Audrey Saunders, "The Shannon Frasers," Algonquin Story, 1963

[…] Another woman who helped to make the Canoe Lake district well known, both to tourists and to people in the surrounding district, was Mrs. Shannon Fraser. She first moved to the derelict village of Mowat when her husband was appointed by the receivers to take over supervision of the mill estate. Up till then, from the time when the mill ceased running, Bob Gallna had been the caretaker, and for years afterwards his name and friendly presence were recalled by old-timers pausing at Canoe Lake to look over the old mill-site. The Frasers carried on for some years, then purchased some of the old buildings for their own use, and turned the place into a flourishing holiday resort.

At first the Frasers lived in the old Gilmour hospital, up on the hill, but in 1913 they purchased the building that had been used as kitchen and boarding house for the mill hands, back in the days when Mowat had been a thriving village. Then, in addition to their post office duties, the Frasers opened up a boarding house for summer visitors. Mrs. Fraser turned out to be such a successful manager that in the following year, the old company storehouse was bought and fixed up to take care of expanding business. These two buildings were destroyed by fire, but until then, Shannon Fraser’s was a favourite place for Park visitors. Shannon was a jovial soul with a gift for playing up a good story, and his wife was an excellent soul and a kindly one, who knew how to cook. Many a Park visitor today, who once slept and ate under the roof of Mowat Lodge, remembers the sociability and the food of the Frasers.

Sometimes Shannon found it difficult to get people for help at the post office or boarding house, and would persuade his guests to stay on and work for him for a while. Tom Thomson always headed for the Frasers when he came to the Park, and often helped out; usually as a guide for fishing parties, but often, especially in the spring and fall, he would turn his hand to anything, from drying the dishes for Mrs. Fraser, to patching the roof for her husband.

One of the standing jokes in the Canoe Lake community was Shannon Fraser’s optimism about the number of guests he expected on the next train. His neighbours loved to ask him how many guests he was going to pick up, whenever they saw him on his way to the station, driving along the old mill road.

“A big party comin’ in today,” he would invariably tell them. Returning later with an empty wagon and a broad grin on his face, he would explain: “I guess they must have missed that one.”

From all accounts, Shannon had his troubles with some of the Canoe Lake residents who worked for him off and on. Two of these, George Rowe and Larry Dickson, were well known to Dr. Bertram, Mr. Hayhurst, and other summer cottagers who came into the district after 1906. Rowe and Dickson lived in little shacks on the old mill property, and made some extra money in the summer by acting as guides for Park fishing parties. Larry’s cottage, up on the hill near the site of the old hospital, later became famous as the subject for Tom Thomson’s Larry Dickson’s Shack”, now in the National Gallery of Canada at Ottawa.

Apparently both of these men, in spite of Park regulations, used to take a drop too much. When that happened, Shannon’s business would suffer and he would fire them. It made things difficult for Shannon. In a written complaint to Mr. Bartlett, he asserted that someone had given George Rowe “licker”, with the result that “the missis had to take the mail”. Before long, however, all would be forgiven and forgotten, and George and Larry would be back at work till it happened again. Incidentally, these two handymen must have been fairly tough: Larry Dickson once told Mr. Hayhurst that he swore by horse liniment as a cure-all; any time you wanted to clean up a hang-over, he would tell the summer visitor, all you had to do was just take a few drops on a lump of sugar! […]