Jumping Cariboo Lake

Jumping Cariboo Lake
Byers Bay, Camp Caribou
Location	Temagami
Coordinates	46°53′N 79°47′W / 46.883°N 79.783°W / 46.883; -79.783Coordinates: 46°53′N 79°47′W / 46.883°N 79.783°W / 46.883; -79.783
Primary inflows	Ingall Lake, natural springs
Primary outflows	Cariboo Creek
Catchment area	Twin Sisters
Basin countries	Canada
Max. length	5 km (3 mi)
Max. depth	56 m (184 ft)
Islands	16 Islands-- Larger ones being: Canada Island, Scout Island, Pickerals, Perth Point, Ohio Island, Big Bear Island

Jumping Cariboo Lake, sometimes incorrectly spelled Jumping Caribou Lake, is a lake located within the Municipality of Temagami, in the Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. It contains small islands and hidden bays. Ojibwa natives of the area have given the lake its name.

Jumping Cariboo Lake played an important role in the logging industry from the early 1900s until the late 1920s. The first cabins on the lake were logging cabins located on what is now called Byers Bay off the old Ferguson Highway (now realigned and part of Highway 11). These cabins were part of the logging camp. Similar logging also occurred at Cassels Lake. An extensive network of dams and log chutes were constructed in the area – Allowing the old growth timber harvested to be sent downstream to the saw mills in Sturgeon Falls.

In 1927, Herman Watson Osborn, Jr. signed a hundred-year lease for the old logging camp (at that time the lake was located inside a game reserve) and transformed it into a private family cottage on the lake. After the completion of Highway 11, Osborn was able to buy the property from the Crown. In the summer of 1941, Osborn was instrumental in getting Warner Brothers to film Captains of the Clouds (starring James Cagney, Brenda Marshall, Dennis Morgan and Alan Hale, Sr.) on Jumping Cariboo Lake. The bay is at the southernmost parts of the lake. It is named after (Ellen O. Byers), Herman Osborn's daughter. There are six generations of Herman Osborn's family still enjoying summers on Jumping Cariboo lake.

In the 19th century, (what we now know as Northern Ontario,) was only accessible by boat. The few people from Ontario that travelled there went up the Ottawa River to Lake Temiskaming. The border between Ontario and Quebec was ill defined and at the time Quebeckers were encouraged by their provincial government to go to North-West Quebec. There was the promotion of a sort of New Quebec and this concerned the Government of Ontario that had done very little to establish itself in what was mostly unknown bush. A report in 1900 convinced the Government of Ontario that a railway north would be worthwhile. $40,000 was allotted to surveyors for the line through the forest from North Bay to New Liskard. W.B. Russel, civil engineer was assigned to the task of selecting the route north from North Bay.