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Ξ January 29th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ |
Contact me: maplelakeontario@gmail.com or
Summer 1983~
My son, James and his great grandfather, J. S. “Frank” McCrackan.
I’ve written about Maple Lake, Ontario dozens of times, spoken of it a thousand or more. Photographs almost always accompany the posts I write as it’s hard to put into words how I feel about the place, probably due to a lifetime of summers spent on my family’s lakefront property. The Maple Lake Ontario blog focuses on the Lake of course, but family, travel, vacationing, things to do in the Haliburton Highlands and sometimes other areas of cottage country are topics, to. In fact, anything family and/or travel-related almost anywhere is liable to be a topic. You can expect weekly weather forecasts both short and long term, for the Maple Lake area as well as new-that-day webcam photographs of various scenic locations in South Central Ontario. The seasonal changes can be breathtaking to watch unfold. Enjoy!
Some family history~
Current Status:
Sometime around 1940, my paternal grandmother, who grew up in Housey’s Rapids, Ontario–lake country itself, and my grandfather (more the farming type recreationally–real life job was as a Sgt. on the Toronto Police force) started searching in earnest for some lake-land on which they could build a cottage. About this time my grandfather’s sister Eva, was managing Maple Sands Resort on Maple Lake. I’m not sure of the exact circumstances but my grandparents ended up buying property down the lakefront from the resort. It reached from the road, about 1/3 of a mile away, all the way down to the lakefront. It’s a beautiful piece of property. I’m told that it was my grandmother’s desire to eventually build three cottages on it–one for each of her three children.
Alice:
My mother likely took this shot of my grandmother and brother.
The cottage building began in 1942. My dad was age 12 then and he was very much a part of the building process–following the lead of his father.
My grandmother’s dream came to fruition as the years passed and the final cottage was built about a decade after the first went up. Their children grew up and went on to marry and have children themselves. The cottages were/are well-populated.
Even though my father’s work transferred us to the United States when I was six years old I continued to spend virtually the entire summer at Maple Lake right through my early teens (I, like my cousins, went through a phase where going up there was “boring.” It lasted ’till young adulthood when *magically* we again loved it there).
I have a lifetime’s worth of memories associated with Maple Lake. I am pleased though that occasionally someone stumbles across the blog after typing in “Maple Lake, Ontario” and leaves a nice comment. I’m very happy to connect with a fellow Maple Lake resident and enthusiast. One must spend time up there to truly appreciate all it has to offer–and it offers much.
In re: my photographs: I’m always trying to capture my “mind’s eye view” of the lake. Actually, I got off some really pretty shots late last summer. But there’s always more cool shots that need getting. 
Contact me: maplelakeontario@gmail.com
EDIT – March 20, 2009 Happy spring!
This is now my personal blog, too.
It’s simply to round things out a bit while I’m not at the Lake but still living a life! 
I thought of renaming this blog to Maple Lake Ontario And Beyond, but it looked funny.
A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. ~Henry David Thoreau