Tom Thomson's Sandbank with Logs Summer or fall 1916

The tangle of logs at the base of a sand cliff might be an unusual subject for most artists - but not for Tom Thomson. He was a man of patterns even if they might be strange and outside most people's experience and everyday life. Tom was naturally curious which is a great way to live for a creative soul artist with a brush. 

After the very productive fishing (aka painting) trip in the last two weeks of April 1916 with Lawren Harris, Lawren's cousin Chester Harris and Dr. MacCallum, Tom headed to Achray on Grand Lake to work the summer as a Fire Ranger. As Tom noted, the work of a Fire Ranger did not allow much time to paint. He apparently found some time in the early summer of 1916. The lush greens behind the sandbank cliff are characteristic of early spring. An interesting story can be found in the logs. 

Sandbank with Logs
Alternate titles: Ledge; Log Jam; The Ledge?
Summer or fall 1916
Oil on composite wood-pulp board 8 3/8 x 10 3/8 in.
 (21.3 x 26.3 cm), Tom's Paint Box size, Catalogue 1916.80

Pick Up Sticks Game

Tom did not employ the artistic rule of thirds in composing "Sandbank with Logs". There is nothing particularly striking at any of the four intersections circled above. The arrangement of the logs reminded me of the game "Pick Up Sticks". That difficult challenge would be something the loggers would have to do later when the water levels were higher in the spring of 1917 - if they ever wanted to get that timber to market.

After some consideration, I came up with what might be an even better analogy. In a futile attempt to stay organized, I sometimes use a paper clip to keep important papers together. My bowl of paper clips reminded me of Tom's pile of logs. 

 My Thomson friend observed:

"I don't believe those logs were pushed over the edge at the sandbank but probably were indeed in a tangle due to getting hung up in the eddy.  The logs most probably came from farther up the river, and possibly from smaller tributaries of the Petawawa.  Remnants of dams and chutes can be found on some surprisingly small waterways.  On a larger waterway such as the Petawawa, the loggers would follow the logs downstream, freeing them from jams and tangles, guiding them to chutes or spillways at dams, and collecting them in areas of calmer water, e.g. Whitson Lake (as probably seen in Bateaux). In the spring runoff when the water is very high you can leave the Natch in a canoe and easily get to McManus by lunchtime as long as there are no logs in the way."

Attempting to push anything over the edge of the eroded sand cliff would be unwise and was probably not practised by the experienced loggers. Getting too close to the edge like the large tree root that Tom painted would likely result in an abrupt tumble to the bottom of that cliff.

Version 5 of  Jeffrey McMurtrie's map shows the portage around Five Mile Rapids as 3400 metres (2.11 miles). Five miles is actually 8046 metres, more than double the length of the portage on Jeffrey’s map.

Canoeists and hikers noticed that the  Five Mile Rapids Portage actually felt longer than advertised. One hiker commented that it was a "considerably longer hike than expected and some of the upper parts of the trail were pretty rough and wet." Bill Mason always said: “Anyone who says they like portaging is either a liar or crazy.”

The truth behind the portage was eventually discovered and the recently published Version 6 of  Jeffrey McMurtrie's map is accurate and included below. Five Mile Rapids is actually 3 miles long. Map maker Jeffrey McMurtrie has produced some terrific and educational maps ideal for hiking and canoeing in Algonquin Park and they just keep getting better. A visit to "Maps by Jeff" for the most recent version is well worth the effort!

Given the orientation of Five Mile Rapids, Tom would have painted his sketch in the morning to keep the sun on his back and the scene strongly front-lit. The scene was also likely observed in the early summer when the morning sun is closest to solstice and further north than in the spring or fall. The summer of 1916 had been the hottest and driest on record. That green vegetation Tom observed would not be as lush later in that hot summer and certainly not by autumn. Any pile of logs that were not cleared when the spring flood subsided would just have to wait - for Tom Thomson to come along and record them for posterity. 

The loggers would anticipate that the surging rapids would flush the logs down that straight path and five miles closer to market in a hurry. However, the sandy soils make for an inefficient and leaky pipeline. Erosion which is explained in a graphic below, could easily create significant meanders. An image from the Algonquin Park Archives pictures such a sharp meander along Five Mile Rapids. Logs can easily get hung up and one snag traps another. Before you know it, a floating pile of logs like that in the historical image results. Note that the Coriolis force would encourage erosion on the southwestern bank of Five Mile Rapids along its entire length. 

Algonquin Park Archives& Collection image of loggers at work along the Five Mile Rapids

, 1975.1.2

The water level was high enough to float the logs in sharp contrast to Thomson’s panting which shows the stranded logs tangled randomly on a much drier surface. Perhaps Thomson’s observation was made after the spring meltwater had passed leaving the logs relatively high and dry. My Thomson friend observes: “The last time we visited that stretch of the Petawawa (granted, it was in the fall, so quite low water), we could only paddle part of it, then had to get out and walk/carry the canoe the rest of the way.  Lots of fun picking our way over the rocks that would normally have been underwater, though we did come across some waterlogged logs that still showed lumber company stamps on the cut ends.  Those logs have been lying there a long time - I think the last drive down the Petawawa was around 1960.

The logs were floating in the above image. Imagine if the water drains away before the loggers could free the snag and send the logs on their way to market. The stranded logs would come to rest in the most unusual of varied positions just like my paper clips. 

