Former Residents of Algonquin Park

In March, Gwen visited an old friend, Jim Gauthier to deliver and autograph a copy of her book.

Gwen is grateful for the assistance that many of her old friends from the Lake Traverse Days provided to her while preparing her book. In particular she is grateful to Shirley Saar and Jim Gauthier.

Shirley spent part of her youth at Lake Traverse Station where her father had a lumber camp in the 1940s. She provided valuable information and interesting photos relating to Passaw's lumber camp.

Jim was born at Stuart's Spur in 1931 at the camp his father, Paul Gauthier, managed for the Pembroke Shook Mills. When Gwen moved to Lake Traverse Station, Jim's sister Irene and her husband Ray Ling were running the camp at Stuart's Spur. The Lings and the Woermkes became great friends.

You can learn more about Passaw's camp, the Pembroke Shook Mills, Stuart's Spur, and the Pembroke Lumber Company and more interesting Algonquin Park history in Gwen's book especially in Chapter 4 (Passaw's Camp at Lake Traverse), Chapter 17 (The Pembroke Lumber Company), Chapter 18 (Shooks and Wooden Boxes) and Chapter 19 (Folks Along the Line).

My Uncle ... Was Murdered in Algonquin Park

In Lake Traverse Station: A Railway Wife's Algonquin Park Memoir, Gwen writes: "My uncle, game warden Jack Billings, a decorated World War I veteran, was murdered in Algonquin Park in 1926. No one was ever convicted for the crime" (page 2). After she became a permanent resident of Algonquin Park, Gwen learned more about her the man accused of her uncle's murder. Learn about this and more in her book.

To learn more about the unsolved murder of game warden Jack Billings -- one of Algonquin's mysteries -- you can view the following articles.

• An article (including photos) written by Gwen's son on the 75th anniversary of Jack Billings' death which appeared in the January 31, 2001 edition of The Eganville Leader can be found at
  http://www.ocoa.ca/Pages_Awards/TributeDocs/Billings-Eganville%20Leader.htm
• An article written by Sean Chase of Pembroke's Daily Observer which appeared in January 2010 can be found at
  http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2280867

Author of Lake Traverse Station Highlighted

Gwen Woermke was highlighted recently in two Ottawa Valley newspapers: The Eganville Leader and Barry's Bay This Week.

READ Heather Kendall's article from Barry's Bay This Week by clicking on the link below:
http://www.barrysbaythisweek.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2279820


To learn more about the Eganville Leader and get an online subscription visit:
www.eganvilleleader.com

LAKE TRAVERSE WALTZ

Before she started working on her book, Lake Traverse Station: A Railroad Wife's Algonquin Park Memoir, Gwen composed a waltz which communicates some of her feelings about her life in Algonquin Park. She included this composition in her book, adding lyrics. View and hear the author playing her own musical composition:

87-YEAR OLD BARRY'S BAY WOMAN WRITES BOOK ABOUT LIFE IN ALGONQUIN PARK

Hot off the press. Gwen Woermke at home in Barry's Bay with a copy of her
first book LAKE TRAVERSE STATION: A RAILROAD WIFE'S
ALGONQUIN PARK MEMOIR.

Ever since I married Roy and moved to Lake Traverse Station in 1951, I dreamed about writing a book chronicling my life in Algonquin Park. Today, I am eighty-seven years old, and I am pleased that this dream has finally come true.

In addition to the memories of “an old lady,” this book has some historical information about the Park, the lumber industry, the CNR, Lake Traverse Lodge, Booth's Turtle Club and the National Research Council's Algonquin Radio Observatory which my son has researched and compiled. I have always felt that the northeast side of Algonquin has been overlooked. I hope that this book will remedy that and pay tribute to the people who lived and worked on that side of the Park.

Could a young couple today live in the bush with no running water, no hydro, no washer and dryer, and no television? Could they survive with only a coal stove, coal-oil lamps and a battery radio? I don’t know. It wasn’t easy for Roy and me, but we had no time to feel sorry for ourselves, and we were never lonely. We were quite content to spend our spare time together ̶ fishing or picking berries, playing cards, sharing meals with friends and travellers, and occasionally being called upon to help others. It was a simpler life in a simpler time, and it was very satisfying.

I hope that readers will enjoy my reminiscences (some of my relatives and friends have heard them many times) and appreciate the history in this book.