The photos found in this blog post are the property of Huronia Museum, Midland, Ontario. Any reproduction for commercial use without permission is prohibited.  Any other distribution must credit Huronia Museum.  Please contact the museum with any questions you may have.  

We are going to let the photos do the talking this week, there is a good selection.

If these lads look especially happy, it wasn’t merely the prospect of school being over for the year this week. For them, it’s off to high school next year. They are the boys of Grade 8 graduating class of Sacred Heart Separate School, Midland. 

Girls of the Grade 8 graduating class of Sacred Heart Separate School are seen above on the steps of St. Margaret’s Catholic Church. They are the last class to graduate from the old Sacred Heart School, which shifts to a brand new school on Elizabeth Street in September. (The museum would appreciate receiving any or all the names of the graduates in the last two photos for our permanent record.) 

Eden Morrison, Barbara Dalryple, Wynne Gilmour, Betty Jean Watkinson, Hessel Pape, Gudrun Mandler, Mary Lou Graham and Paul Howard examine water safety posters held by David Seaton, center. 

David Seaton of Windsor, swimming instructor for the playground program at Little Lake, trains this crop of lads in the buddy system. The program got under way at the park Monday morning. Nearly 300 boys and girls registered the first day. 

Eden Morrison and Betty Jean Watkinson, nearest camera, games instructor for Midland Y’s Men’s playground program at Little Lake Park lead a group of girls in a singing game. The program got under way Monday morning. 

Two happy boys last Wednesday night were Chester Graham and Donald Downer. Chester is seen receiving a leadership award from Douglas Haig at Regent School graduation on behalf of Midland Y’s Men’s Club. 

Miss Ethel Wagg is presenting a book to Donald on behalf of the IODE for his work in social studies at Bayview School. 

In spite of overcast skies Sunday, holidayers were plentiful at Little Lake Park. These people stretched out on the greensward and sand east of the park boathouse Sunday. The short holiday weekend and the weather it is felt, kept many would-be vacationers away.

Graduation exercises were the order of the day in Midland public schools last week, and Bayview School was no exception. Mrs. Bob Stanway presents awards to David English and Maureen Mohan, chosen Bayview’s senior boy and senior girl for the year. Mrs. Stanway is the retiring president of Bayview Home and School Association. 

Graduation exercises were the order of the day in Midland public schools last week, and Bayview School was no exception. Principal William Barnett is seen with Ron Patrick and Geraldine Koenig, winner of the Y’s Men’s Club’s leadership awards. 

Always a matter of great anticipation at Midland public schools is the naming of the senior boy and senior girl for the year. Winners at Regent School this year were Louise Parker and Bobby Clayton. Mrs. Marion Wilcox, presents the students with their awards on behalf of Regent Home and School Association. 

Port McNicoll’s CPR elevator, one of the largest in the British Commonwealth, is almost full to the brim with grain this week. The big triple-legged giant, as of Monday, had unloaded eight bulk carriers since Thursday, June 29, and it was expected that another would arrive the latter part of this week. The elevator crew and longshoremen established a mark that has not been achieved in well over 10 years. They unloaded two grain ships at one time Monday. On Monday the S.S. Douglass Houghton and the barge John Fritz of Upper Lakes Shipping Ltd. were relieved of their burdens simultaneously. The Houghton had 253,000 bushels in her holds and the Fritz carried 282,000 bushels. 

Jamboree bound Scouts were caught by the cameraman just before they left for Toronto Wednesday evening to entrain for Ottawa. Scoutmaster Milt Ellery, left, jokes with Scouts Tom Gordanier, John Allen and Bob French, all of Midland, as they load their dunnage aboard his car. 

Stan Secord, Penetang; Don Edwards, Midland; Bert Mason, Penetang and driver Doug Edwards prepare to leave for the Queen City. 

Fred Howard, left, commander of Midland Power Squadron for 1961, receives the commander’s flag from Elmer Ellison, past commander. The squadron held its annual meeting last week. 

