Tom Thomson's Little Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916

Tom Thomson made a stop in Huntsville at the home of Winifred Trainor in mid-March 1916.  Tom was travelling by train on his way to Algonquin Park.  He stayed at Mowat Lodge on Canoe Lake until mid-April. Tom then joined Lawren Harris, Lawren’s cousin Chester Harris, and Dr. MacCallum on the Cauchon Lakes for a fishing expedition during the last two weeks of April. Thomson and Lawren Harris also took the opportunity to do some painting. Thomson’s “Little Cauchon Lake” was certainly created during this time.  

As my Thomson friend summarizes:

"All of the fishing party probably arrived at the Cauchon Lakes by train, where they could arrange to be dropped off, and also picked up at the end of their outing.  It is unlikely that Thomson paddled there from Canoe Lake as some people suggest.  While that journey is not impossible, it would take several days, and even in late April there could still be ice on many of the lakes and snow on the portages." 

The circled area in the northeast corner of Algonquin Park was    
were the magic of the spring fishing trip of 1916 took place.  

At the end of the month, Thomson headed to Achray on Grand Lake to work for the summer as a fire ranger while the other three returned to Toronto via the trains.  That time spent fishing and painting with his friends produced some masterpieces. 

A 1925 image of canoes being loaded as baggage at Achray

Canoes were essential "carry-on" luggage in the early days of train service through Algonquin Park. That practice actually continued into the 1970s. Daventry Station was the "flag-stop" for the Cauchon Lakes. Tom had probably heard about the beauty and fishing to be found there from his Ranger friends. That two-week vacation was going to be a creative adventure. 

 Little Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916
Oil on wood 10 1/2 x 8 7/16 in. (26.6 x 21.4 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size

The most probable location where the group would have stayed was the site of a former logging camp on Little Cauchon Lake, now known as Daventry.  The logging camp dates from between 1910 and 1913. W.C. Leggett used the camp as a ranger station in 1913 as depicted in the above photo. The shelters were also possibly used by crews during the construction of the railway which was completed in 1915. 

The buildings were abandoned by 1916, but probably still in good enough shape for the fishing party to use. 

There was a gravel pit not too far away, dating from the railway construction. 

In any case, there would have been a large cleared space where Thomson and his friends could set up tents, regardless of the condition of the abandoned buildings. Algonquin residents who worked for the railway passed on recollections of the logging camp and a cleared area near the track bed where a ranger cabin once stood. The cabin was burnt down and no clues remain as to where exactly it once stood. 

Historical Maps show Daventry and the railway tracks but do an inadequate job of placing the waterfall that Thomson painted in the spring of 1916. The modern map by Jeff (see "Jeff's Algonquin Park Paddling Map")and Google Earth solve the inaccuracies of those old maps. The original maps from 1921 were merely meant to suggest the waterways and not the details - where the devil always resides.  

As my Thomson friend observes:

 "It is tricky to reconcile the old map with the actual landscape.  I suspect some of the differences in the shoreline are a result of the loss of the logging dam at the outlet of Little Cauchon."

The fishing group probably camped near Daventry in the upper portion of the Google Earth image.
A large cottage built in the 1930s occupies the shoreline just northeast of the waterfall. 

On page 61 of  'Treasuring Algonquin',  Gaye Clemson writes:

"Only a few leases still exist in the northeast corner of the Park.  On Little Couchon Lake, one lease was issued in 1932 to a Dr. W.J. Stevenson, a longtime fisherman in the area and apparently a friend of Herbert Lennox and Clifford Chase, who were members of Parliament at the time. Across the lake, near Daventry Station, were several other leases."

Note that Gaye Clemson uses the old spelling, 'Couchon' for the name of the lake.  The 'o' now seems to have been permanently changed to 'a'.  

 Little Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916

There was not a lot of sky in "Little Cauchon Lake" for Creative Scene Investigations to examine! The most that can be said is that fair weather blessed the campers with a bluebird day. The group was in between the storms that typically parade across Algonquin in the spring. 

You might recall that the weather during that fishing trip was typically spring-like and stormy. The following paintings from that time frame all featured weather systems either coming or going.

"Algonquin Park" featured "cirrostratus coming at us with a spring weather system;

"Aura Lee Lake" was painted on the back side of a cold low; and

"Ragged Pine" featured a severe supercellular thunderstorm. 

