You Want To Do What?

You Must Be Crazy.....

Yes, we have heard a lot of that and maybe we are - but there's nothing wrong with that - well at least we don't think so. As a matter of fact, there are many more peole than some in Kenora may think that feel saving and restoring the Argyle II is a GREAT idea! We hope your one of those people or at the very least, that you have an open mind before making your judgement.

Anyway....back to how this all got started.

Well once upon a time, way back in August of 2007 a former Kenora boy (now a summer resident) Malcolm Fisher heard of the impending destruction of the Argyle II and decided to try and do something to stop it. You see as a kid, Malcolm had great memories of riding on the boat, especially the trips to Coney Island Beach where all the fun was in the summer. The Argyle II was the way you got there and to Malcolm, it's loss would be like having a piece of your youth taken away.

Malcolm decided to start talking about the idea of saving the Argyle II, which was set to be scuttled in the fall of 2007 or Spring of 2008. The hull was located on Channel Island at the summer residence of Winnipegers Alan and Erica McLaughlin. They were obviously the first people to talk to to see if they would even entertain the idea. The McLaughlins purchased the Argyle II in the 1980s and had for a period of time, ran the boat on the lake. They also used it as accommodations on their lakefront property.

The McLaughlins agreed to keep an open mind and give Malcolm a chance to get something more formal - like a plan - in place. Malcolm had about two months to convince the McLaughlins that a plan could be developed or at least underway, showing that the Argyle II could be re-floated and towed to a site in Kenora for its eventual restoration.

Public Appeal Made

Malcolm immediately went to work.he first approached a few people on the lake - summer resident mostly - and was met with some skepticism. Seeing the need to do more, a public appeal was made for people in the City of Kenora to form a Committee to see what could be done. Really it became was there any interest by anyone to try to do this? Radio spots were graciously made available and the local newspaper provided front page coverage of the appeal.

This seemed to work, as a meeting at the Lakeside Inn saw almost a dozen people attend. There was now a number of people who wanted to help, or at least wanted to know a little bit more about the idea. A formal "Committee" was kind of struck at this first meeting. It was decided a trip out to the boat to see what was involved in its salvage was the first order of business. The new group included a former Captain of the Argyle II Murray Affleck, Tom Thomson, Darren Henry, Bart Bergman, Martin Camire, Murray MacDonald and Gerry Cariou.

The initial trip to the Argyle II is the subject of our next post, stay tuned......