Indian Lore, Tour Boats, Modernization in the 1000 Islands

The Indian heritage and lore in the 1000 Islands is mostly forgotten as the twenty-first century moves inexorably forward. Keewaydin State Park, Chippewa Bay, and Iroquois Island are reminders that the Cornwall brothers, Cap Thomson, and the Clarks have no claim to being the region’s earliest residents. Indians had a hand in naming or lending their name to many places found along the river. They also provided the names for the mighty “muskellunge” fish and the “muskrat,” which is the critter that gives rise to the term river rat.

When Great Grandfather Clark landed with his family and servants in 1883, Indians were still coming to camp on the plateau across the back channel at Keewaydin. It was a mythical setting for the Algonquin Indians. The 1000 Islands had sacred status for the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes. At least one account credits the Indians naming the 1000 Islands “Manatoana,” which translates as “Garden of the Great Spirit.” James Fenimore Cooper makes references to “that labyrinth of land and water, the Thousand Isles” in his novel the Pathfinder. I found a reference to this encampment in a 1936 Thousand Islands Sun article that was reprinted and edited by Jeanne Snow. There is reference to the Keewaydin property and the owner at that time, William T. Dewart. In one section of the article it is reported, “There is a bit of Indian lore told about the spring on this property. It was here that the Indians used to camp and to use the water from this spring.”

Early Clark lore details an evening when the braves had something important to celebrate late into the night. They were apparently drinking something stronger than the renowned spring elixir, and they were creating quite a stir according to the account. As the story...

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...ll holes in the lath and plaster walls. It wasn’t a fancy wiring job because the house would have needed to be gutted to accomplish that task. That would have been a monumental job, and it would have destroyed the murals we all wanted to preserve.

Dad also contracted with local builder Perry Simmons in the fall of 1961 to reroof the house before our return for the 1962 season. The roof had been allowed to deteriorate for such a long time that the contractor didn’t need much more than a broom to remove the few wooden shakes that had somehow clung to what was left of the old roof. Reroofing the house came none too soon as we found out several decades later. In our 1990s restoration project, we found rot so advanced in the porch soffits that sawdust was all that remained under the covering boards. This rot was clearly a product of the roofing neglect from 1925 - 1961.