Forest camp near Indian Lake
Source: MHHA archives
Melvin Dey (1903-1991), son-in-law of Joseph E. Seale, worked for Argenteuil Lumber. He tells us about working at the sawmill in an interview conducted in the late 1980s.
"I've been interested in trees all my life, and I've really enjoyed tramping through the bush. I liked my work with The Argenteuil Lumber Company – J.E. Seale's Mill – in Morin-Heights."
"The winter lumber camps went from around January 15th, when the lakes would be frozen over safely, to around March 1st. If you stayed longer, you'd get caught with spring rain. The little creeks would flood, and we'd have to leave logs in the bush for the next year. The softwood was alright – just would have a little bit of worms – but the hardwood would have to be painted on the ends. Sometimes I walked about thirty kilometres a day on snowshoes, measuring the wood lines, cutting branches, etc. The softwood we would cut around Morin-Heights was hemlock, balsam, spruce and cedar. The hardwoods were mostly maple and beech."
"The local men who worked in the lumber camps cutting trees lived in the shanties we built. They went up in January and went home when the show melted in the spring."-