Hidden Ontario (26 page)

In early 1912 Tom made his first trek to picturesque Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park. Between 1913 and 1917, he painted in Algonquin from spring break, up until late fall. The majority of his works were inspired here, including
Northern River, West Wind, Spring Ice, Jack Pine
, and
Northern Lights
. He painted 24 major canvasses and made more than 300 sketches.

Judge William T. Little quoted park ranger Mark Robinson — who first met Thomson in the spring of 1912 — in his book,
The Tom Thomson Mystery
: “One evening as I went to Canoe Lake, a couple of other rangers had joined me. It was quite routine in those days for park rangers to inspect all newcomers coming into the park because poaching was a major offence and a common occurrence in the park. As the train came in and drew to a stop, a tall, fine-looking man with a packsack on his back stepped off the train. The stranger inquired where he could find a place to stay, and where he could get a good bed and good eats. I explained to him that the Algonquin Hotel was a short distance away and Mowat Lodge was nearby. A man by the name of Fraser served good meals there and had excellent beds. Tom said ‘that was the place for him.'”

Mowat Lodge became his home away from home. In the ensuing years, Tom lived with the Frasers as one of the family. He even designed a cover for the Frasers' booklet to announce Mowat Lodge. Tom was, nevertheless, a loner, and often canoed out into the lake and disappeared for days on end, painting and fishing to his heart's content. He was an amiable man with rugged, lean, muscular good looks. Tom was well-liked by most who met him and enjoyed the company of others at the many parties in the area.

Fishing was a passion of Tom Thomson. No one could explain why a length of fishing line was wrapped 16–17 times around his left ankle at the time of his death.

Courtesy of Jane Loftus

Mark Robinson pointed out that Tom earned his way in the park by purchasing a guide license and subsequently led parties of fishermen through the park. He often tented on the east side of Canoe Lake, opposite Mowat Landing, just north of Hayhurst's Point.

In April 1917 Tom arrived at Canoe Lake for the last time. On July 7 of that year, Tom and a number of local cottage residents met at George Rowe's cabin for some merriment. Drinking at these social events usually led to storytelling. The topic of the war arose, and Tom spoke of his determination to join up as a fire ranger. His earlier attempts to join had been thwarted because of his flat feet. That night Martin Bletcher, who was considered to have a bad temperament, always exacerbated by heavy drinking, arrived at the party.

Judge Little wrote, “One young American cottager in particular, Martin Bletcher, who was of German background, was most outspoken regarding the progress of the war and his forecast of ultimate German supremacy. During the early summer Tom and Martin seemed to share a mutual dislike. These two men, during this Saturday evening, were actually prevented from coming to blows only by the good-natured efforts of the guides. On leaving the cabin before midnight, Bletcher hurled a final threat, ‘Don't get in my way if you know what's good for you.'”

A love triangle can be a source of great pain and jealousy. Secret love is even more entangling and complex. Winnie Trainor was, by all accounts, a beautiful, mysterious woman. Hidden to most, Winnie and Tom shared a secret love. Judge Little said, “Not until Miss Trainor's death in 1962 has it been known, authoritatively, that Thomson intended to marry her. Did Martin Bletcher resent Tom's visits to Winnie Trainor, just next door to him, during those long summer evenings? Did Tom resent Martin's presence so close to Miss Trainor's cottage?”

Terence Trainor McCormick, the nephew and beneficiary of Miss Trainor's estate, once stated, about the letters written between Winnie and Tom, “... the correspondence gave undisputable evidence that Tom and my Aunt were engaged to be married.” Their covenant remained a secret known only to them.

On July 8, 1917, it was a rather dull and wet morning. Shannon Fraser and Tom threw a line in the water at the dam between Joe and Canoe Lakes. Mark Robinson caught sight of the men. Tom waved to Mark and called, “Howdy, Mark.” Mark acknowledged the greeting. It would be the last time he saw Tom alive.

Tom returned to his quarters, where he gathered up his tackle box and a loaf of bread and some bacon from Mowat Lodge. He bid farewell to Shannon as his canoe cut a path across the waters of Canoe Lake. Shannon watched Tom disappear past Little Wapomeo Island, only 1.5 kilometres (one mile) away.

The following day Martin Bletcher casually remarked to some guests at Mowat Lodge that he had spotted an upturned canoe between Little and Big Wapomeo Islands. Apparently, he and his sister had not stopped, but continued on for an afternoon fishing excursion. On their return trip, the canoe had disappeared.

No one seemed too concerned about such a report. It was a strange reaction by such a small community of residents, who all knew the boats on the lake. Judge Little added, “Furthermore, Canoe Lake residents considered it strange that Martin Bletcher could not have recognized Thomson's grey-green canoe with a metal strip on the keel side; it was known to everyone on Canoe Lake at the time.”

Charlie Scrim found the craft the following morning, behind Big Wapomeo Island. Mark Robinson said, “Contrary to some people who may tell you the canoe was floating right side up, there was none of his equipment in the canoe, except his portaging paddle, which was lashed in position for carrying, and the ground sheet with bread and bacon in the bow section. There were no fishing poles, no gear; even his small axe was gone.”

Robinson immediately reported to Park Superintendent Bartlett who authorized a search. Tom's brother, George, was contacted. He arrived at Canoe Lake on July 12. Dynamite was exploded in the lake without the desired results — no body surfaced.

