Hawk Lake Log Chute

Can’t visit the site? These pages are copies of what’s at the on-site kiosk

	I remember the first morning we went up there to start tailing the Hawk river and I said I wonder how we’re gonna get them logs into the water. You see, I’d never done it before. When we come to the river, this old Sam Whittaker, he had the peavey over his shoulder and he was ahead of us and we were following him like a couple of pups.” ~ Logger, 1947 river drive for Hodgson’s Mill
Loggers use cant hooks and pike poles to push logs through a river in the Highlands ~ Photo: Haliburton Highlands Museum
	“He went into the river up to his neck and started pulling these logs up and that water just ice cold. He was so tough, we just went in, too, and never said a word.” ~ Logger, 1947 river drive for Hodgson’s Mill
McGuire’s drive at Kushog dam, c. 1930s, Stanhope Township ~ Photo: Stanhope Museum
	“Jack Madill could spear a log at Crab Rapids and ride ‘er down to Halls Lake in time for dinner.” ~ Logger, 1947 river drive“You couldn’t imagine some of the stories these fellas would tell at night up there in that bunkhouse after supper. I remember Ed Mitchell, he’d be sittin’ back and then he’d start with, “There ain’t nothin’ what I ever knowed of …” and then he’d start.. They could keep you spellbound.” ~ Logger, 1947 river drive
Loggers on a drive with pike poles and caulk boots pose for a photo on Big Boshkrug Lake. The bridge in the background is what’s now Hwy. 118 ~ Photo: Stanhope Museum
	“I remember the food in the camps was excellent. I don’t know how those camp cooks could do it. They wouldn’t have anything but an old stove and bit of a counter and table and they’d put out a choice meal every day.” ~ Logger, 1947 river drive
Logs on a skidway just prior to a dirve, c. 1920s, Stanhope Township. ~ Photo: Haliburton Highlands Museum
Overnight camp on a river driver, Haliburton c. 1910 ~ Photo: Haliburton Highlands Museum