"Those bygone days when fortunes
were made on the backs of men"

I came to the house of Mr. Allan Huckabone to interview him with some apprehension. As soon as I met Mr. Huckabone in his garden, all my fears diminished. He was a kind man with an easy  laugh and a twinkle dancing in his eyes. I entered the house and it  was beautijul, with  wide hardwood floors partially covered with intricate throw rugs. The walls were covered with maps of various ages; all were of the Ottawa River and surrounding areas. Mr.  Huckabone was a wealth of information on the lumbering era of the Ottawa Valley and its more recent past. He recounted of some of those bygone days when timber kings ruled the Valley and fortunes were made on the backs of men. 

Log Drive on the Petawawa River 1930

(Courtesy of Canadian National Railways and Algonquin Park Museum

"The first big logging went through here in about 1840 or 1850. Fraser's Landing was cut; the hills behind it were all bare. There was lots more land with timber, but it was all further away. Fraser's Landing was a lumber depot so the men who were working for the Fraser family would stay there. The Fraser family originally settled near Westmeath as lumber men. They also had the Frasers Landing depot up on the  Quebec side of the River, where the working men would cut timber. In old photographs 

you'll see there were a lot of buildings and barns. The hills behind were completely devoid of trees; they had all been cut. All the trees had been logged. Gamet Allan told me that in the early days there were oak on those hills which they cut. if you go up into those hills now, there's still some big pines. They just took long enough to move their camp and their men 

on to the next place. A group of the lumber kings
in the Ottawa Valley: the Frasers, the Brysons from Fort Coulonge, and the MacLarens from Thurso started the Bank of Ottawa. This bank became very prosperous, and later became the Bank of Nova Scotia. For a number of generations, the Frasers were all directors of the
Bank of Nova Scotia. The Frasers moved to Ottawa and lived there in great style. Colonel Fraser was an Aide- de-Camp to the Governor
General. The Frasers used the place at Westmeath as a summer 

Colonel Fraser was an
Aide-de-Camp to the
Governor-General.
43

TAMARACK