Monday 9 July 2012

CAMERON'S POOL, the name

From a rare "undated" letter in L.M. "Buzz" Lein's research files we came across this letter from Robert E. Kohrman: (My guess is the 1980's)

"Dear Mr. Lein:

"Thank you for your recent letter and the accompanying information and maps. I will follow up on the suggestions. I suspect that your comments about changing names for the same river features are probably quite correct. In a number of the early articles which I have read, the authors admitted to inventing names for pools and rapids. This can make it difficult to identify where they were, particularly when much of it is now under water."

"I am enclosing copies (greatly enlarged) of the only pre-1900 map I have of the Nipigon. The first sketch map was prepared by H.H. Vail and appears with his article in "Fishing with the Fly" by Orvis  and Cheney in 1883. The second map is by a gentleman named Alexander Starbuck and appeared in the American Angler magazine in 1888. Starbuck's map appears to me to be a virtual copy of Vail's map."

"I don't know much about Vail other than I think he was from Cincinnati. I know a lot about Starbuck as he wrote many pages about Lake Superior fishing. He was also from Cincinnati and I would assume that he knew Mr. Vail well, borrowed Vail's map, and wrote his own names on the copy for publication. Mr. Alexander Starbuck was the brother-in-law of Wesley Cameron (also from Cincinnati) after whom Cameron's Pool was named."

"Mr. Cameron travelled to Nipigon to fish as early as the Civil War years."

So, now you know where the Cameron came for the Pool and the Falls. Would it be so much of a leap to say that Alexander's Landing and Alexander Falls MAY have come from his buddy Starbuck's first name?


This way to Cameron's Pool.

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