Hi guys! It's me Jimmy. I'm still stuck on one of the 30, 000 islands, in the middle of Georgian Bay. My boat sunk with tons of photo's by J.W Bald and ton of other cool stuff. Every treasure chest is full of stories of Midland, Ontario , Canada's past. This treasure chest that you just opened is full of photos about James Playfair and his partner in lumber D.L White.

Here is a photo of the prosperous mill that James Playfair and D.L White operated. The men in the picture are sorting the different logs, all logs had markings (like brands for cows) to tell these lumberjacks what mill to send them to.

Here is a picture of The Playfair Mill's lumber yard. The black smoke in the background, is the mill on fire. During that time mills burning down was not an unfamiliar sight, many mills in this area burned and then were rebuilt. This mill was not rebuilt, however. The lumber milling era was ending and the mill in Midland could not access enough logs to kept itself going.
1947-0144-6025

This is a photograph of The Playfair Mill from the Old Grand Trunk Elevator. Lumber mills were very big and took up most of Midland's water front. Notice the stacks upon stacks of lumber. They had enough to build Midland!
1991-0001-0033 or PA-179256

James Playfair was a very wealthy man. Here we see his beautiful pair of horses and buggy and his majestic house on the hill, named "EdgeHill". This house, built around 1890, was were Mr. and Mrs. Playfair lived for many years. It was also the first site of the Huronia Museum.

1991-0001-0078 or PA-177981

What was the name of his house?

a) The White House

b) Beck Mansion

c) Edgehill

Cool Links

Lumber Camps

Lumber Mills in Midland

Railroad in Midland

Then and Now

Links Around the World

Lumber Industry in Hearst. Overview of the lumber industry in the town of Hearst.

Mackenzie's John Dahl Article on logging.

Further Reading and Bibliography

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All icons and graphics are for viewing purposes only, any downloading of them will be in violation of copyright laws.

Good quality copies of J.W. Bald's photo can be obtained from the Huronia Museum c/o Bill Smith 1-705-526-2844 or through the National Archives of Canada, just refer to the archive number at the bottom of each picture.

Huronia Museum, Little Lake Park, P.O. Box 638, Midland, Ontario, Canada, L4R 4P4.

This digital collection was produced under contract to Industry Canada .Check out other SchoolNet Digital Collection web pages.