Log Drive, Knoephli Rapids, Magnetawan River, circa 1920

Hi. This is a log drive that fed the Croft Lumber Company Mill that my Grandfather (Alfed Henry Paget) co-owned and managed. This photo must have been taken after 1926 as the Knoepfli Inn can be seen in the background and he built and opened it that year. I also suspect the men with the poles aren't fishing (too many snags I'd suspect!) but millworkers using "pike poles" to manoeuver the logs.

Garry Paget Bolton, Ontario

I do not think the men were fishing. They look to be keeping the logs moving with thsir long poles. Fishing lines would not survive the log drive. Doreen

Further to my above comment:

"The logs shown passing under the Knoepfli bridge would not likely be going to Croft Lbr. Co.s mill, because they would then have to be brought up the "Little River" branch of the Magnetawan and somehow raised up again to Ahmic Lake level to be fed into the sawmill. Those logs were more likely heading for Byng Inlet, 40 miles downstream, or maybe Maple Island, 10 miles off. I vaguely remember when the Croft sawmill (or at least the mill on that site that we knew as "Feighan's Mill") burned, presumably some time in the 1930s."

John Macfie (a Parry Sound writer) points out that I wasn't 100% correct. The Pagets did sell the Croft Lumber Company in the mid 1920's and operated the Knoepfli Inn until it was sold in 1946-7.

Garry

Further to my comment above and with further investigation, part of what I said is not correct. This log drive would have been moving saw logs down the Magnetawan River to Byng Inlet and the saw mills located there (John Macfie). There were four mills, I believe, located on the shores of Georgian Bay. The Croft Lumber Company Mill (managed by my Grandfather Alfred Henry Paget) was located around the corner at the north-west end of Ahmic Lake and used Fagan (Fiegehen?) Falls to power its saws. The logs were towed in by the "Mollie", a steam-warping tug or "alligator", which was used to move/tow the log booms to the Croft Mill, located where the Swiss Country House Restaurant now stands, just west of the Knoepfli Inn. www.muskokaregion.com/opinion-story/3575485-ahmic-lake-landmarks-both-old-and-new/ www.parrysound.com/opinion-story/4468055-a-day-in-the-life-of-an-alligator-wheelsman/ (both these articles are courtesy of John Macfie of Parry Sound).

Further research indicates that this log drive would not be feeding the Croft Lumber Company, owned by the Pagets and James Rae, of Dunchurch. The logs for the Croft Mill would have been diverted, prior to this point, and reach the end of Ahmic Lake via a different route. I'm told these logs would have been destined for Byng Inlet and the mills along Georgian Bay, north of Parry Sound. The Knoepfli Inn, built in 1926 by my Grandfather Alfred Henry Paget, can be seen in the background. J. Garry Paget Bolton, Ontario