Paddle to the Sea
Pukaskwa National Park
By Svenja Hansen and Amy Mackie
On August 26, a new exhibit was added to the visitor centre at Pukaskwa National Park. Thanks to a donation, one of the figurines used during the filming of the 1966 movie Paddle to the Sea now resides at the park.
Based on the 1941 children’s book, Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling, the National Film Board production of Paddle to the Sea was nominated for an Academy Award. It tells the story of an Indigenous boy, in the Nipigon Country, who carves a person in a canoe, calling it ‘Paddle to the Sea’. The boy sets Paddle on the snow and when spring arrives the little canoe begins its epic journey to the sea. The film follows Paddle’s adventures on the long trip from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean.
The film’s director, Bill Mason, carved a wooden replica of Paddle, which is in the collection of the Canadian Museum of History. Multiple resin copies were cast, so he would have enough identical models to create the 28-minute film. The figurine donated to Pukaskwa has cords attached to the front and back of the little canoe. The cords were fastened to an underwater camera for filming the scenes at Niagara Falls. Apparently, one camera and one model were lost during the first shooting of those scenes. The film also includes a scene, featuring dirty industrial water, filmed in Marathon, not far from Pukaskwa National Park. The scene filmed by Bill Mason in the 1960s now stands in sharp contrast with how the same area looks today. This environmental message is what sets the film version apart from the original book.
Many people have fond memories of watching Paddle to the Sea in school. It was Bill Mason’s fondness for Pukaskwa National Park that brought Paddle back to this part of Lake Superior. Please come visit Paddle at the Pukaskwa visitor centre next summer and consider watching the movie with another generation.
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