Traffic in Town

By Bill Kelly

The height of the tourism era in Baysville & Lake of brought hordes of Americans and Canadians to the lodges and resorts and caused regular traffic problems. ( like  two cars on Bridge Street at the same time!)

This was the heyday of Riverview Lodge, Burlmarie, New Moon Lodge, Idyllwild, Bigwin Inn, Grove Park Lodge and sundry other small tourist homes and cottages which catered to summer visitors. After the doldrums of winter, when you could shoot a gun down Bridge Street without hitting a soul, summer brought a veritable traffic jam.

My brothers and I would jot down license numbers as we competed to see who could get the most plates and the most exotic state or province. It was a big coup when one of the plates was from Utah or Texas or some other far away place. Cars from New York were commonplace, but an Alberta plate brought elation. In our eagerness to win, we likely cheated a little and invented a few numbers and places, but the competition was friendly-no altercations.

Bridge Street in those days, as today, turned sharply left at the river bank, and continued past Langmaid's store ( miss Nelle's today). More than once a vehicle failed to make the turn as it sped down the street and I remember one occasion when a car shot into the river. Luckily the driver got out and no one was injured; usually there were logs in the river waiting to be taken into the mill for sawing, but not that day.  The village fathers decided to put a device called y some a "dummy cop" on the corner to warn fast drivers of the turn ahead, but over and over and sometimes on purpose, cars hit the thing and knocked it down, skidding to a dusty stop in the gravel at the edge of the river bank. The roads were gravel in those days, not the hard pavement of today, and traffic of any kind sent clouds of dust into the air.

One of the great traffic thrills was when Cameron Peck drove some of his antique cars along Bridge Street. I particularly recall the day he navigated a Stanley Steamer ( a wood-fired steam car) up and down, dressed in period clothes complete with duster, goggles and hat. What a thrill to see this beautiful vehicle out of the past! With gasoline prices out of sight, that old vehicle would be a godsend these days. Or would it?

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