FERNLEIGH LODGE
A WINTER WONDERLAND

I First Came Here As A Kid!
‘Last night I just had this idea to Google Fernleigh Lodge to see if it still existed. I’ve wondered for years what happened to the fishing camps I knew as a boy years ago.
It all started when Mom And Dad were married in the 40’s and went to Fernleigh for their honeymoon. They went back to Fernleigh for 2 weeks every year.  When I came along in 1949 I was taken to an Aunt and Uncle for those 2 weeks, but when I was older I went with them. I stayed in the boy’s camp down the lake for the first week. I remember a Joe Taubin ( I think I have the name right) ran the boy’s camp. It was great fun. The second week I stayed at Fernleigh with Mom and Dad. I have pictures, that Dad took, when I was about 7-8 years old. That would put me at Fernleigh at about 1956. I went every year after that until I started college in 1967. We at first stayed in Cabin #2, close to the boat dock. Later we usually stayed on the point. It was awesome walking across the long bridge to the dining hall in the morning. The meals were great.
I learned to put sugar on my fresh tomatoes there. Isn’t it funny what you remember? I would dive and jump off the rock cliff when I was older. I remember the green flat bottom plywood boats. I especially remember the swimming dock downhill from the dining hall. Mom loved to troll. I remember going down the length of the lake to the end where weeds and more shallow bays were favorite places for my parents to fish. We would get back in the night, clean the fish in that little building just for the purpose and put the fish away in the freezer. We brought much fish home for the winter months. Mom and Dad were great fish eaters. We only kept Yellow Pike and Bass. I loved the cabins and I’ll never forget the Hudson Bay blankets. There are so many more memories. It would take a week alone to review them all with you. Swimming at the swimming dock, it was there that I would swim the rock shore looking for lures that people lost on the rocks. I did find an old folding fillet knife. That knife started my knife collection which I still have today. I remember learning to water ski at that dock from behind the camp speed boat. The boy with the towel, as I remember, is John Ahr Jr. Maybe you know him.? He was a large man as I recall. I think this younger John is a grandson? The influence of Mom and Dads’ love to fish, going to Fernleigh and, I have include, a Boy Scout troop and scoutmaster that loved the outdoors directed much of my life. Today I live in northern Maine.Thank You.’