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Mill Valley Manor (Pre-1951 to Present)
Up • Camp Hospital/Bayview Lodge • Dobson Centre • Health Centre • Kennabi Lodge • Kennabi Lodge - Some History • Mill Valley Manor • Programme Centre • QM Shed • The Rotary Hub • The Trapper's Cabin • Restoring The Trapper's Cabin • Pow Wow Lodge
Mill Valley Manor
had been the office and residence of the Mill Valley Lumber Company manager. Its
not known when the cabin was first built but in 1951 it was moved from the mill site on Kennaway Road to the area
just across from the Camp Hospital (later called
Bayview Lodge) in what was known affectionately as The Swamp (the
approximate location of the Snack Shack from 1964 to 2005). After this move, it
was "rehabilitated into a very satisfactory three room staff cabin" [1951 Camp
Director's Report]. In 1953 it was "painted inside early in the season." [1953
Camp Director's Report].
Muriel Moore recalled:
"The first staff cabin - that was the office from the Mill. It was in the swamp,
originally. Then they brought in a little cabin. We used to call it the
henhouse. It was like a lean to and we fastened it on the back of the Staff
Cabin when the staff grew to six. This cabin was the
office at the Mill Where Neils Webster lived. He had one room as an office and
the other room was a bedroom. It was divided in half. It was brought down from
the Mill and put where the picnic area is. That was all swamp in those days, or
at least very wet before it was filled in. We later moved it. It's the old Mill
Valley cabin up on the hill. Then they built Lakeview and Driftwood."
F. Bruce Ryans
(53-55) recalls that:
"My first year on staff, seven of us
slept in Mill Valley, the largest of the staff cabins at that time. The sign
over the door said Mill Valley Manor,
but the inhabitants called it the swamp.
It was located in a low area
across from the Hospital. During rainy periods we “walked the plank" across the
swamp to the cabin. Two slept to the left and three to the right of the door.
The last two had the “chicken coop” attached to the back."
Eventually it was moved a few hundred
years to the north east and part way up the hillside overlooking the QM Shed/Ab
Shack and just west of Kennaway Cabin. It was also renovated into one open room with a wood stove for heat and
propane lighting. The "chicken coop" also seems to have disappeared at some
point, probably after this last move.
Once the camp office and other
services were moved closer to the Hub, it became primarily accommodation for
maintenance staff.
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