Once an icon on Kawagama Lake, this Ditchburn was last seen in 1969, fueling a personal quest to discover what happened to it

There is nothing like a good mystery to pique the imagination, and the disappearance of a 26-foot Ditchburn is a very good mystery indeed.

The On-We-Glide was a long deck launch built by Ditchburn Boats in the 1920s. For years it was a familiar sight on Kawagama Lake near Dorset, where cottagers watched it perform its daily chores of moving people and supplies around the lake. When my family cottaged on the lake in the 1950s and 60s, On-We-Glide was a regular part of the landscape. But in 1969 it vanished. For nearly 20 years now, I have been trying to track the boat’s history and perhaps discover where it ended up.

The first mystery surrounds the boat’s name. Where did the name On-We-Glide come from? Was it from a musical score or popular Broadway hit of the day, or was it from a special family homestead name or tradition? Even the spelling is not certain, as it may have originally been the Onweglyde.

Whatever the origin of the name, the boat was a used but still elegant launch in 1931 when George Russell purchased it from Duke Boats in Port Carling. Russel, a member of a Kawagama Lake pioneer family, used the boat to service his fishing camp named Mountain Trout House, which at that time was located at the present site of Mooreland’s Camp. The late Marjory (Russel) Allman of Huntsville, George Russell’s daughter, later recalled accompanying her father to Duke Boats to buy the Ditchburn, but she couldn’t say how the boat was transported from Port Carling to Russel Landing on Kawagama Lake.

For many years Russell Landing was the only point of road access to Kawagama Lake – then known as Hollow Lake, in reference to its bowl shape surrounded by higher elevations of land. The winding, hilly road travelled the short distance from the town of Dorset. Mountain Trout House camp was moved to Russell Landing, and the On-We-Glide came with it. The boat faithfully served two owners of Mountain Trout House from 1931 to 1968. It was retired in 1968 by owner George Mackesey who replaced it with a new Mason inboard/outboard runabout.

In 38 years of service on Kawagama, the boat hauled thousands of people and supplies through all kinds of weather. Its signature Ditchburn convertible navy top offered shelter from the sun, wind, rain, fog and even snow in the shoulder seasons. Government surveyors, cottage building contractors, local building supply companies, Ontario Hydro construction crews and early cottagers depended on it to get them safely to and from their remote locations. Kawagama Lake is a big body of water, where open sections can develop white caps up to four feet in height, but the boat handled the water well.

Mountain Trout House was sold in 1969 to Joe Latvalla and Ross Tarey a partnership that did not last. On-We-Glide, suffering much wear and tear, was pulled up on dry land at the marina. And after that, the trail goes cold.

Joe Latvalla was recently contacted, but has no idea what happened to the boat. It was rumoured to have been moved to Lake of Bays, but old boaters on the lake there have no memory of it.

Roy Allman, a Huntsville native and the head of Roy Allman Canoes, said he last saw it on adjoining Kimball Lake in 1969. It was hauled up and abandoned on shore, painted red with a 25 hp Johnson outboard crudely hung on the transom for power.

It is a credible observation and would explain the boat’s eventual disappearance: a derelict boat on the shores of Kimball Lake could easily have slipped into the water with the receding spring ice and headed to the bottom, never to be seen again.

However, there is a logistical flaw in the theory, and it involves the challenge of getting a boat the size and weight of a 26 foot Ditchburn from Kawagama Lake to Kimball Lake.

The two lakes are connected by a small creek, only inches deep in places. Winching a heavy launch up the creek is no small feat. I have made this trip with a small aluminum fishing boat, but it was a physical challenge to say the least. Would someone really have gone to all that work to move the On-We-Glide?

Even if the craft ended there, the mystery does not. Antique boat enthusiast Paul Hammond of Bracebridge recently restored a beautiful 28-foot long deck launch named Onweglyde III. It’s a boat with mysteries of its own, including the question of who built it. With no builder’s plate attached, it was determined by several Muskoka boat historians to be the work of Clive Brown of Bracebridge. Brown was an independent boatbuilder who was famous for his singular quality of workmanship and attention to detail. Much research however could not determine how the boat got its name.

In his celebrated book Grace & Speed, which highlights antique and classic Muskoka boats and the superb art of Doug Dunford, author Andrew Wagner-Chazalon outlines the boat’s mysteries, and poses the question: “What ever happened to Onweglyde I and Onwglyde II?” Does part of the answer lie on the bottom of Kimball Lake?

At a time like this you need help from knowledgeable friends, so I asked Muskoka historian and friend Ian Turnbull of Port Carling to check the Muskoka Lakes Association records and archives. He looked for any reference to these unusual boat names or to any related Muskoka family or Muskoka location. Unfortunately, the answer was negative.

Next, I sought the advice of Aud Duke’s granddaughter Anne Duke Judd, who is the keeper of all existing Duke Boat Company records. Perhaps there would be a clue there, or at least an indication of who owned the boat before it went to Kawagama Lake. Unfortunately, in 1931 a great fire swept through Port Carling, destroying many businesses including Duke Boats. All records from 1931 and earlier were lost.

The Ditchburn Boat Company itself has been out of business since the 1930s. Historians and enthusiasts with the Antique & Classic Boat Society have reproduced many popular Ditchburn boat lines drawings and plans over the years, but there are no known company sales records in existence.

The only known physical evidence left of On-We-Glide is its pennant pole and a pennant marked “Livery.” Betty Russell and her sister Margaret (Russel) McEacheren, the surviving daughters of George and Olive Russell, presented the penant to Gordon and Leslie Henderson, who owned Mountain Trout House from the 1990s to 2005.

And that is where the trail ends. Or does it? Perhaps someone out there knows where the boat ended up, or can offer insight into its name or its origins. Perhaps someone out there can fill in the missing pieces of the On-We-Glide mystery.

Joe Fossey is a Barrie-based boat historian. He can be reached at 705-726-6600 or jifossey@rogers.com.