In the mid-1850s my great-grandparents, James and Annie Bryant, homesteaded the farm on East Moore Lake. They had eight children and my grandmother Mina Louise was in the middle of the pack. She attended the one-room schoolhouse on what is now called Green Gables Road. After finishing school, she moved to Toronto where she married my grandfather Christopher Wahlroth. They had two children, my father Chris and his brother Arthur who was four years younger. My grandfather died in 1919 and my grandmother went to work at the Bell Telephone Company.
In 1929, my grandmother bought the point of land between Moore and East Moore Lakes. She built three cottages on what is now called Tundra Trail. She stayed in the first cottage on the road during the summers until she built a smaller cottage on East Moore Lake that she could stay in while the other four were rented. Lucky for me I got to spend the summers with her. My grandmother rented these cottages until she retired. In 1933 or 1934, she built a cottage on Moore Lake which could only be accessed by walking trail or boat. I do not recall the year, but the old farm was then sold to the Wessel family, Ingram Wessel’s father and uncle. It was in either 1945 or 1946 that the Leary brothers, Dean and Nelson, built a road that followed the walking trail to the cottage on Moore Lake. The Leary’s owned a farm and the tavern/inn at the Falls. The tavern is still there remodeled and is now the Summerkiss Restaurant.
Around the end of WWII, my grandmother sold the first two cottages to Lawrence Winch who had been a long-time renter. Shortly thereafter, the third cottage was sold to another long-time renter. Bob Ollie and another renter named Ed Brooks bought a double lot on Moore Lake which later became two cottages. The second belonged to Ed's son Barry. About that time, my mother's brother leased a piece of land on East Moore Lake that was south of the cottage my grandmother used to stay in. He built a small cabin perched on the edge of the hill on what was referred to as “the hollow place.” In 1957, my grandmother gave my father (a widower who had since remarried) the south end of the point which is in concession 25. My dad then built a cottage on the point north of the narrows and had my late uncle's cabin moved down to become his bunkie. Then in 1958 the Redpath family bought the cottage on Moore Lake. In the early 1960s my father’s friend, Wes Evans, bought the cottage my grandmother used to stay in.
In the mid-60s, Wes Evans bought the lot north of my father’s place and built his own place there. He then sold the cottage on East Moore to Vern Russell. Then I took over the bunkie at my dad’s place. After adding four bedrooms and a bathroom, it became my cottage in 1971. There are now seven cottages on the East Moore Lake side and thirteen on Moore Lake which are all accessed from Tundra Trail. Fifteen years ago, we severed three lots for each of my children, Jennifer, Susan, and Michael, on the north end of the property on Moore Lake. Their cottages are accessed via Cobble Rose Lane.
Written by Mike Wahlroth, who’s family is one of the oldest families to have settled on Moore Lake and still here today
Great history to share. Thanks Mike