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  • Finding A.Y. Jackson in Wawa

Wawa's stunning landscape inspires famous Group of 7 member A.Y. Jackson

5/14/2020

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Picture
 A.Y. Jackson painting in Michipicoten Harbour, circa 1956 (photo courtesy of Ken & Judy Ross)
On May 7, 1920 a group of Canadian painters had their first art exhibition and the world of Canadian landscape art would never be the same.  They called themselves the Group of 7.  They shared their interpretations of the rugged and impressive Canadian scenery in a style which became legendary and synonymous with our vast and magnificent land. It is no surprise that the landscape along the east shore of Lake Superior inspired a number of the members and introduced the world to the incredible scenery of the Algoma and Lake Superior area.
 
I grew up listening to my Grandmother's stories about how a member of the Group of 7 had a cottage in Wawa and regularly took trips with local boat owners to explore and paint along the Superior shoreline.  
 
During a special Glenn Gould and Group of 7 train event in 2015, I was introduced to Ken Ross, son of Harry and Jennie Ross, friends of A.Y. Jackson, a prominent member of the original Group of 7.  The Ross’s co-purchased a cottage with Jackson on Sandy Beach in 1955.
 
Between 1955 and 1966, Jackson (well into his 70’s and early 80’s) ventured by foot and by boat from his tiny Sandy Beach cabin.  In his autobiography, “A Painter’s Country”, Jackson described Lake Superior by writing “I know of no more impressive scenery in Canada for the landscape painter.” (pg 46) Accompanied by friends and fellow explorers, he created 100's of sketches and paintings depicting the Lake Superior landscape from Batchawana Bay to Pukaskwa.  Many of Jackson's Wawa sketches were painted in the vicinity of Sandy Beach.  
 
At the end of Jackson's Wawa paint trips, he and the Ross family would invite friends and neighbors to a social and bonfire on the beach.  Jackson would have all his sketches on display tacked to the logs on the outside of his cabin.  Some of them would still be damp with fresh paint.  Folks could purchase one of his creations for $50 to $70 or commission Jackson to make a larger version over the winter back in his studio for $300 +.    Jackson was also very generous with his sketches and often gifted them to locals who provided transportation out on Superior, invited him to their homes for dinner, or simply let him sit and paint the view in front of their property.
 
There is no complete inventory of his creations.  These sketches are now turning up at fine art auctions across the continent.  In the past 5 years, there have been at least 30 paintings pop out of the woodwork which we know Jackson painted in the Wawa area.  He often wrote Wawa or Michipicoten on the back of the painting.  And for those of us who have a first-hand knowledge of the landscape, such as the roll of the hills and the curves of the shoreline, we are sometimes able to pick out the exact spot where Jackson sat and painted.  It is the ultimate Canadian scavenger hunt...discovering the site where a member of the Group of Seven was inspired to sit and let the creative spirit flow through their paintbrush to a blank canvas. 
 
Jackson was 84 when he stopped coming to Wawa.  He ended his years as an artist in residence at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg.  He died in 1974 at the age of 92 and is buried on the Gallery grounds with other members of the Group that were inspired by Algoma country and shared its beauty with the world.

For an unofficial look at some of the many Wawa-Jackson painting sites go to Finding A.Y. Jackson in Wawa.
Picture
SECRET MEETING - airbrush painting by local artist Adam Robert Martin depicting famous photo of 6 members of the Group of 7 circa 1920 in the Arts & Letters Club, Toronto
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Wawa Cultural Mapping Project

5/22/2012

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I just finished the perfect eight month job and I loved every minute of it!  Who knew you could get paid to research, write and talk about all the incredible cultural assets in my own home town.

The Wawa Cultural Mapping Project was exciting work which focused on engaging the community in making an inventory list of all our wonderful natural and cultural resources in Wawa's own backyard.  It was a definite learning experience.  I would also like to think that it inspired many to take a second look at all the great things we do have instead of focusing on what we don't have.

I am all about increasing community pride and focusing on the positive.  This can only lead to better things for us all.

This video is a short synopsis of the Wawa Cultural Map.  I had a blast putting it together...and now I can't get this tune out of my head.  I hope you enjoy and it inspires you to take a second look at our little town!
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Golden Past, Present & Future?

3/13/2011

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Picture
    Photo Caption:  Darwin Mine Site on the "High Falls" (Surluga) Road c. 1935
_________________________________________________________________________

