Moredolphton Lodge Bay of Islands

Moredolphton Lodge

Moredolphton Lodge, now known as Island Lodge, was a private lodge located in the Bay of Islands. Richard Englert worked there the summer of 1947 and has many fond memories of the blueberry pies, fishing and helping out in the kitchen.

"That was a fun summer from first week of June to end of August. I applied for the job as porter and handyman in Jan 1947 and got Tony Vilsack (grandfather founded Iron City Beer) to go up to the Club and work... Two profs from Pitt drove us up and we had a great experience....The kids would not do it today we got free room and board but NO PAY,,, Eat with the Indians and other help in the kitchen... I got to know the baker and she would make me blueberry pies with the blueberries I would pick on the island. We had pies and fish all the time....and I cleaned the fish....so watch out. Yum Yummmmm" - Richard Englert 2004

If you have photos, stories or a history of Moredolphton Lodge please send them to info@willisville.ca

From Bill Bucher.....

"I went to Moredolphton Lodge many times in the 50's and 60's with my parents. The first year we went was probably 1954, when I was 8 years old. The last time I went I was in college, and did not miss a year in between. Most of the time we went with a fairly large group from Indiananpolis. Among them were my family, the Buchers, and the Dirks, Walkers, Withrows, Masons, and several others I can't recall at the moment. We would ride from Birch Island to the lodge on a barge towed by a boat. There would be a cooler of beer on the barge. We fished out of Peterborough wooden boats. My dad always took his 10hp Johnson outboard. We had the slowest boat in the group, having the smallest motor, as the others used rented motors of 15hp or brought their own, larger motors. We had a guide several years called "Poddie"; I think his last name was Podwin. There was an Indian guide named Steamboat because he smoked so much in the boat it looked like a steamboat. The lodge at that time was owned by Hank and Marie Heinemann, and their son was around some years, too. They came to Indianapolis for the sports and fishing show each year, and would have a private reception for the Indianapolis gang at the Indianapolis Athletic Club. They would show movies from the previous year and Hank served a drink called Muskeg. I still have and wear a Viyella shirt I got in the little shop in the lodge in 1963. A major undertaking, especially for us in our slow boat, was going all the way to Fort LaCloche. I can still see the other boats slowly pulling away from us and eventually disappearing in the distance. We had shore lunches every day. I have some 8mm movies of a shore lunch taken by my dad in 1956. I know it was 1956 because he doubled exposed it over his film of the 1956 Indianapolis 500. It is quite a site seeing an Indy roadster roaring through a fire and taking the checkered flag with a skillet of fish and a pot of beans cooking away. There was an ice house behind the lodge filled with ice blocks sawed from the lake and packed in sawdust. Next to it was a wooden "cooler" where you could keep your fish on ice. The cabins were rather spartan, but had wood stoves and hudson bay blankets to keep us warm. Some evenings we would walk across a wooden bridge to sunset rock on the other island and have cocktail parties and sometimes we ate over there. Each morning and in the evening the staff would ring a big dinner bell to wake us up and call us to breakfast or dinner."
Bill Bucher
Park City, KY

Please forward this request to anyone else who may have photos.

Bay of Islands Photo Gallery

Photos are by members of the Butler family unless identified otherwise. If you see any years, names or locations that are not correct please let us know. Click on any photo to see a larger version.