Gilmour Lumber Company
Their involvement in lumbering began modestly in the 1790s in the area of Glasgow, Scotland where Allan Gilmour Sr. started a small timber merchandising business.
The Gilmour Lumber Company established its first Canadian branch at Douglastown, New Brunswick, near the mouth of the Miramichi River in 1812.
[2] In 1852 Gilmour and Company constructed a sawmill at the Trent Port location along the Bay of Quinte (now Trenton, Ontario).
As Long and Whiteman wrote in their comprehensive study, When Giants Fall: The Gilmour Quest for Algonquin Pine: "The main sawmill stood on the south western part of the property.
It boasted a commanding view of the town, the Bay of Quinte, and the mill operation at the foot of Dundas street.
In 1885 the Gilmour Fire Brigade Band was established, playing local functions and events across southern Ontario.
[4] Like most lumber barons, Gilmour and Company received most of its product from the northern timber limits of what is now the Algonquin Park region.
From here the timber would be processed then loaded onto ships that would carry the lumber along the Saint Lawrence River to destinations in the United States and Europe.
Situated in the remote northern interior, the Algonquin highland forest was a prized timber berth the Ontario government put up for auction in October 1892.
David Gilmour was the biggest spender purchasing 225 square kilometres (87 sq mi) of contiguous land along the northern Peck Township (the Canoe and Joe Lake region).
[8] Shortly after the auction, winning bidders aggressively began to set up lumber camps in the Algonquin highland forest.
At the base of Lake of Bays Gilmour would construct a jackladder, a conveyor mechanism that carried the logs up the hillside.
Navigating the Ontario waterways, it would take a log drive 445 kilometres (277 mi) to travel from the Algonquin highlands to Trenton.
Because the Algonquin Highland was so far north, the spring thaw occurred much later in the season, shortening the time available for summer log drives before waterways began to freeze up again in the fall.
[11] In the spring of 1896 David Gilmour and his brother Allan decided to construct a mill at Mowat village on Canoe Lake.
Times had changed, and John Booth's Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway was soon to reach Canoe Lake.
[14] Mowat and Canoe lake would figure prominently over a decade later when in 1912 Canadian artist Tom Thomson began visiting the area and produced the majority of his greatest work.
In 1903 tragedy struck when David's brother Allan Gilmour died after accidentally shooting himself in the back of the head while preparing for a fishing trip.
