This log is cut from one of the pilings in the back harbour of YMCA John Island Camp in the North Channel of Lake Huron. The pilings supported a 200 metre long dock that extended out into the harbour allowing ships to pick up the stacked wood products as soon as the winter ice was gone.
At one time, a village of 250 people supported logging operations on the island. When the saw mill burned to the ground in 1918, it was abandoned. The property exchanged hands many times until the Bell Family sold it to the Y's Men's Club for a children's camp. The family then donated the purchase price of $5,000 to the YMCA of Sudbury.
The log represents the pioneer spirit of Northern Ontario -- in supplying building products for a growing province a hundred years ago, and in revitalizing communities with farsighted projects like John Island
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