That’s what I did this past week at Bon Echo Provincial Park in Ontario Canada.
Legends
The lake at Bon Echo is called Mazinaw. And it is named after the Algonkian people who called the lake Mazinaabikinigan-zaaga’agan which means “painted image like”. Kayaking along the 1.5 kilometer rock face there are approximately 260 Pictographs. It is believed the pictographs are Algonkian /Ojibwa. Many of the images portray the Ojibwa god Nanabush. Nanabush was believed to be a shape shifter, as well as a cultural hero and a trickster figure. Some of these images are believed to be three to four hundred years old.
Mazinaw Lake
The lake itself is the headwaters of the Ontario Mississippi River. The maximum depth is 145 Meters, or 476 feet at its deepest point. This makes Mazinaw the seventh deepest lake in Ontario. The lake is split in two sections a piece of land called “the Narrows”. The lake is then referred to as the Upper Mazinaw and the Lower Mazinaw. The Upper Mazinaw is the deepest
In 1956 rock climbing began as a few friends paddled across the lake and climbed a rock outcropping called “Birthday Ridge” Today all climbers must register at the park office. The Alpine Club of Canada based in Toronto still climbs the rock face today.
the Bon Echo Inn
In 1889 Weston A Price was a dentist that purchased this lot of land after the lumber companies vacated the land.
Price named the area Bon Echo. Sound travels over water easily and with a 100 meter rock wall of one side of the lake loud sounds would bounce off and echo across the lake.
Weston Price and his wife built a large hotel at the narrows between the upper Mazinaw and Lower Mazinaw. This became the Bon Echo Inn
Although the inn was successful Weston Price due to personal tragedy decided to sell the property.
Enter Flora Macdonald Denison. Flora purchased the land in 1910 for 15,000 dollars
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Flora was a huge fan of the poet Walt Whitman . Flora in 1919 hired two stone masons from Scotland to carve a a one foot tall verse from a Walt Whitman poem into the rock face. It reads. “my foothold is tenon’d and mortised in granite I laugh at what you call dissolution and I know the amplitude of time” which is the last paragraph of the poem Song of myself, part 20
Flora Macdonald Denison then turned the Bon Echo Inn into a hangout for artists, poets and writers. James Thurber and members of the Group of Seven were often seen there.
Her Son Merrill who was the Art Director for the Hart House offered free room and board at the Bon Echo Inn if they would help design posters for the Hart House. Arthur Lismer, AY Jackson, A.J.Casson and other artists stayed at the Inn. After Flora’s death in 1921 Merill inherited the Inn.
In 1929 the Leavens Brothers who leased and operated the Inn as a summer hotel. The Inn burnt down in 1936 caused by a lightning strike and was never rebuilt.
In 1959 Merrill donated the 8000 acres to Ontario for a Provincial Park.
Bon Echo was officially open in 1965.
Inspirations
In July of 2020 was my first visit to Bon Echo Provincial Park. I was totally blown away. I have wanted to visit this park for many years. I love history and this area of Ontario is full of history.
I was in High school some 45 yrs ago when I first heard about the pictographs at Bon Echo, however I haven’t been able to go there until now. And I wasn’t disappointed.
One of my motivators for my photography is the Group of Seven painters. Seven friends who gather to discuss painting, and who probably critiqued each other’s work.
I have a similar gathering with a group of my friends. Each fall we go to Algonquin Park in Ontario Canada, we all love photography and that’s all we do there. We go out and hike and do photography, critique and discuss photography. So I can relate.
I think that is why I actually feel kindred to the Group of Seven painters. I totally get it.
I have selected a few photographs to show from Bon Echo which has my editing done with the Group of Seven as inspiration.
Turtle Rock
This rock has several names. However one that sticks is Turtle Rock.
When I saw Maureen paddling beside the rock I only had time to take out my iphone and take the shot.
I knew right away how I was going to edit this photo. There are two different effects on this photo.
I would like to credit these two web pages for my information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Echo_Provincial_Park
The Mazinaw Pictographs: Listening For Algonkian Echoes
There are a lot more in-depth information available on these sites if you wish to know more.