Vacations on the French River, Ontario
at the Sand Beach Lodge
Mother - On the Beach for a Shore Picnic
Photos were taken with my old Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. It's been 50 years or more since these pictures were taken, but the memories of those times are especially vivid. The Sand Beach Lodge closed a few years ago, and at the time it looked much the same as it did way back then. Here's the link from the Wayback Machine:
If you want to save photos to your computer, click the box under the thumbnails of the photos you want to download. Then click the "Download" button at the top of the album. Pick the size you'd like to download (Original is best)and the photos will be downloaded to a folder of your choice.
enlarge 80KB, 800x700 2 Mother -- Our 1951 or 1952 Chevy with our cartop carrier. I think this must be our trip to Maine in 1953 but it may have been the one to the French River in 1954. I think we had a 1953 or 1954 Chevy by then though.
enlarge 87KB, 800x787 3 Dad, Mark & Elaine - I don't recognize this but it must have been some place that we stayed on our trip to Maine.
enlarge 53KB, 800x700 4 Dad piloting our boat on the French River in 1954. It was our first trip to the French River and we all had a lot of fun.
enlarge 55KB, 800x723 5 Mark sitting beside the old Johnson motor. You can see the Sand Beach Lodge boathouse in the background. The white object to the right of the boathouse is a large boulder that was painted white with "Sand Beach Lodge" in red letters. We liked swimming at the beach but it was where we had our first encounters with leeches.
enlarge 80KB, 800x796 6 Another trip - I think this was in 1955. Mark and Dad proudly displaying our catch - looks like a couple of smallmouth bass and a walleye. This spot was our favorite - it had a nice beach and we would bring our shore lunches here. After a few years someone went and built a cabin on it and our picnic spot was gone for good.
enlarge 89KB, 800x763 7 Mom and Dad at our picnic spot. The Lodge would pack a shore lunch tha was always good. There would be a large coffee can with a wire bail to be placed over the fire. You would boil the water and throw in your coffee grounds and boil away. It made really good coffee.
enlarge 68KB, 800x665 8 Mom at our PIcnic Beach - it was nice and sandy.
enlarge 57KB, 800x585 9 Elaine in our boat - the boat was white with red trim. We would just haul it up onto the beach.
enlarge 60KB, 800x569 10 Mark on tiop of the rock outcrop at the edge of our "picnic beach".
enlarge 58KB, 800x707 11 Another year (1956??) we are again at our picnic beach.
enlarge 62KB, 732x800 12 Mark again on top of the rock outcrop - the granite rocks make the French River a beautiful place.
enlarge 34KB, 800x602 13 A view of the Sand Beach Lodge beach (1956).
enlarge 60KB, 800x800 14 A large smallmouth bass (1955) is brought into the boat.
enlarge 99KB, 796x800 15 Dad with the nice smallmouth - you can see the minnee (minnow) bucket and old tackle box (I still have it) in the foreground. I loved the old wooden SBL boats. This picture was in 1955.
enlarge 69KB, 800x741 16 Recollet Falls (1956) You had to push your boat over a portage consisting of wood rails on log ties. It was hard work but the fishing on the down side was very good and made it worth it.
enlarge 63KB, 800x737 17 Dad at our picnic spot. I don't know when this was but my best guess is 1955.