Natural History Society of New Brunswick. - The lost wilderness: rediscovering W.F. Ganongs New Brunswick

Every summer between 1882 and 1929, naturalist William Francis Ganong travelled through the wilderness of New Brunswick, systematically mapping previously uncharted territories, taking photographs, and documenting observations on the physical geography of the province that laid the foundations of the modern study of New Brunswicks rich natural history. In The Lost Wilderness , acclaimed photographer and naturalist Nicholas Guitard retraces many of these journeys, comparing his notes with those recorded by Ganong in handwritten travel journals and published articles and monographs.

Richly illustrated with archival maps and photographs made by Ganong alongside the authors own stunning photography, The Lost Wilderness finds a New Brunswick both utterly changed and amazingly similar to the wild place Ganong found a century ago. Nicholas Guitard revisits Ganongs explorations and, in a warm and conversational style, illuminates his contributions to our present geographical knowledge of New Brunswick.

Deftly moving between past and present, Nicholas Guitard brings to life a New Brunswick that is only lost to our increasingly hectic, urban lives a New Brunswick that we must find ourselves if we want to preserve it for future generations.

NICHOLAS GUITARD is the photographer and author of two books about waterfalls. His Waterfalls of New Brunswick: A Guide is widely used by nature enthusiasts and families who wish to explore the natural beauty of New Brunswick. His interest in William Francis Ganong grew out of an appreciation of Ganongs pioneering work as a naturalist and a shared affection for their province of birth.

Also by Nicholas Guitard

Waterfalls of New Brunswick

Waterfalls of New Brunswick: A Guide

Copyright 2015 by Nicholas Guitard.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). To contact Access Copyright, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call 1-800-893-5777.

Edited by Alison Hughes.

Cover and page design by Chris Tompkins.

Front cover photo courtesy of the New Brunswick Museum (NBM, William Francis Ganong Collection, Image 1987-17-1218-145). Back cover photo by Nicholas Guitard.

Photographs by Nicholas Guitard except where noted.

Maps and archival photographs courtesy of the New Brunswick Museum (NBM) and the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB).

All images used by permission.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Guitard, Nicholas, 1956-, author

The lost wilderness : rediscovering W.F. Ganongs New Brunswick / Nicholas Guitard.

Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued also in electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-86492-877-1 (paperback).ISBN 978-0-86492-834-4 (epub). ISBN 978-0-86492-835-1 (mobi)

Ganong, William F. (William Francis), 1864-1941. 2. Natural history New Brunswick. 3. Natural historyNew Brunswick Pictorial works. 4. CartographyNew Brunswick History20th century. 5. New BrunswickGeography. 6. Natural History Society of New Brunswick. 7. Guitard, Nicholas, 1956- Travel New Brunswick. 8. New BrunswickDescription and travel. I. Title.

QH21.C3G84 2015 508.7151 C2015-901872-2

C2015-901873-0

We acknowledge the generous support of the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Government of New Brunswick.

Nous reconnaissons lappui gnreux du gouvernement du Canada, du Conseil des arts du Canada, et du gouvernement du Nouveau-Brunswick.

Goose Lane Editions

500 Beaverbrook Court, Suite 330

Fredericton, New Brunswick

CANADA E3B 5X4

www.gooselane.com

I dedicate this book to the late Dr. Gary Whiteford, PhD, a kindred spirit in the pursuit of understanding and teaching the works of William Francis Ganong.

It is too easy to forget how human and natural history have always been intertwined.

Karsten Heuer

Contents

Introduction

Photographing Ganongs New Brunswick

My interest in William Francis Ganong began while conducting research for my books on the waterfalls of New Brunswick. A 1908 paper on the morphology of New Brunswick waterfalls, one of Ganongs many reports to the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, caught my interest. It was my introduction to one of the provinces most fascinating characters and began a personal quest to understand the gripping force that compelled him to explore New Brunswick.

As my research expanded from the Fredericton Public Library to the Legislative Library to the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, I uncovered other fascinating Ganong monographs. I discovered that the importance of his work on the provinces natural history was well understood by academics, and he was even named a Person of National Historic Significance in 1945. Yet the general public seemed to know little about the man, his writings, and the extraordinary scope of his field trips throughout the province. I decided that the best way for me and others to truly appreciate Ganongs comprehensive body of work was to follow him into the wilderness. I wanted to find the places he had mapped, sketched, and described in his field notes, and I needed to photograph them.

An excerpt from the notes written by William F. Ganong of his 1902 field trip (NBM, William Francis Ganong Collection, F455-Adder Lakes)

North Branch Renous River, Northumberland County, August 2011

Ganongs field trips, research, and correspondence were extensive, and it was no small task to settle on which of these to document and include in this book. I decided to travel to the locations that I found in his reports, in his friends field notes, and in the photographs they took. His original pocket-sized notebooks are in the New Brunswick Museum, but age and difficult penmanship made them not very useful for my purpose. Instead, I relied on Natural History Society bulletins from 1882 to 1912 for his notes and maps, as well as field notes written by his companions Mauran Furbish and Arthur Pierce. By combining material from these sources, I was able to determine the intended routes of Ganongs field trips and their time sequence.

With the aid of current topographical maps and Google Earth, I pored over his hand-sketched maps and detailed reports to identify coordinates and potential routes to the sites. I attempted to find the exact locations where Ganong had stood when he conducted barometric readings to measure the height of a mountain or took a series of compass bearings to triangulate a location to a known reference point. As I read and researched, my resolve hardened. Every time I hiked through the forest to photograph a landscape or waterfall, I thought about this book. On several occasions, I questioned my motive in starting such an ambitious project, always coming back to the same conclusion: I had to satisfy my curiosity about William F. Ganong and see for myself the natural places that had so impressed and intrigued him.