It’s hard to imagine that this tranquil woodland was once the site of a bustling lumber operation. For hundreds of lumbermen in the mid-1900s this was home-away-from-home comprising numerous dwellings and outbuildings including a mill, cookery, bunkhouse and sheds. But time has reclaimed this space and today orderly pine plantations hide the clearings where once row upon row of sawn lumber was neatly stacked.

In 1929 John Omanique founded the Barry’s Bay Lumber Company by building a large mill in that town. Soon his business expanded to include a mill operated by his son Joseph at Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park. In 1943, when the supply of Algonquin Park timber had been diminished, this mill was moved to Beaverdam Lake on the Little Bonnechere River.

Today, a large depression near the river’s edge is all that remains of the main mill. Step back in time and imagine standing inside this building: the whine of saws, the rumble of leather drive belts and the smell of pine and hemlock resin. From dawn till dusk, smoke and steam billowed against the sky. In 1955 Omanique’s Mill was sold to the Shoosplin Lumber Company, which operated it until circa 1963.