooking back to the main road. A large storage garage was situated just outside current cottage 6 where a stone wall appears.
Meanwhile, when Forest View Road north of the "Four Corners" was developed in the 1970s, an additional entrance to the Lodge served the campers at what is now the entrance to cottages 1-4.
Walk the grounds of the Group of Seven with Dan and one appreciates that he knows every square inch. "This used to be an inlet here," Dan says, pointing to a bushy area in front of Cottage 7. "The lake came in here, and we'd keep boats in it." The inlet was filled when the Group of Seven cottages were built.
While all the accommodation from Forest View Lodge has disappeared, the stonework that was a distinguishing feature of the original Lodge still stands, principally along the front of the lake at the bottom of the original Lodge, complete with fireplace. Check the large stone pillar at the front of the original Lewis farm on Clarke Road, and one appreciates Ken Lewis' love of stonework.
Maintenance of the lodge facilities and grounds was always a challenge, Dan says, as one might expect of so large a facility. "Upkeep and maintenance and septic tanks - there was always something, and things could suffer."
Lodges were also gradually losing some of their popularity; so many have closed over the years in Ontario's lake country as commuting from cities such as Toronto became easier and people aspired to buy their own cottages. By the early 2000s the Lodge had closed, although there were a few renters now and then.
In the meantime, Dan had developed a successful career in the construction industry and was hired by John Puffer to build the cottages at what we know as the Group of Seven. Dan completed construction of the seven cottages between Labour Day 2011 and the fall of 2012.
Building the cottages, not surprisingly, wasn't without moments of nostalgia for Dan.
"When we started to knock down the cabins," Dan says, "I took a walk by myself, thinking back to my childhood and all the memories." All the good times, all the fun, all the friends he made over the years at the Lodge came back in an instant.
No one could have known the land better than Dan. One surprise when building the cottages was coming across a buried saw blade near the current cottage 5. The blade might have indicated, Dan says, that the site had been used in the timber trade years previously when logs were transported down the lake to High Falls.
In one way or another, Dan has been part of Forest View Lodge and Group of Seven for 55 years. In fact, his association these many years later continues. On a snowy, wintry day, you might see Dan clearing roads in the Group of Seven complex.
In the process, his mind might wander back more than 50 years when he roamed the area as a young lad, remembering all the campers, cottagers, boat rides, fishing and music. Perhaps, clearing the snow as he rounds cottage 5 by the site of the old Lodge, he hears his Mom on the piano and his Dad on the fiddle.
"This is where I grew up," Dan says, "and where my parents retired, and where I still live."
"Over the years I've got to know every square inch of the lake and all the bush down to Highland Grove like the back of my hand. We never saw the need to go on vacation. It was like we were on vacation already - the swimming, the hunting, the boating, fishing, ice fishing and camp fires."
"Here, it's like a little slice of heaven."
In the photos, Dan appears in the picture of the man holding two large pickerel; Dan is the young boy in the middle, his mother Eleanor Peel to his side. Dan is also the young boy in the winter photo of snowmobiles outside the Lodge. In contemporary photos, Dan stands with his wife Kathy at the stone wall, below cottage five, which was part of the original Forest View Lodge.
Ken Andrews, a resident of London, Ontario, is privileged to enjoy the seasonal changes of Baptiste Lake with his family as a member of the Group of Seven cottages. You can contact him at kandrews5678@gmail.com.