    I am currently working on a project that has me researching Wawa's rich gold mining history.  In 1897 Louise Towab and William Teddy likely had no idea that the gold laced quartz vein they uncovered during their picnic on Mackey Point, Wawa Lake would seal Wawa’s future as a resource based northern community.  While the Klondike gold fever was still fresh in everyone’s blood, one thousand hopeful souls flocked to the tiny Michipicoten River Village and Hudsons’ Bay Company post.  Visions of rich placer gold fired their imaginations and every creek bed, river and stream were staked and panned.  
    By September 1897 some 1,700 claims were staked.  The area was proclaimed a mining division and the first Ontario Mining Recorder’s Office was set up at the abandoned Michipicoten HBCo. Post.  WaWa City was surveyed and registered in 1899.  
    These “tenderfeet” gold seekers soon discovered that unfortunately there were no nuggets to be had and the most productive “gold mine” in the area was the local hotel and tavern, the Balmoral, which sat where the Lakeview Hotel presides today.
    The rugged Wawa mountains did however reveal their worth to those more patient and practical prospectors who secured finances and resources to drill, explore and develop some of the more profitable veins hidden beneath the forest floor.
    Mines of note during this first gold boom were the Grace, Norwalk, Jubilee and Kitchie Gami.  In March 1903 newspapers reported the “8 gold bricks valued at $8,630 were received at the Imperial Bank from the Grace Mine, result of 4 weeks’ run.”  At the current price of gold (February 2011 = $1420/oz) these bricks would have been worth over $592,000.
    Investment dollars soon ran out and before long Wawa's first gold boom was overshadowed by the burgeoning iron mining operations at the Helen and Magpie Mines.  However in a strange twist, while the rest of the world was struggling to survive the Depression, the Wawa area was experiencing their second gold boom.
    A newspaper heading in the Sault Daily Star from January 6, 1932 highlights the energized atmosphere in the Wawa area at this time.  “Michipicoten Snaps Fingers at Depression, Advances More in 1931 Than in All History.”  The Parkhill was mining veins that were producing 1.9 oz/tonne at 50 to 100 tonnes per day.  The price of gold per ounce in 1932 was $20.67 (this rate had not changed since 1879).  The mine was therefore making approximately $2-4000/day.  Last months price of gold was $1425/oz which would equal $2,707.50 for that same 1.9 oz of gold in 1931.  Local gold mines today on average produce 850 tonnes of ore per day which assay at approximately .3 oz/tonne or $363,375.00 per day.
    All this being said, I have to wonder why the Wawa area is not flush with gold mining companies exploring the many historical mining ventures of the past 100 years and taking advantage of the high price of gold?  Granted the environmental standards and legislative procedures to open and close a mine are a necessary evil to this industry.  But with the number of proven golden sites within a stones through of downtown Wawa, you would think that our little town would be in someone's sites?
    And who says it has to be gold.  With our constantly changing technology and industrial needs, you would think that there are any number of local minerals that would be of interest.  Wawa's mines have excavated gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, galena, molybdenite, asbestos...the list goes on.  And lets not forget diamonds!
    I am an eternal optimist.  Wawa will boom again...soon!
Picture
Tom Surluga and Surluga Mine head frame 1968.
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Atillio Berdusco - Block II Pillar Blast

1/24/2011

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Today's research has put me in touch with members of a family that have been friends of my family for 3 (going on 4) generations.  The Berdusco's and the Morrison's were neighbors on Station Road when they first moved to Wawa in 1939-40.  My Grandmother Hilda often talked about Grandma and Grandpa Berdusco...I even remember visiting with them in their home on Broadway.  I thought it was the coolest thing that they lived up a flight of stairs over a store and had a view of both Wawa Lake and Broadway Avenue.

My Father John and Aunt Madeline grew up with the long list of Berdusco kids...and then of course my brother Matthew and I loved our Berdusco visits to Orillia, the annual summer visits with Paul, and attending high school with Elaine and Sheila.

Today's research brings back all those warm memories...but my true intention is to focus on the oldest 2nd generation Berdusco boy...Atillio.  With the help of some members of the family I am starting to pin down a life history of this charismatic man for inclusion in a local mining heritage project later this year.  The dramatic focus will be on the 1955 Block II Pillar Blast at the New Helen Mine which he was instrumental in coordinating.

When Tillio flicked a switch on September 24, 1955, 153 tonnes of dynamite exploded 1 MILLION tonnes of rock.  This blast was the largest controlled underground blast of its kind in Canadian mining history.  Worthy of mention don't you think?
Picture
Courtesy of David and Ron Berdusco.
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The First North Shore Bloggers!

1/22/2011

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As I type the title of this, my first blog, I realize that it is not quite accurate.   The "blogger" I want to talk about is from the early 1900's, and there were certainly a number of more prominent explorers, scientists, cartographers and adventurers who journalled and documented their findings and exploits along the east shore well before the 20th century.  That being said...

Kirkland B. Alexander.  We cross paths again!  A year ago your work came to me in the form of "The North Shore Log - 1910"...first the original journal with photos...then the hard cover publication.  Now I find you tucked into one of my Mother's numerous boxes of research as the "Pipe River Log - 1923".

Your daily journalling reveals the exploits of 8 gentlemen fishermen of some financial standing (enough to afford the $5.00 fishing license for U.S. residents visiting Canada) who board the steamer Caribou in Sault, ON and head for Pukaskwa River, Pipe River and Red Sucker Cove for a week of fishing.  The reader is sometimes left to wonder at your teasing remarks that can only be de-coded as an inside joke which perhaps only a "gentleman" fisherman would be able to decipher.  Other entries, however, give us a fantastic sense of the true experience in travelling the shoreline by ferry, canoe or on foot.

Your description of travelling with 80+ lumberjacks and their families and supplies destined for Pukaskwa on the Caribou leaves me wondering if anyone enjoyed this mode of transportation at all.  Your journal entry describing Jack Cadotte's retelling of the Wreck of the Reliance in 1922 conjures images of a classic campfire scene complete with an Ojibway story-teller, dramatic backdrop, and the smell of pipe tobacco and driftwood smoke.

For those interested in reading Kirkland B. Alexander's Log in its entirety I will scan as a pdf and link it here soon.  But in the meantime...I include his last paragraph to make us yearn for a warm summer day on the Superior shoreline.

"We miss the bouquet of pine and balsam.  We prefer the noise of surf and the minor song of kas-kas-ka-nig-gee.  We are positive that the wilderness is preferable to the most advanced civilization; that nature should never have been contaminated by man.  We are all engulfed in that curious lethargy that one experiences in the first hours of return from the Superior country - a physical and mental reluctance to slip back into the groove, a sort of bewildernment, vague alarm and hesitation, a moment midway between sleep and awakening."    
            K.B.A.  October 30, 1923
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    Author

    I am a "life-time" resident of Wawa.  I came to the realization last winter that I am energized when I get to tell people about the rich culture and opportunities for exploring my unique corner of Lake Superior.

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