Settlers Brought Their Folklore, Ghosts, and Hobgoblins

Do you enjoy driving the back roads of Muskoka?   These days I’ve been enjoying my trip along some of the side roads of Muskoka at a much slower pace in attempt to enjoy the scenery and the important local history that many of our families lived while settling in the region.    I have a particular interest in the Cooper’s Falls area as my Mother was a descendent of the pioneering Coopers who settle along the Black River at Cooper’s Falls.  The stories this old house could tell looking through a window of the past. - Photo By Fred Schulz

THE MYSTERIES OF THE LAKELAND HAVE COMPELLED US TO CREATE

WE USED TO BELIEVE IN THE QUAINT PARTICULARS OF CULTURAL FOLKLORE

     HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF, WHILE CASUALLY STROLLING ALONG A WELL-TRODDEN PATHWAY, IN A WOODLAND, A ROLLING PASTURE, OR ALONG A ROCKY LAKESHORE, SUDDENLY BECOMING TRANSFIXED BY THE SCENE, THAT SLOWLY UNFOLDS AS YOU PUSH AROUND A BEND, OR CLIMB OVER A SHADED HILLSIDE? IT LOOKS DIFFERENT THAN YOU REMEMBER FROM THE PAST, AND YOU SWEAR SOMETHING WAS THERE…..IN THAT SCENE, THAT WAS OUT OF PLACE. YOU MIGHT SENSE SOMEONE IS STANDING NEARBY, BUT IT IS ONLY A FEELING. YOU MAY FEEL AT ONCE, NERVOUS ABOUT WHAT WILL BE FOUND UP AHEAD, OR IN THE CLUSTER OF EVERGREENS CORRUPTING THE CLEAR VIEW, TO THE NORTH, OR MAYBE THE SOUTH.

     STOPPING SUDDENLY, BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT YOU HEARD SOMEONE CALL OUT YOUR NAME! DO YOU REMEMBER BEING UNSETTLED MY A NOISE IN THE DENSE BUSH AHEAD, AND WONDERING, WHILE SCANNING THE VISTA, WHETHER IT WAS A BEAR, A MOOSE, A DEER, OR BIG FOOT? WHAT ABOUT THE TIMES WHEN, YOU THOUGHT MOMENTARILY, THAT SOMEONE HAD CROSSED YOUR PATH UP AHEAD, BUT WHEN YOU GOT TO THE LANDMARK, THE CROSSROADS, THERE WAS NO TRACE OF ANYONE OR ANYTHING. WAS IT A GHOST? OR WAS IT JUST A PLAY OF SUNLIGHT COMING DOWN UNEVENLY, IN SCATTERED BEAMS, THROUGH THE EVERGREEN BOUGHS? HAVE YOU EVER HAD THE SENSATION, WHILE ALL ALONE IN SOME WOODLAND OR PASTORAL SETTING, THAT YOU HAD COMPANY STANDING BESIDE YOU, BUT BY RATIONAL THOUGHT, DISMISSED IT AS A TRICK OF THE OVER-ACTIVE IMAGINATION? WHAT IF YOU FELT A HAND ALL OF A SUDDEN CLENCH YOURS, MUCH AS A CHILD WOULD REACH UP FOR SECURITY, TO A PARENT, AND THEN LEAD YOU IN ANOTHER DIRECTION, FROM WHERE TRAVELING INITIALLY? IT HAS HAPPENED TO SOME DAY TRIPPERS, WANDERING THROUGH THIS MUSKOKA LAKELAND……AND THERE ARE STORIES OF THIS DATING BACK TO THE 1860'S, WHEN THE FIRST SETTLERS BEGAN ARRIVING ON THE MUSKOKA FRONTIER…..BRINGING WITH THEM THE FOLKLORE OF THEIR COUNTRIES AND CULTURES. TRANSPLANTING THEM HERE, AND KEEPING THEM ALIVE IN THE STORIES TOLD TO THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. 

     THERE IS A GREAT DEAL WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE NATURE OF MUSKOKA, IN TERMS OF ITS INHERENT MYSTERIES. MOST PEOPLE TODAY, ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SUCH STRANGE FICTIONS, LITERARY OR CULTURAL, AND WOULD NEVER THINK ABOUT PICKING UP A COPY OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S TALES OF THE HAUNTED HUDSON RIVER VALLEY, IN NEW YORK, CONTAINED IN STORIES SUCH AS "THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW;" OR READ SIR WALTER SCOTTS TALES OF LORE AND LEGEND, IN SCOTLAND. WHAT A SHAME THIS IS FOR OUR MODERN SOCIETY, TO NEVER HAVE THESE FEELINGS OF DOUBT, OR ANTICIPATION, THAT ENCHANTMENTS ARE JUST AS SIGNIFICANT AS THE BOTANY OF THE PLANT SPECIES WE BRUSH BY, AND ENJOY VISUALLY, ON OUR CROSS-COUNTRY HIKES. THESE THINGS HAVE BEEN PART OF OUR CULTURAL MOSAIC GOING BACK MANY CENTURIES, YET TODAY, WE FEEL SO ENLIGHTENED, THAT WE NO LONGER FEEL THIS TEMPTATION TO BELIEVE, EVEN IN PART, IN THE EXISTENCE OF FAIRIES AND MOONLIGHT REVELS……AND IF ONE DID STUMBLE UPON A FAIRY RING IN THE FOREST, IN THE EARLY MORNING, IT WOULD BE CONSIDERED A PHENOMENON OF NATURE….NOT A MANIFESTATION OF FOLKLORE, AS FACT.

     OF SOME IRONY THEN, WAS THAT THE TOWN OF BRACEBRIDGE WAS NAMED AFTER A LITERARY WORK, BY WASHINGTON IRVING……A MAN WHO ENVISIONED HEADLESS HORSEMAN, AND GHOST SHIPS, AND THE MYSTERIOUS BOWLERS IN THE HEAVENS, WHO CAUSED THE RACKET OF THUNDER WHEN THEY PLAYED. "RIP VAN WINKLE!" WHAT A CHARACTER HE WAS! AND THEN, IT WAS A BRITISH POET, WILLIAM HENRY SMITH, WHO GAVE "GRAVENHURST," ITS NAME, AFTER A BOOK HE WROTE. TWO SOUTH MUSKOKA TOWNS NAMED AFTER THE WORK OF WRITERS…..BOTH WHO KNEW ALL ABOUT ENCHANTMENTS AND THE NATURAL MYSTERIES OF LIFE.