Ewan Caldwell was Woodlands Manager for Consolidated Bathurst Inc. from 1970-1983. Before that he was an employee of Gillies and an active member of the Improvement Company of the Ottawa river (I.C.O). The I.C.O. was an independant company run by a Board of Directors and supported by various lumber companies for the improvement of slides and conditions along the Ottawa river.
Acquisition Source
Mr. John Dunfeild donated this material on behalf of Mrs. Caldwell after Ewan Caldwell’s death in 2001.
Scope and Content
This fonds consists of three binders of photographic material related to his activities as woods manager and ICO member from 1950 - 1980. While many slides were taken from an airplane, the collection also includes shots of Jo Smith, Ewan Caldwell, Trembley, Stitt, Arsenault and Sid Heckbert.
Slides include scenes of:
Gillies Bros. lumbering, Madawaska Timber Limit, Temagami Ontario Limit, Coulonge River, Braeside Mill, Herrons Mills and John Gillies’ home at Herron’s Mills, Colonial Lumber Pembroke, Gillies bridge over the Madawaska, Pontiac Mill, Portage Larch Plantation, log booms on the Ottawa river, Mountain Chute, Calumet Island, Upper Ottawa Improvement Company Board Room with members, Mississippi at Almonte, Bryson Power Dam, Deep River, Chapeau, Quyon Boom, Opemicon Narrows, Lake Temiskaming, Dumoine River and Deux Rivieres, Boyles Sawmill on the Bonnechere, Calumet, etc.
Prints include lumbering scenes, Herron’s mills and the woodyard at Pontiac Mill, Portage Du Fort, Quebec taken March 1970. Also included in the binder marked Photos Bush is a copy of the Forestry Chronicle, October 1992 featuring Ewan Caldwell’s painting of an abandoned, McLachlin Bros. alligator and two other covers of the same publication depicting winter scenes by Caldwell.
An interesting addition to the fonds is an envelope (dated 1921) with signatures of directors of the Upper Ottawa Improvement Co. which include Dan McLachlin, Fredric Bronson, [Len MacMillen], J. F. Booth, J. Gillies.
Notes
Several slides are copies of printed material and original photographs. Some of the prints are copies from the National Archives.
Related Material
Information regarding the I.C.O. may be obtained at the National Archives of Canada, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Department of Lands & Forests.
See Also: Accession #2001-0131, Sloan Watters fonds