ISLAND IN GULL LAKE – c. 1914

At first glance, this real photo post card is rather “bland” and not very exciting, but it tells us a lot! Entitled “Island in Gull Lake, Minden, Ont.”, it is one of the earliest cards to come to light from this area.
Information on the reverse, suggests that it dates to around 1914. It carries a one cent stamp bearing the image of King George V, who assumed the throne in 1910. The cancellation is from Lindsay, but the date is unclear. The postal rate for a post card in Canada was one cent from 1871 until 1915.
Produced by Herington & Son, Trenton, Ont., the card boasts that they produced 180,000 photo post cards in 1912! Many towns, villages and points of interest were depicted on post cards by this company in the early twentieth century.
The image shown was taken from the mouth of Miners’ Bay – looking north. On the extreme left is Ship Island. A portion of Sugar Island can be seen behind it. “Sunken Rock” is just out of the scene – to the right of the picture.
The correspondent who sent this card tells her friend that she is “Having a fine time, but the weather is very hot”.

Russ Wunker
January 2020