My mother was Leone (Suydam) Upton, only daughter of James and Winifred Suydam. The Suydams owned the east side of Portage Island (Cognashene area) from the 1930s to 1970s. Their only daughter married my Dad, in 1937, and we resided in New Orleans Louisiana.
My grandparents introduced me to Camp Hurontario in 1957; I loved it and, at my request, I returned the summer of 1959. Loved the 10-day canoe trips both times. The 1957 trip included a stopover at my grandparents place on Portage Island, for hamburgers, hotdogs, and cookies, and then on to the mouth of the Musquash River.
In 2002, my wife bought me a 17-foot aluminum canoe for Christmas. She and my now 44-year-old son have been fishing in it; my grandchildren will ride in it next summer. Have rented many cottages over the years near Pointe Au Baril & the Lighthouse, but the pandemic has left us bored in Dallas. I am equally proud of my Canadian heritage; my grandfather, James C. Suydam, was a Canadian Army officer in WW1, then built a successful construction company. Suydam Public Park, in the 400 – 500 block of Spadina Road was built & donated to the City of Toronto by my grandfather.
Since I haven’t been to “The Bay” since 2017, I thank every friend in Cognashene & elsewhere for sending photos; our last “Bay Trip” was to a rented cottage near the old Ojibway Hotel near the Pointe Au Baril Lighthouse. My goal is to see the campgrounds one more time with my family.
Warmest regards,
“Butch” Upton
Photo: Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
