Lumberjacks, c.1900

The lumber industry was crucial to the development of the villages of Victoria Harbour and Waubaushene in the 1880s and early 1900s.  Sawmills operated up and down Georgian Bay, cutting down the magnificent white virgin pine to feed a hungry lumber market.  Hundreds of millions of board feet of pine and, later, hardwoods, were cut and shipped from Victoria Harbour and Waubaushene.  Hundreds of people worked in the mills and company stores, and the lumber companies formed the economic backbone of the villages for decades, until the timber supplies ran out.                 The timber limits were owned primarily by large lumber companies, such as the Victoria Harbor Lumber Co. and the Georgian Bay Lumber Co. in this area, but the wood was cut by independent lumberjacks, many of whom came from Quebec.  Life in a lumber camp was hard work.  The day would begin before the crack of dawn, and end after sunset, with an expert sawyer cutting up to 200 trees a day.  The men lived in ‘camboose’ shanties, named for the camboose, or open fire, in the middle of the building, which was used for both heating and cooking.  They ate fairly well on a staple diet of salt pork, beans, molasses and potatoes.  On Sundays, they were sometimes treated with pies, and syrup on special occasions, such as log drives.  Camps were stocked with pots, pans, lanterns, blankets and dishes and typically housed between twenty and twenty-five men.  The average pay for a lumberjack was $1.00 per day, 26 days a month, with Sundays being days of rest