The sharp eyes and minds of guides George Rowe and Charlie Scrim noted that Tom's own working paddle was missing. Especially strange was how the portaging paddle was lashed in a position to portage. It had been knotted in a most unorthodox way. Only an inexperienced canoeist would fashion such a knot. Thomson was an expert canoeist and outdoorsman.

On July 14 George Thomson gathered up a number of Tom's sketches and caught the train back to New York. He felt there was little he could do.

On the morning of July 15, 1917, Dr. G.W. Howland spotted something lying low in the water by Hayhurst Point on the east shore of Canoe Lake. At first he thought it was a loon. At the same time, George Rowe and Lowrie Dickson were paddling down the middle of the lake when they saw the doctor hailing them. The canoeists aimed for the object. It was Tom. He was dead.

They towed the body to a campsite on Big Wapomeo, approximately 300 metres (100 yards) ahead. There at Big Wap, a campout halfway down the west side of the lake, they tied the body to tree roots in a shallow. The guides then notified Dr. Howland and Mark Robinson, who contacted Superintendent Bartlett.

Dr. A.E. Ranney, a coroner living in North Bay, was notified. He did not arrive on the train the next day. Robinson was frantic and informed his superintendent that something needed to be done with the body. It was not right to leave it in the blazing sun. The superintendent told Mark to have Dr. Howland examine the body. Dr. Howland was a Toronto medical doctor and a professor of neurology at the University of Toronto who was vacationing on Wapomeo Island. Mark then ordered a casket and rough box for the burial.

On the morning of July 17, Dr. Howland examined the deceased. Mark helped to remove a length of fishing line that was wrapped 16 or 17 times around Tom's left ankle. That was odd. There was no water in the lungs. Across the left temple was a mark that looked as though he had been struck with the edge of a paddle. The doctor's report read, “A bruise on left temple the size of 4 inches long, no other sign of external marks visible on body, air issuing from mouth, some bleeding from right ear. Cause of death, drowning.”

Tom was placed in a casket and moved to the mainland for a hurried funeral. A small congregation of Canoe Lake residents and guides, including Miss Trainor, caught the evening train for Huntsville. She would never again greet her lover by the water's edge. Or would she?

A short time later, a telegram arrived to the attention of Shannon Fraser. It was a request by Mr. H.W. Churchill, a Huntsville undertaker, to exhume the body. Apparently, the family had requested that Tom be interred near the family home at Leith, Ontario. At 8:00 p.m. Fraser met the eastbound train at Canoe Lake Station. Churchill got off the train wearing a dark suit and bowler hat. He informed Fraser that he had a metal casket with him and asked that Fraser give him a hand to put it on his wagon.

With a call to the horses they were off. Fraser was stunned to learn that Churchill was going to remove the body that very night. It all seemed very strange. Fraser remarked that he couldn't get any help until the next day.

Judge Little quoted the following conversation: “The undertaker replied, ‘I don't need any help, just get me a good digging shovel, a lantern and a crow bar and I'II do the rest.'

‘Here we are,' announced Shannon. ‘Do you still want to do this job tonight without any help?'

‘Just pick me up about midnight and I'll be ready,' replied the undertaker.”

Fraser returned at midnight to give Churchill a hand to place the casket on the rear baggage floor of the coach and transport the body to the train station. Judge Little highlighted an oddity that occurred: “Fraser was to comment a number of times later, ‘It just didn't impress me the weight was distributed the way it should be with a body in it.”'

Judge Little had to see for himself if Tom Thomson was still buried at Canoe Lake. From left to right: Leonard Gibson, Little, W.J. Eastaugh, and Frank Braught starting to dig. To their amazement they found a body in Thomson's grave.

Courtesy of Jane Loftus

Judge Little also documented Mark Robinson's comments: “The Superintendent called me up and said, ‘Go down to the cemetery and if they haven't filled the grave in, fill it in.' I went down. Now, in one corner of the grave was a hole. I wouldn't say it would be more than 20 inches wide and about a depth of 18 inches. God forgive me if I'm wrong but I still think Thomson's body is over there (Mark pointed to the hillside gravesite where Tom was originally interred).”

In the 1950s Judge Little and three other men, Jack Eastaugh, Leonard Gibson, and Frank Braught decided to investigate the Thomson mystery themselves. They firmly believed Tom was still buried in the Canoe Lake Cemetery. The judge was convinced he had been murdered. Armed with shovels and axes, the men began to clear the underbrush. At six feet (two metres) they found nothing. Then Jack called out from beside a spruce tree. There were depressions 3 feet (one metre) wide in the ground. They began to dig. They struck pay dirt. The shovel found the remains of a rough pine box. No name was inscribed on the box. There was no evidence of metal remnants, such as buttons, belt buckle, shoe nails or clothing.

Judge Little described the scene: “We saw parts of the casket lining and what appeared to be possibly a cotton or light canvas shroud. We recalled that, after Tom's examination by Dr. Howland, the body was immediately placed in a casket wrapped only in a shroud due to the removal of clothes related to the advanced state of decomposition of the body. We also discovered a hole in the skull in the region of the temple which coincided with the region indicated at both the inquest and in Mark Robinson's observations of a blow to the temple.”

A short time later, Dr. Henry Ebbs and Dr. Noble Sharpe of the Ontario Provincial Criminal Laboratory arrived at Canoe Lake. They gathered the skeletal remains and photographed the skull with its puncture at the temple.

Dr. Sharpe later concluded, “The bones were definitely male. Calculations from humerus, femur and tibia gave an estimated height of 5'8”. These bones suggested also a robust, well-muscled person.”