The following graphic illustrates the process of erosion and deposition along a river. The cliff retreats to the right of the current, consistent with the direction of the Coriolis Force in the northern hemisphere. 

These meanders continue to grow until the strong current 
simply breaks through the narrow banks to follow a shorter
and more direct path. The new straight flow cuts off the
meanders creating oxbow "lakes". The process of
erosion and deposition continuously repeats itself and
shapes the landscape. 

The dashed yellow circle in the accompanying graphic suggests the probable location within a river where Thomson's pile of logs and the historical images might have been observed. Trees would topple into the water course at this point as photographed by my Thomson friend in the upper left of the above image. Although the current would be strong at that location and the water relatively deep, a fallen "sweeper" stretching across the flow could easily snag logs bobbing along downstream. It would not take long to collect countless logs in the meander as history reveals in the above right. That pile of logs was certainly not a landing as the loggers would be hoping that the spring flood would take their logs five miles closer to market without any snags in their plans. The yellow dashed arrow in the graphic is the straightened flow which would eventually occur during an extreme runoff. The straight flow would transform the meanders into oxbow lakes. 

The Nowitna River in Alaska is an excellent illustration of oxbow lakes.

My Thomson friend observed:

"I don't know how the loggers would have untangled the mess of logs in the sketch.  Many of the loggers were expert at knowing how to loosen a jam, but there's no doubt some of them were badly injured or died in the process.  In extremis, they sometimes used dynamite, but I think that was only for large jams in tricky locations."

Dynamite employed to "untangle" a log jam somewhere in           
Canada - date and location unknown

The early 20th century was a different time! Consider that until 1958, wolves were considered a liability and were trapped, shot and poisoned by Algonquin Park Rangers as a part of their duties. Beavers were trapped until they became too rare to be profitable. Clear-cut logging was and still is big business and any alteration of the environment was encouraged. Logging still continues in Algonquin Park - the only park in Canada to permit that extractive enterprise. 

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866. The First World War created a huge market for explosives and the British Cordite Limited and Canadian Explosives Ltd (CEL) were founded in Nobel just north of Parry Sound. Dynamite was readily available in Thomson's time. Alfred Nobel also founded the Nobel Prizes in 1895. Whether that was an attempt to rewrite his obituary is unknown. His motivation to create the prizes was never explained and in any case, that is another story. 

Regardless, dynamite was easily obtained and often used to "loosen a tangle" of logs. It was destructive and dangerous work. Dynamite could be used for even worse applications. Some might recall the CEL Wabler (after the Williams Wabler Spoon fishing lure) used to catch fish which were not biting. "Blast fishing" included dropping a stick of dynamite into a lake. The explosion would send a few fish floating to the top but many more dead on the bottom depending on the damage to their swimming bladders. Of course, this is conjecture that such an event might have happened in Algonquin Park even though the CEL Wabler slang was well circulated. The practice of blast fishing still continues in isolated regions of the world, currently Malaysia, Indonesia, Tanzania, and the Philippines. Shame...

In Algonquin Park at least, this all occurred more than a century ago. It is history and it was who we were. We can do better but it is unnecessary to try to rewrite or reinvent history. Learn and move on... become better than what we were...

In an October 4th, 1916 letter sent from Basin Depot to this friend and patron Dr. James MacCallum, Tom wrote: 

"Have done very little sketching this summer as I find that the two jobs don't fit in. It would be great for two artists or whatever you call us but the natives can't see what we paint for. A photo would be great but the painted things are awful. When we are travelling two go together one for the canoe and the other the pack and there's no place for a sketch outfit when your fire ranging.

We are not fired yet but I am hoping to be put off right away."

Thankfully, Tom did find some time to paint.  

J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris met in the Studio Building in the spring of 1918. Tom's paintings from the Shack had been stacked in the Studio Building. Harris and MacDonald planned to sort through Tom's art, make comments on the back and distribute what they felt were the best examples of his genius. "Sandbank with Logs" was another of those paintings. There is a circle of damage on the lower right of the panel where the stamp was applied. Unfortunately, Tom did not sign his plein air work. 

"Sandbank with Logs" as it would
have appeared in Tom's plein air
paint box

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp 

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 
• above stamp in black crayon, Sketch #10; 
• below stamp in ink, T.T-35; 
• l.r., on label in ballpoint, D.T. / Levis [Lavis ?] 
• Thomson Collection @ Art Gallery of Ontario

Provenance: 

• Estate of the artist 
• Mellors-Laing Galleries, Toronto, 
• c. 1940 E.E. Poole family, Edmonton 
• Sotheby's, Toronto, 27-28 May 1985, lot 755 as Log Jam (repr.) 
• Private collection, Toronto 
• Thomson Collection @ Art Gallery of Ontario

Many interesting stories can be discovered with boots on the ground, open minds and some science. History can be rediscovered.  As mentioned, this story might be fiction but the science is factual. Thank you once again to my Thomson friends and the Friends of Algonquin Park who maintain the Algonquin Park Archives. 

May I also recommend the "Summer of 1916", a post by my friend known as "Tom Thomson's Last Spring". The story relates a personal side to the history of logging, fires and life in the bush that augments the brushwork of Thomson. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date.