Cache Bay Welcome Sign

Cache Bay historically served as a logging and lumber town, with operations dating as far back as the 1880's.

Cockburn Lumber Company was built in 1896 on the west side of the area now known as Cache Bay Trailer Park. This mill processed lumber from logging operations located along the Veuve River. John Rudolphus Booth, a lumber baron, also operated in the area.

Many of Booths lumberjacks cut centuries old trees and virgin pine forests that surrounded Lake Nipissing and the Sturgeon River.  Mr. Booth bought up large tracts of land surrounding Cache Bay, most of which was sold to employees of the mill, and now makes up much of the private land that surrounds the Cache Bay Wetland Conservation Reserve.

A provincially significant wetland, the Cache Bay Wetland Conservation Reserve is one of Lake Nipissing’s largest wetlands.

The area exhibits a wide range of habitat including swamp, marsh and fen which provide a crucial habitat for a variety of wildlife including various duck and fish species.

This diverse environment serves as an excellent breeding and staging ground for a variety of waterfowl.The site is a known traditional migration or feeding habitat for at least two endangered species, the white pelican and bald eagle. As well, there is suitable breeding habitat for the black duck a species of special status, osprey and herons. Many provincially significant species have been recorded at the site such as the least bittern, the redhead, the greater scaup and the great black-backed gull, the black tern and the caspian tern. 

Cache Bay Wetland Conservation Reserve also serves as an important spawning and nursery habitat for Lake Nipissing’s fish population. This crucial habitat helps to replenish Lake Nipissing’s walleye, pike, muskellunge and bass and thus, support recreational fishing opportunities in the area.

The site also provides many recreational opportunities including sport fishing, hunting and cranberry picking. Access includes, but is not limited to, boat in the summer, snowmobile trail in the winter or by a trail system located along the eastern boundary of the site near the Sturgeon River House Museum.

The Sturgeon River House Museum is the actual 3-acre site of a Hudson's Bay trading post and contains a network of trails set in a provincially significant wetland.

In 1995 the museum received a donation of a 75-acre land parcel across the road from the Theodore Fouriezos family, which eventually became home to the Theodore Fouriezos Wetland Park.

The parcel adjoins local crown land and is composed mostly of wetlands and contains an important cranberrybog.

The Cache Bay Municipal logo that preceded amalgamation to West Nipissing in 1999 featured a mallard in flight.

Given the significance of waterfowl and wildlife in the area paired with a desire to pay homage to Cache Bay as a independent community, it came as no surprise when residents insisted on showcasing the duck in their new community welcome sign.

Can you spot the following elements in the Cache Bay Community Portrait ?

5 ice huts, high bush cranberries, 1 cedar strip boat 

Two options for the viewers perspective were tested. With the request to include the Cache Bay logo, I opted to just use the Mallard in flight. I needed the composition to really give the viewer a sense of motion, that was achieved with the flowing sky and water.

A challenge was presented to transition seasonal water activities, angling in summer to winter ice fishing.  Great care was put into the classic Lake Nipissing cedar strip boat, featuring grandpa and grandchild sharing in the age-old Cache Bay fishing tradition as the lake freezes towards the top left of the composition it transitions to an ice fishing village, another annual tradition.

If you look carefully to the right, hidden in the shrubs are high bush cranberries paying homage to the Theodore Fouriezoes Wetlands Park natural cranberry bogs.