The campers were probably thrilled to enjoy a dry day without threatening weather. They found the waterfall on Windermere Creek as it flowed down into Little Cauchon Lake. Their passions for painting and fishing were both satisfied. 

My Thomson friend also observes:

"I think it is a lovely sketch and worth including one way or another.  Thomson didn't do a lot of 'portrait' format sketches, but obviously that format suits this piece of landscape....

 We could say the fisherman is likely Harris, but of course we have no way of knowing for sure.  Actually, the thought just occurred to me that maybe it could have been MacCallum - it was one of the sketches that he obtained from TT's estate, and perhaps he liked the idea of seeing himself in a painting.  Or perhaps he just appreciated the quality of the work, and at least remembered the occasion even if he wasn't directly present.  Ah well, all hand-waving and speculation."

The many variations of earth tones found on this small panel suggest that Tom had been busy painting instead of fishing. Oils do not stay useable for long on a palette when exposed to the elements. The paints can quickly become viscous, stiff and loaded with chunks of dry pigment. Rather than scrape those oils and start fresh, Tom mixed interesting shades of greys instead. Waste not, want not is an appropriate adage. . 

"Little Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916" was included in the tall stack of panels moved from Thomson's Shack to the Studio Building in the spring of 1918. Lawren Harris and J.E.H MacDonald had assumed the gargantuan task of trying to organize Thomson's work of the previous five years. They gently applied the estate stamp on the lower left of the small panel that Thomson did not even bother to sign. Dr. MacCallum added the painting to his Thomson Collection when he saw it in the Studio Building. The panel would have brought back wonderful memories of a fishing trip with friends from just a couple of years before. 

Inscription recto: 

• l.l., estate stamp 

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; above stamp in black pencil, 12 (circled); 
• below stamp in graphite, 29 (circled); 
• t., in graphite, Little Cauchon Lake 1916; 
• u.l., in graphite, 6; 
• u.r., on label, in graphite, 1916 [crossed out]/ [in ink] James M. MacCallum National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4681) 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist 
• Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto 
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4681). Bequest of Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto, 1944

I have painted a few woodland waterfalls in my time. I discovered them by fortuitous good luck as I rarely carried a map with that kind of detail when I was paddling. I would just be stroking along and hear water trickling over rocks. The mystery of the source of the sound always led me to a painting. 

Perhaps the sound of rushing water guided Thomson to that location in the spring of 1916. The spring, meltwater flow would have been exuberant just as he recorded it in oils. The tumbling flow would have provided the perfect soundtrack. Of course, there was always a good probability of catching supper from the pool at the base of the falls. Trout like to ambush whatever the cascade of water delivers. It is a great place to fish!

Photo by Brandon Peek. Brandon has a terrific website at http://www.tourdupark.com/

This is the way the painting place for "Little Cauchon Lake" looked in YYYY (date to be determined)  as contrasted with Thomson's view. I wonder if Thomson would still be inclined to commune with nature there? Apparently, the flow is also much reduced as a significant portion of the water is diverted to supply the cottage. The debris is thought to be the remains of an old power plant. An old outhouse was near the site as well. 

The forest was sparse in 1916 so Tom was able to back up and see the upper part of the falls looking toward the south-southwest - something that Brandon was unable to do. The flow was also much greater attracting fish and fishermen. Tom also stretched the composition vertically to fill the small, portrait-format panel better - something he routinely did.  

As an aside, climate change and severe weather will dramatically impact precipitation events, including the waterfall on Little Cauchon Lake. Higher temperatures and increased moisture content of the atmosphere will greatly alter weather patterns and by extension, the climate. Heat Risk and Fire Weather Indices maps have had to employ new colours (magenta) to display the elevated threats. Periods of drought will be punctuated by torrential precipitation events.  Some of my Thomson friends have discovered that even "innocuous", "garden-variety" and thus unwarned thunderstorms can pack precipitable water amounts that result in flooded basements. The trickle of Thomson's waterfall can quickly transform into a torrent after such a thunderstorm. Outdated building codes designed for the climate of the past will need serious revisions. See "Climate-resilience of dams and levees in Canada: a review" among many other papers on this topic.  

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick, Tom Thomson Post TT-134

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