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iShanties: Anthony Senack's story By Wes Bumhowcr Tony was born in 1926 on the Pickanock Road in Quebec Province, three miles from the village of Sandy Creek and about six miles from Otter Lake, Just a bit north and east from Campbell's Bay. He attended school in spring and autumn but there were no classes during the winter months because of the snow and the distance to school. So, by the time he was twelve, he was working in the lumber business located not too far away during winter. The year he turned fourteen he was skidding logs. With his father who had a contract With C.1.P. only twenty miles from the Senack residence. This contract was on Crown Land and C.I.P. had the timber rights. ibl cold that winter, dippmg lib degrees Fahrenheit one day and Tony froze most of his toes whil: skidding the logs but because a log Struc his feet causing his toes to bleed, flfwyf was no pemtanent damage to in; ee. He spent the rest of the Winter at ome. and his brothers headed ed miles to work for ' ' er baron who had over 500 Gila]; :hiiiiazboftimber rights in Norther-n squebec The first fifty miles they rode in Sucks the last fifly they walked to reach 'fGillis' Shaniies. They went into some 0 5 about mid-September and the famine out until the first of April didn t Cfirs working six days a week the rnOsiyfitime. Sundays they always had Who eless there was an emergency, and OED" would then wash their clothes 'ahned Tim up on other mundane chores. 5 central Warehouse 3 build grain for the horses ' the various camps r su plies for I ' I an}? (hmyfiere Iscattered in both downs: ivoiii this warehouse. Each camp r . n Stables were , t ,1 miles at" roilghl) her: horses at each Camp) (muggy burltfott and were usua y 7 or 8 teams per camp) In 1941, he north 8 hundr There W85 built to store my constructed close to a lake for easy access to water. In every camp, one large log building housed 75 to 80 men, heated by big box stoves in which green wood was burned and kerosene lanterns provided light. it was lights out at 9:00 pm. strictly enforced on the working days, and the chore boy who was French Canadian would announce ten minutes before the hour, "ten minutes to night, lights out soon". He meant ofcourse, ten minutes to nine, but it always drew a few chuckles. Saturday night was special, since that's whentheygotoutthefiddle,liamionicaand guitar for ajam session and square dance. Some ofthe men wrapped a towel around their waists, they were the impromptu women, and lights were allowed on until 10:00 pm. as they whooped and danced. These loggers or shantymen came from all over eastem Canada, from different nationalities, from the'.»Maritimes, the Gaspe' and other parts of Quebec plus many from Ontario, but there were seldom any disagreements among the men. Work was hard, the hours long, breakfast at six a.m., supper at six pm. and the food was good. Their diet consistedmostlyofsaltpork,somefi'ozen beef, beans, home made bread, (butter once a week during war years,) prunes, molasses and com symp. There were always plenty of pies, cakes and cookies. The cook--house with its huge dining room was a separate building, and after the men ate breakfast they quickly made up their oWn lunches to eat on the job with a small camp fire to boil tea. Coffee was a treat on Sunday mornings when brealdast was at 7:00 am. Another separate building was the washroom with large wooden troughs and basins for washing up and the toilets of course were big common outhouses, nothing fancy, just a log installed about knee high to sit on for the business at hand. Not a lot of time spent there, especially in the colder months. in- Each man was issued an axe head and axe handle when he came into camp in September and he was expected to hang the axe to his own liking, take good care of it, keep it sharpened etc, for the duration, with files and grindstones supplied by Gillis. Crosscut saws, (no chain saws as yet) were kept in top shape by Sharpeners and setters to fell the huge white pine trees, many of them five feet in diameter at the stump and straight as a die. On the hills, ice roads were made by . p. ' hauling water in~hugettanks by te'ams . of horses and sleighs 'from nearby lakes, Brule Lake, Harvey Lake, Bow Lake and Bertram Lake being some of . the closest ones The ice roads made l for better and easier sleighing while hauling the enormous loads of logs to the lakes and a blacksmith was kept busy unending to the horse's shoes to see that they were sharp shod for the ice roads. The blacksmith also maintained whippletrees and other horse drawn equipment, including the sleighs. A heavy rope or cable was constructed With a 'c i'nec'eSSary, othe 1' would have be ,_ sleigh loadsc pg 1 Most of the camps were'vbu 't o Lthe i ',' shore of a lake ' ' e y ars these 11 lakes were te variety of .: would'chop'holes'irr'the 'icetand'could catch enough-'fish-ttoefeed the-whole- [ gang eir--supperr'cprovidin the; fish Were cleaned-ready for the pan (the » cook was in a godd'fr'io'o'dl) Many of"these men iwent drives in spring, floating tli through the various lakes andlrivers to the sawmills and markets of the \day; an extremely dangerous occupation, con g .all athe {rapids . waterfalls The Madawaska The Shanties (cont) .v. .i I»: t x v Highlander, May 5007 and sluiceways they encountered. And this meant they were away from home until some time in July when the log drives were completed, then back into the camps again in mid-September. Not the kind oflife for everyone, to be sure. Tony came to Ontario in 1945; working in sawmills during the summer and returning to the shanties in winter, and eventually met up with a pretty girl, Thelma Emon of Calabogie. They married in 1949 and have lived in the general area of Calabogie until the /, present time, Tony working at various jobs. They raised three boys and three girls and purchased a house on Mill Street. 1955 Tony began working on heavy equipment with different contractors and worked some years with Ontario Hydro as a mechanic. He. became a top notch bulldozer operator, much in demand, and was employed by the contractors building roads throughout Ontario. At 81 years of age, he has finally hung up the big work boots and just tinkers around the garage a ' tt; ', a's way once in toy" pretty good shape by , lathe; mail. and generally" ' .eye'on themllage. V End