A History of Lake Temagami's Sandy Inlet and Wanapitei
1891 to 1986
Bruce Hodgins, 1986
Chapter II
Meanwhile, around 1924, Ed Archibald had established a small boys' camp on a sandy beach at the mouth of the Parkin River on
the northwest shore of Lake Wanapitei near Sudbury. (In Ojibwa, Wanapitea means hollow tooth, or Wahnapitaebe, a "curved
body of water flowing out over a drop). He called it Camp Wanapitei. Captain Archibald was a great athlete who had won a
bronze in pole-vaulting at the 1904 Olympics in Athens. A graduate of the University of Toronto and active in the YMCA,
Archibald served as Director of Recreation, Sports and Social Work with the Canadian Army in France during WW1. He had also
been active in prospecting by canoe for minerals throughout North-eastern Ontario. His camp emphasized track and field sports
and wilderness canoe tripping; a favourite trip was the Chiniguci circle route northeast to Lake Temagami and back. In 1930,
Ontario Hydro constructed a dam at the outlet of Lake Wanapitei, raising the level of the lake and flooding much of the camp.
Using his influence in the Department of Lands and Forests, Archibald exchanged his old property for Paradis' site on Sandy Inlet,
despite the prohibition against private development on the mainland of Lake Temagami.
By July 1931, the boys' camp had relocated at Sandy Inlet, retaining its original name, Wanapitei. With Ontario deep in the
Depression, Archibald contracted the Maki family from Finland to build a number of handsome log buildings for little more than their
room and board. Constructed in Finnish style, the logs were mostly local poplar, shaped by a draw knife and basically without
chinking. When the camp opened, the Dining Hall, Shingoose, the Boat House and Maki House were completed. Most campers
were housed in large high-wall tents, the floors and frames of which gradually evolved into the tow Bird Cages, Red Pine Cabin and
Trespassers. A small log cabin was built using the base of an earlier Paradis building and became the Hospital. A bridge was
constructed over the river and shortly after rebuilt with large curved supporting logs to create an exceptionally aesthetic structure
which remains to this day a focal point of the site.
Utilizing some of Paradis' cleared land, the camp programme emphasized track and field sports. Wilderness canoe trips stressed
self-reliance and the autonomy of each canoe in preparation for the next gold or silver rush which never quite materialized. In
1933-1934, the Makis constructed the impressive two-storey log "Chateau" on the south side of the river, so that Archibald could
begin an adult programme of fishing and deer hunting. But until 1939, the boys' camp, under the patronage of Sir Authur Currie and
other prominent Canadians, was the central focus of Wanapitei. For a time, the lead boy each year received the honour of having a
nearby lake officially named after him in a special ceremony at Hart House. In 1939, Archibald made arrangements with the W.H.
Rhodes Educational Trust of Britain, for 40 dynamic British scholarship boys completing their secondary education in the national
system to visit Wanapitei for four days, as part of their Canadian tour. Rhodes, a British industrialist, joined at Wanapitei and was
inducted into the Temagami Band in a special traditional tribal ceremony. The boys were aboard ship on September 3 when war
broke out. Within two years many of them had died as RAF heroes in the Battle of Britain.
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