Camilla Faragalli, Reporter

Funded by the Local Journalism Initiative

A sea of plaid filled the Pontiac Conference Centre at the Spruceholme Inn in Fort Coulonge on Friday evening for the annual “Night of Memories” Lumberjack Dinner, a gathering dedicated to remembering and celebrating the forestry industry that for so long was at the heart of Pontiac life.
“They say you have to know where you’ve come from to know where you’re going,” Pontiac Warden and host of the event Jane Toller told the crowd.
Over 100 guests dined, mingled and reminisced as video footage displayed both historic and modern scenes from the logging industry on a loop behind the stage.
“They [forestry workers] didn’t wear lifejackets, they didn’t wear helmets. And yet they had that thrill of being out on the water, running across the logs with their cork boots,” Toller said.
“And that is what built the Pontiac.” Toller, also mentioned her own great-great grandfather, George Bryson, a key figure in the development of Pontiac’s forestry industry in the 1800s.
Quyon’s Gail Gavan provided musical entertainment for the evening, joined onstage by renowned fiddler Louis Schryer, Gillan Rutz on guitar, Erin Leahy on keys, and Marie-Jeanne Brousseau on accordion.
The group performed an array of music highlighting the various cultures of the Valley, including Irish logging songs (to the stomping feet of the attendees), and some Scottish tunes as a nod to Robbie Burns Day, which had fallen a day earlier.
Schryer’s daughters, Chelsey and Kaitlyn also performed, showing off the Ottawa Valley style of step-dancing, which originated in lumber camps.
“When I meet these gentlemen that risked their lives to get on the Ottawa River, to make log drive happen, I get pretty emotional,” Gavan said as she took the stage. She invited a round of applause from the audience for “every single log driver, lumberjack and woodsman that ever worked in the Pontiac,” before explaining that her own father, as well as a number of other men in her family, worked on the log drive.
“My dad taught me all these old songs when I was a kid and I didn’t know what they meant and I couldn’t have cared less about them,” she later told THE EQUITY. “Now I realize the value of them.”
“In Pontiac here, we’ve got to keep staying proud of our heritage, because it’s pretty special. And if we don’t do nights like this, we forget, and the next generation won’t even know about it,” she said.
Lumberjacks new and old
Retired bushman Frank Doyle worked as a “timber cruiser” – collecting data on trees on a given piece of land, including size, quality and species, to determine the value of the timber before it is harvested.
“I also did the Schyan River drive,” Doyle said, recalling his time on the river northwest of Sheenboro.
“I was in a pointer boat and I got quickly thrown out of it,” he said with a laugh, crediting his dismissal to his inability to follow the pointer’s instructions.
Doyle said he attended the event with his wife, as well as his “chum” Roger Rivet.
“I was glad to bring Roger here tonight,” said Doyle, explaining that Rivet, 91, first started on the log drive at the age of 14.
“He lived, worked and raised a family in the bush all his life. There was no solar power then. You had to heat your home with wood and go out and get your own food,” said Doyle of Rivet’s experience.
“I appreciate this night, I appreciate people coming from all over the place, Ontario, Quebec and maybe other provinces as well,” he said. “It’s our history.”
Melanie McCann Lang recently moved back to the Pontiac after a number of years away and decided to attend the event with her husband to reconnect with the community, and to celebrate their family’s history.
“My father-in-law worked at the pulp and paper mill for many years and retired there as well,” she explained.
Sarah Christick, a student in urban forestry at Algonquin College, was perhaps one of the youngest ‘lumberjacks’ at the event.
“I thought it would be cool to meet some people in the industry, and just check it out, learn some things,” she said. “I’m glad I came.”
Also in attendance were three MRC Pontiac mayors, Sandra Armstrong of Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Christine Francoeur of Fort Coulonge, and Lynne Cameron of Portage du Fort.
A silent auction boasting a vast array of work by local artists lined the back of the conference hall, the proceeds of which would be donated to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).
“With this event, we remember the past but we look forward to the future,” said Toller, who promised more details in the coming months of “major investment” being made to the local forestry industry.
“Forestry is going to move further ahead in 2024. For certain,” she said.