SF9 #111 - Ramara History - The Portage Multi-Cache
Be-Strong-Carry-On!: That's all folk!!
SF9 #111 - Ramara History - The Portage
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The story of Longford Township is one of tall pine timber, crashing logs on flooding waters, sturdy lumberjacks and raging forest fires. In many ways, is the story of the South Ontario lumber industry itself.
This is a very short multi/offset cache. We placed it this way as the historical plaque commemorating the Portage and Log Tramway currently sits fairly close to a residential property. Placing the cache at the plaque site would have made hiding and seeking a cache uncomfortable for all involved. To find the final location, you will need information from the plaque itself. The plaque is easily accesible from the sidewalk and visible from the road. There is no need to tread onto private property. The final cache is placed within 200m of the plaque.
To solve for the final coordinates, you will need to figure out the following using the information from the plaque at the posted coordinates:
N 44 42.abc
W 79 20.def
ab = take the year that the tramway was built and find the sum of the digits (to two places) THEN SUBTRACT 3 FROM THIS NUMBER
c = the third digit of the year the canal was dug
d = find the number of years that the tramway was active and use the first digit of that number
e = the final digit of the year the boarding house was built
f = find the number of men that the boarding house could hold, use the last digit in the number
Lumbering began to thrive around Lake Couchiching in the first third of the 19th Century, not long after settlers arrived in the area. Much of the timber in the region lay along the shores of the lakes. A particulary large section of standing tall pine timber lay to the east of Lakes Couchiching and St. John. These logs were rafted down the Trent River and on by the St. Lawrence to Quebec. The erection of lumber mills further south along the waterway created the need for many steamers and tugs on Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe. The first mill in Rama Township was Trenouth’s saw mill, established about the year 1867, upon the Black River.
The Longford Lumber Company operated approximately five lumber camps in Longford Township. The timber was cut and towed to the Banks of the Black River. After the spring thaw the logs were floated down river in a wild rush of water which raised the level of Lake St. John. In the spring the water in Lake St. John would rise 12 and 14 feet, while in Lake Couchiching the rise was only 2 or 3 feet. This had a peculiar effect on the Black River at the lake. In the spring the water ran into Lake St. John, while later in the season when the floods subsided the water flowed out of the lake and down the river. In an especially wet spring the water would also run across the portage route from Lake St. John to Lake Couchiching just south of the Memorial church. It was at this time that the workers of each lumber company clashed. It was a race to get this first water in the spring. Any company which missed it would have to take the next rush of water which wasn’t so strong and left open the many shoals and rocks to jam the logs.
Men of the McPherson, Tait and Mickle and Dyment lumber companies competed with the Longford men for this water. Mountains of logs were stamped, rolled off the banks of the river in the spring and mixed with logs of other companies operating in Ryde, Dalton and Digby Townships.
Eventually, a Portage and Steam-powered Log Tramway was built to to convey logs from Lake St. John to Lake Couchiching for shipping down Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe to mills in the commercial center of the region, Bell Ewart, south of what is now Barrie. Prior to 1870, the majority of logs were transported by water to these mills. The Tramway had spiked wheels, which drove a chain to transport logs over the one-eighth of a mile rise that separated the two lakes. The logs travelled at a rate of about two miles per hour. Tramway workers put in 12-hour days for 87-cents per day pay.
In 1869, a small, three- quarter mile long canal was dug to help handle logs near where the Black river runs out of Lake St. John. The contruction of the Log Canal and Tramway meant that the crossings into and out of Lake St. John were reliable, regardless of water levels in any given year.
The dues at the Log Canal were 25 cents per thousand feet, and over the Portage via the Tramway, they were 50 cents per thousand feet. The Thompson – Smith Company took their logs from Lake St. John over the portage into Lake Couchiching. The nearby Mickle Dyment Co. built their own mill at Severn Bridge to get away from the Tramway dues, as they could then take their logs down the Black River directly to the mill.
About 1870 the big mill of the Longford Lumber Co., which made Longford Mills a thriving place for years was built by John Thomson. When the mill was finished, another tramway was built from the mill to the wharf near the White House on Lake Couchiching and from there the finished lumber was taken in scows down the lake. By placing the mills on the lake where the village of Longford grew around them, the company saved having to portage the huge un-milled logs to Couchiching and rafting them to some other point for cutting.
When the Midland railway got as far as Beaverton much lumber was taken there, and eventually, on arrival of the railway to Orillia, the milled lumber was taken to Orillia to ship. Longford Mills was at one time a great shipping point both by water and eventually by rail. As the railway expanded up the eastern shore of Lake Couchiching, the Northern railway collected an immense amount of freight at the village. A train of 20 to 25 rail-cars left for the south each and every day and was known as the Longford Special. By the time the trees of Longford Township had run out, over 200 million feet of lumber had been cut and milled.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Cbfg lbhe svaq.
Treasures
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