Lost Channel, Parry Sound District, Ontario
Coordinates: 45°53′46″N 80°19′10″W / 45.896074°N 80.319434°W Lost Channel is a ghost town in Parry Sound District, Ontario.
Lauder, Spears and Howland of Toronto began producing lumber under contract to the Schroeder Mills & Timber Co., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1917, they built a large sawmill on Kawigamog Lake, a widening of the Pickerel River. The firm intended to transport the lumber with horses, along a rough road to Pakesley, on the CPR, 10½ miles to the west.
Initially, Messrs. Lauder, Spears and Howland, had established their operation in 1913 at Palmer's mill, on the CNR at Mowat, after John Schroeder had acquired standing timber in the townships of Mowat and Blair. Another mill near Mowat, was Cole's, up on Key Lake, some twelve miles (19 km) from the railway.
In the Summer of 1913, Schroeder made arrangements for logging in the townships of Wilson, Ferrie and Brown. He then contracted James Ludgate to take out the timber. Ludgate made his headquarters at Salines, later known as Drocourt. It was not until the autumn of 1916 that Schroeder Mills & Timber Co. purchased outright, the 138 square miles (360 km2) of timber berths in Mowat and Blair, from the Victoria Harbour Lumber Co. It was following this purchase, that Lauder, Spears and Howland began construction of the new mill at Lost Channel.
After the mill was completed, Mr. Howland persuaded his partners to build a railway, to carry the sawn lumber to the CPR at Pakesley, although James Lauder and Joseph Spears thought the operation would run just as well without that additional expense. Lucien B. Howland was the former General Manager of the Irondale, Bancroft and Ottawa Railway, built by his father-in-law, the late Charles J. Pusey. The relationship of these three men can be traced back to 1909, when Lauder and Spears, leased the mill of the Wilberforce Lumber Company, at Wilberforce a station on the IB&O.
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