The first settlers arrived in the Monetville area in the late 1800s concurrent with the logging activity that drove area economies. Most travelers arrived in our area via Lake Nipissing; usually embarking on one of the many steam packets plying the lake out of Sturgeon Falls. Until the Big Chaudiere dam was completed in 1916, lake navigation was a hazardous undertaking due to the wildly fluctuating water levels. Indeed, until the Big and Little Cuts were blasted around 1909, connecting Lake Nipissing with Chanter, lake boats of draughts over six feet had to discharge cargo and passengers at the “Government Dock” on Lake Nipissing at the north extremity of Monetville Road.

Captain Charlie Britton of Sturgeon Falls operated two steam packets on the lake; the Elgin L. Lewis on charter to all comers and the other, the Medilla, on scheduled service to several points in the western half of the lake, terminating at the new Government Dock in West Bay at Monetville. A passenger ticket was $1.00 to the Hay Narrows and $1.75 all the way to Monetville. The return cargo to Sturgeon Falls was usually pulpwood in eight-foot lengths piled high on both main decks, bound for the KVP paper mill in town.

Now, Charlie Britton, in navigating the Medilla through the Squaw Island channel of the West Arm, often passed abeam a beautiful, nearly hidden bay on the north shore of the arm. Eventually, and ever struck by the beauty of the location, he decided to buy the 387½ acres surrounding this bay with the objective of establishing a fishing lodge. By 1921, he had built a lodge and a few log cabins. He called his new business Memquisit, a name that translates roughly from the Ojibway as “hidden, or secret place”. Memquisit Lodge has been a successful enterprise from the outset.

Around 1936, Charlie sold Memquisit to Guy and Adeline Trivet from Erie, PA and the Trivet family owned, operated and upgraded the operation until its sale to the Daoust’s and Larose’s in 2001. In the fall of 1940, Guy Trivet drowned while hunting ducks alone in Muskrat Creek, apparently falling overboard into two feet of water after suffering a heart attack. This untimely death did not prevent Adeline and her daughter Jeanne from running Memquisit on their own until its sale in 2001. Adeline passed on in 1986 leaving Jeanne alone at the helm for the remainder of their ownership of the property.

Jeanne passed away on October 3rd, 2001 exactly 6 months to the day after selling her beloved and cherished business to the new owners.

At the sale of Memquisit, the resort had expanded to 17 cottages along with the main lodge, an owner’s house, one staff house, a boat house and dock complex along with numerous outbuildings. In the late ‘60s, six of the original log cottages were replaced by Pan-Abode structures while others were rebuilt in frame-style. One of the distinguishing features of every cottage is the “sunburst” design on the porch gable facing the lake. A unique feature of this complex is a suspension bridge crossing about 10 feet above a 200-foot wide creek/swamp area to allow easy access to foot traffic between the more westerly cottages and the main lodge.

Initially, Memquisit Lodge was strictly “American Plan” wherein all guests ate all meals in the large dining room. Housekeeping facilities were not provided until well into the 1960’s at about the same time that electricity became available. Until the road was built into the lodge in the late fifties, access was by water only. Indeed, prior to 1940, most guests arrived via a steam packet, having made their way to Sturgeon Falls by rail or auto. For the few intrepid souls who arrived in Monetville by car, the adventure had just begun. Just at the south boundary of the Bucky Martin property, there stood a burned-over pine sheiko some 36” in diameter. On this sheiko was a nicely worded sign that proclaimed: “Telephone to Memquisit Lodge, 1000 feet. At this point you would find a homemade phone booth about 4’ x 8’ in diameter, nicely framed and cedar shingled. The telephone itself, along with its two-page set of instructions was a thing of wonder. A dozen vigorous revs or so on the hand crank would generate enough power to ring the bell on a similar phone four miles and many hazards later in the lodge office. With all the lodge windows open, and both parties on each end of the line bellowing at the top of their lungs, the caller would then be convinced to drive another mile or so to Sucker Creek Landing, the very end of the road where he would be met by the “Pointer” within the hour.

Since there were no bridges, getting to Sucker Creek Landing only meant driving on until stopped by the lake. Here, the guest would park his car among the rocks and another dozen or so cars such that the area looked like a used car lot. In due course, the Pointer would arrive. This boat was a relic of the logging days on the lake and was in fact, a “boom tender”, a wooden planked open boat of about eight feet in beam and 30 feet in length powered by a Gray Marine inboard engine yielding about 18 mph. Being a boom tender, the bow was steeply raked, which led to the name; the Pointer. Riding this boat was a great thrill for guest and operator alike because after the retirement of the steamers, this was the largest boat in all of West Bay.

Occasionally, guests would arrive in Rutter via the CPR Northern Bullet where Jeanne would pick them up in her 1936 La Salle (Belch fire 8), itself a vehicle large enough to carry a basketball team standing up. The dusty ride of 25 miles to the Pointer waiting at Sucker Creek usually took at least an hour.

Memquisit fit well into the old-style resort category, with every whim of its guests catered to, every whim that is except those requiring electricity. There was a complete “outfitting” shop built into the lodge wherein a vacationer could buy anything from a choice fishing lure to a Hudson Bay blanket. The fishing/hunting guides were almost exclusively local Ojibway natives as were most of the kitchen help and other employees. Hunting and fishing were excellent in those days so with great accommodation and dining, Memquisit was the premier and somewhat exclusive lodge of this end of Lake Nipissing.

One must wonder what it must have been like operating a lodge in those days. Electricity was not available until the 1960’s meaning that in order to store perishable goods, large quantities of hefty size blocks of ice had to be gathered during the winter months and stored away under a heavy blanket of insulating sawdust until their use during the warmer season months. The ice blocks were hoisted to the upper chamber of the walk-in cooler, (still in existence today at the back of the lodge) which kept food at the proper temperature. Everyday the dock boys would also gather ice blocks and deliver them to each cabin’s icebox located on the deck. These iceboxes were used to keep guest’s refreshments nice and cold.

Tons of firewood were harvested, split and piled every year to accommodate the big large cooking stove found in the lodge’s kitchen, the only means of cooking available in those days. The courage of these two ladies, Jeanne and her mom Adeline who operated a top-notch enterprise amidst overwhelming odds in the rugged Canadian north for well over 60 years is truly remarkable. Left alone in 1940 when Mr. Trivett passed away, they surmounted unbeatable odds being separated from civilization with no roads leading in or out of the lodge miles deep in the bush. Their kind and sympathetic heart offered refuge and employment to dozens of local natives, some remaining faithful to them until Jeanne’s death in 2001. We bow our heads to commemorate their accomplishments, courage, determination and compassionate nature. Without them Memquisit Lodge would not be what it is today.

On a side note:

· Not much is left from the days of Captain Britton aside from a huge piece of heavy chain anchored in the rock face by cabin 6. This chain is a piece that was used to hold the pulpwood in the bay during the spring thaw prior to making the long journey towards the markets.

· A hand drawn caricature of Jeanne’s mother Adeline is still hung in the main dinning room. The picture is amazingly lifelike and also represents all of the things the lodge had to offer in her era.

· The lodge has numerous pictures in various albums of its past. These albums are available in the lounge. Many of these pictures are black and white and were taken prior to any consideration for color pictures.

· Several of the tools used in the old days are on display in the lounge over top and around the fireplace.