Legendary Wilderness Pilgrimage

“Remember, you belong to nature, not it to you.” – Grey Owl

This year is the ideal time to visit the prairie province of Saskatchewan to celebrate a park and a personality; each has left an indelible impression on the other.

I decided to experience the pilgrimage to the wilderness homestead of an iconic conservationist in a majestic provincial park. Since Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert National Park (1928) celebrates its 90th anniversary and it is the 80th anniversary of the death of Grey Owl (1938), this year seemed like an auspicious time to make the journey.

Departing Waskesiu Marina Adventure Centre in a small motorboat, we travelled to Kingsmere River Landing, where we winched our vessel at the rail car portage and pushed it 700 metres before we re-entered the river, continuing to the south end of Kingsmere Lake. A 14-km journey across takes us to the north end, where we commence our three-km wilderness trek to the legend’s cabin.

From a section of the shoreline en route, we viewed wildlife such as airborne eagles and loons scampering across the water to induce flight. We also viewed a few elk in the distance. Along the trail, Parks Canada provided sections of boardwalk to facilitate the hike, although some stretches were washed out during our soggy and boggy springtime trek.

Waskesiu Marina’s interpretive guide, Natalie Matheson, pointed out a mossy patina of a moose antler affixed to a tree for decades, indicating the direction to his cabin. The route was thick with a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees. After an ample re-application of insect repellant, I donned my khaki hat with the roll-down net to neutralize these pesky parasites as we traversed the tree-laden trail.

Grey Owl’s cabin (aka Beaver Lodge) is situated on Ajawaan Lake and was originally built for him by the Dominion Parks Service. He was hired to be the first Naturalist of the newly established Prince Albert National Park. For 20 years prior to this, he was making his living in Northern Ontario as a trapper guide and forest ranger.

Born in England to British parents, his name was Archibald Stansfeld Belaney. He first used the moniker Grey Owl in 1930, when he would tell people that his mother was an Apache and his father was Scottish. An Ojibway girl introduced him to the Native way of life in the Canadian wilderness. However, it was a Mohawk woman (his future and most enduring wife) Anahareo (Gertrude Bernard), who really encouraged him to terminate trapping and supplement his income with a more innocuous means of support: writing. In doing so, he produced three best-selling books, which were instrumental in promoting conservation, along with the films featuring Grey Owl and his pet beavers. He brought his male (Rawhide) and female (Jelly Roll) companions from Riding National Park to Prince Albert in 1931 by train, the same year he had his first book published.

On Agawaan Lake, the beavers became mates and the cabin became a home to several generations of their offspring. His cabin features a corner section of the floor cut out, in which his furry friends built a mini dam, half inside and half outside the waterfront abode. The quaint, single-room log cabin has a timbered bed and a wood-burning stove and is open to the public. Here is the only place where you can acquire a complimentary black-and-white postcard of Grey Owl in his canoe in front of Beaver Lodge.

Anahareo generally preferred to stay in the upper cabin since she did not find the scent of the beavers as appealing as Grey Owl did. According to Natalie, he was a “night owl” who liked to consume his homemade hooch during late-night writing sessions. “As a so-called celebrity of his time, Grey Owl had his vices, the main one being alcohol,” she conveyed to us. His inebriated-induced literary scrawl was evidently deciphered by a female assistant, Margaret Winters, who was chaperoned by her brother while she typed his manuscripts on the premises. His popularity has attracted hundreds of summertime trekkers to the remote Beaver Lodge.

During a 10-year period (1928-38), he had seven endearing documentaries produced and four books published about his beavers. In Beavers, author Rachel Poliquin stated that “the beavers and the lodge embodied the paradoxical image of a domesticated wilderness.”

Grey Owl embarked on speaking tours during 1935 and 1937 to promote his books and message on conservation. During his second tour, he gave a grand performance at Buckingham Palace for George VI, entering bedecked in buckskin and an ostentatious feathered headdress.

After the wear and tear of extensively touring, he returned home from the hectic, congested gatherings to his secluded cabin. There, he finally succumbed to pneumonia only a few months before his 50th birthday.

While at his home, we visited his gravesite where he is interred with his wife and daughter, adjacent to the upper cabin. In town is the Waskesiu Heritage Museum, where we viewed Grey Owl exhibits, and even a replica of the interior of his cabin, replete with a small timbered bed and diminutive faux dam. The museum displays various literature of his and about him, even some magazine features in the appropriately named The Beaver (currently Canada’s History magazine).

In 2016, Canada Post dedicated a postage stamp to Grey Owl (1888-1938). The black and white image is from a famous Karsh portrait of him donning a hat in 1936. In 1999, a fictionalized biopic was released, which starred Pierce Brosnan portraying the iconic conservationist.

Our proficient guide stated that “he formed an attachment to the beavers and began writing about how mankind had to change their ideals about the wilderness. His films with his beavers helped to create awareness about the need for conservation with a living example as the star of the show. He was truly revolutionary in his ideas, writing and lecturing about conservation. He was a man ahead of his time!”

Whatever his personal peccadillos, with people considering him a fraud, drunk or even bigamist, his legacy as one of “the most effective apostles of the wilderness” is prevalent and remains relevant in our eco-conscious society.

IF YOU GO:

Saskatoon Tourism: www.tourismsaskatchewan.com

Waskesiu Marina Adventure Centre: www.waskesiumarina.com
Tours are offered from late May to mid-September

Waskesiu Heritage Museum: waskesiuheritagemuseum.org

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