Flying fighter jets over Europe during World War II, Richard Arthur Watson could not have known that his idea for Pine Portage Lodge, 150 kilometres north of Wawa, would still be thriving nearly 60 years later.
Even now, the fly-in fishing and hunting resort set on Kabinakagami Lake is a popular spot amongst families and businesses big and small looking for a unique getaway and conference space.
"When you've been around as long as we have, you develop a strong reputation, and that really makes a difference," says Betty McGie, Watson's daughter, who now runs the business under Watson's Algoma Vacations.
With accommodations for 100 guests and 25 staff across more than a dozen cottages, the business first began with Watson as he flew Typhoons, Hurricanes and Spitfires as a pilot with the Canadian Air Force.
Born and raised in a log cabin in the town of Oba, 20 kilometres north of Kabinakagami, Watson wanted post-war life to be spent tending a resort where he went camping as a child.
The 23-year-old Watson did just that upon his return, opening the Pine Portage Lodge in 1946 with money he had sent home to his mother from the front.
Over time, the resort's cottages have been modernized with wall-to-wall carpeting, four-piece baths, queen-sized beds and electric lighting. The lodge's conference centre, which sleeps 23 people in one building, has six bedrooms, four baths and an electric sauna, and even features a pool table and bar.
This mix of remote wilderness and new amenities, which McGie calls "roughing it in comfort," has proven popular to the lodge's countless repeat customers through its six decades of existence.
The lodge has regularly hosted a wide variety of business clients, including Northern Ontario companies such as Lajambe Forest and Lighton-Barker, both out of Sault Ste. Marie.
Doctor's groups from Michigan travel there year after year, and even major corporate clients from the United States have made the sleepy camp a regular summer destination, including global agricultural giant Monsanto.
"We do lots of marketing in different media, but word of mouth is still the strongest, and you never know what circles people travel in," says McGie, a past president of the Northern Ontario Tourism Outfitters Association.
"We get people from every state in union, from California to Texas and Ohio, and that's especially because of the corporate field. They bring in their people from different areas of the country, and we develop a market in different jurisdictions through that."
Despite this breadth of clientèle, McGie says that comparatively little of her business comes from southern Ontario, as most people fail to see the area as a vacation destination.
"If you get past the Muskokas, some people think they've gone to the moon, and I've actually had people write that to me," McGie says with a chuckle. "But in in the U.S., people know exactly where we are. They're much more educated on Ontario than Toronto is."
To be able to fly many of these guests into the area themselves rather than rely on outside companies, Watson added a flight component to the business in 1986. Being shot down three times during the war failed to dampen his love of flight, and Watson remained a commercial pilot with Watson's Skyways Ltd. until age 72. Now 86, his influence is still felt as the company's Turbine Otter and Cessna Caravan are still used today, and contribute to a great deal of non-tourism business of their own. Charters are regularly requested through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ministry of Tourism, while mining companies often request their services to pursue exploration work. The Cessna has also flown Medevac out of Sault Ste. Marie over the last three years.
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