To Reach Verdict Today on Garbage Disposal Site 

Free Press Herald headline of July 5, 1967.
Midland council will hold a special meeting again this afternoon, with the main item of business the final selection of a new-garbage disposal site. Three tenders were opened at a meeting Thursday night, but acceptance of any tender was delayed until council could secure figures on the additional of hauling garbage to all three sites. Lloyd Wilcox, representing the firm that currently has Midland’s garbage hauling contract (It still has three years to run) was asked to have the necessary figures available. One of the tenders opened Thursday night was from the same firm, Thomas G. Wilcox and Sons Ltd., and was for $8,700 per annum. The other two were by E. M. Latimore, R.R. 1 Midland, and Albert Dragoman, Midland. Mr. Latimore’s proposed site, 50 acres, is on Con. 2, Tay. Mr. Dragoman’s is in Tiny Township, on the concession west of the drive-in theatre and the Wilcox site is just off Highway 27, at the top of the hill north of Wyebridge. 

    Believed to be the first in that district, an aeroplane landing strip, was opened recently by Tom Anderson of Port Severn. Already 10 planes have landed on the 1,000-foot runway which runs parallel to Highway 501(Honey Harbour Road), about 1 ½ miles west of Highway 103. Mr. Anderson said yesterday. Mr. Anderson stated, ”that shortly he expects to extend the present runway to 1,800 feet and by spring we hope to have two additional runways completed and radio communications installed”. He added, “Then planes will be able to land no matter what the direction of the wind”. Only light planes are able to use the present landing strip. Mr. Anderson noted, adding that “by spring we expect to be able to accommodate twin-engine craft.” 

Ten Years Ago
Midland Boys’ Band, directed by Bandmaster A. J. Laley, placed second in the competition for Junior brass bands at the Waterloo Band Tattoo in which 55 bands participated. * * * Beausoleil Island National Park provided sites for most — but by no means all — of the more than 17 camps for boys and girls which had more than 4,000 campers that summer. Other camps were at Honey Harbour, Severn River,  Sturgeon River and at a series of locations along the bay shore. * * * Charles Vent and Haig Abbott were co-conveners of the Midland Y’s Mens Clubs Peanut Day.  Proceeds were for the club’s boys’ and girls’ work. * * *   Members of the Central Ontario Press Association, some 40 publishers and their wives, met in Midland for their annual summer meeting.  Following lunch at the Midland Golf and Country Club they toured Midland Shipyards, Huronia House Museum and the Martyrs’ Shrine. * * * Major L. H. Taylor, Midland, officer commanding the 166^th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery took his unit to artillery camp at Picton, guns and transport were moved by road convoy. * * * Noting that the premium on each dollar had been about six cents, Jack Doughty, Tourist Committee Chairman of the Midland chamber of commerce said that giving the U.S. tourist the proper daily premium on United States bills was one of the best investments that can be made in good will. 

Radar Unit, Works Snag, Flare Council Tempers
Garbage site plan lost’ in smoke 

County Herald headline of July 7, 1961.
The unseasonably cool temperature Wednesday did not find its parallel at a special meeting of Midland council Wednesday afternoon when contentious issues caused the temperatures of some aldermen to rise well above normal. While the meeting was called specifically to discuss the awarding of a contract for a garbage disposal site, council never did get to that item. (To paraphrase the rest of the article, the councillors argued through all of the meeting about the need for a radar gun, already approved and budgeted and the need to scarify Ontario Street, already approved and budgeted.) 

Editorial by William Cranston – A local museum lives on the goodwill and interest of its local citizen supporters. That, for its entire fourteen years, has been the secret of the success of Midland’s Huronia Museum, and was particularly evident at the recent annual meeting of the association. People like the R. S. Sheppards, the Lawrence Devines, Major and Mrs. Ritchie Lane, Jack Tipping, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Drinkwater, and others of the Coldwater district; the Joseph Leas of Hillsdale; the Tanners of Tannerville and the Jack Skeltons of Fesserton; Don McGuire of Elmvale and the late John McGuire of Penetanguishene; Mrs. Arthur Downer of South Tiny; the several Miller families in Medonte; Mrs. Rawley of Port Severn . . . one could go on naming them by the dozen, these are the sort of people on whose shoulders historical conservation is carried. We often wish that, in addition to seeing the artifacts in the glass cases, the thousands of children who visit Huronia’s local museums each year, could somehow see and catch the spirit of some of these pioneer citizens.