[Archie Stewart--home movies] Reel 023

Date1932

Can DescriptionsNHF cataloguer's notes, 4/96: Reel 23: Archie Stewart can notes: September 1932 Trip to Unknown Lake. Gop -- GG, Mary-ah. Fishing trip. [Mary Stewart Hafer notes that this reel was photographed by Roy P. Curtis] Screening notes: Sun at edges of huge dark cloud (NG), solar eclipse. Men preparing to launch canoes. Wide moving shot of people in motorized canoe (nice); Grandfather and Grandmother Stewart, Mr and Mrs Roy P. Curtis and Mary Stewart. Picnic? (dark). Five people packing up gear on wooden picnic table. Launching canoe. Camp buildings in clearing, woman plays with dog. Walking through glade, nice sun dappling, horse drawn cart carrying canoe. Laying out another picnic, building large campfire. Fishing from canoe and from dock. Sweet shot of Mary reeling in fish. Casting from rocky shore. Horse pulling travois loaded with luggage. Hiking through high grass. Woman with axe leads parade of men and women holding rifles and hatchets out of log cabin, Mary sweeps doorstep. Man clenching cigar in mouth comes out of cabin with sign 'Mecca' over doorway. Great shot of man poling log raft, man and women on shore gingerly board. Various views of poling and paddling raft on lake while women fish. Young girl playing out line from rocky shore for toy sailboat, the "Walloping Window Blind". Men and women playing horseshoes. Child shaking bush. People walking thru overgrown garden. Dr. Simkhovitch's famous hybrid delphiniums? Mary Stewart Hafer notes: This reel shows a trip to Unknown Lake that I remember fondly. I believe it was photographed by Roy P. Curtis. My grandparents, their closest friends, "Uncle Roy" and "Aunt Sadie" Curtis and I began the trip via the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont where there was a total eclipse of the sun on August 31, 1932. The shots of the eclipse are poor, but I remember the darkness and the birds making their bedtime chirps. We stopped by the roadside and looked through smoked glass or black photo negatives. Our trek to Unknown Lake began at The Pines, a fishing camp belonging to Percy Chase, where we often stayed. I believe the first shots show leaving from Grand Lake Stream, but there was another way to get to The Pines which I have also done. There was a side road into the woods off Route 6, somewhere near Springfield. The car had to be left somewhere, and then one walked on a "corduroy" log road to the shore of Sysladobsis Lake, where Chase would meet you with a boat. From The Pines, all supplies were loaded onto a kind of travois which had two long poles attached to the axis of two large wheels pulled by Chase's horse. The supplies were carried on a hammock about 10 miles. I believe the name "Unknown Lake" has been changed, but I know no other. The cabin there was like a smaller version of our present Cook Cabin. Rob Golding was our guide. He cut clever J-shaped carrying sticks from the trunks of small saplings with a single long limb left on. With these, we gathered small balsam branches to use for our beds. I am shown, briefly, with one of these ingenious carriers. My eighth birthday, which occurred there Sept. 7, 1932, was engraved on my memory because of an embarrassing accident. I fell backwards into the pit of the new outhouse, which did not yet have a seat. Fortunately, the cleanup required was minimal because of the newness of the pit. I did not mention this accident to any of the grownups, but it was unforgettable. At the end, we are back at The Pines and Grandmother, Percy Chase and Grandfather are playing horseshoes. There are shots of me fishing off the dock at The Pines, and with "The Walloping Window Blind," my toy boat, which Rob made, which is still at our Camp.