Robert Fisher
Staff Reporter
GOLDEN LAKE – Ernie Bies, from Ottawa and with a summer cottage on Golden Lake, had a busy summer, publishing four books. All are compilations of short stories, three of the books were reworked from ones he wrote previously and one; based on tales of nearly 40 years of life as a cottager, is brand new.
Bies and his wife have been coming to Golden Lake since 1983. They began by camping and bought a cottage in 1989. They spend the entire summer there.
“Sleepy Hollow Chronicles … is about my misadventures of 40 years of cottaging at Golden Lake,” he said. Being a “city boy,” coming to the country, there are many things to learn and sometimes, “you do a minor thing and it leads to another and another. It’s all these calamities we experienced learning how to cottage,” he explained.
Now 81 and originally from Hearst, ON, Bies published his first book in 2009. That one was a collection of stories about the, “pioneers of the Hearst public school.” Coming in at a weighty 400 pages, it included more than 100 stories about the experiences of pioneer families going back to about 1912. Bies’ graphic artist, 93-year-old Mary Montague, encouraged him to republish the book with some refreshed photos and some new stories.
Bies has a writing background. In Grade 11, he worked for the local newspaper in Hearst. The Northern Citizen was produced in the office on a mimeograph machine. At the time he was what was called the “paste up guy” creating ads for the paper. He also did some writing. When attending Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Toronto Metropolitan University), he wrote a column called Civil Service about civil engineering. He is a civil engineer by training. He also used to do some sports reporting or local writing on community groups for a newspaper in Nepean. His wife translates his, “engineering English into readable English, so she’s my chief editor.”
A natural storyteller, Bies’ parents were also prolific storytellers, he said. His mother in particular. From Slovakia originally, she retained a heavy Slovak accent to her English. She would stop anyone who made eye contact with her on the street, “grabbed them by the arm,” and in her accented English would say, “’me, I tell you a story.’ And then she would hold you captive for half an hour while she told you stories.”
His second book was about a railway surveyor who surveyed about 80 miles of the transcontinental railway in 1908 from the Kapuskasing River to near, what is now, Nagagamsis Provincial Park and includes the town of Hearst along the route.
The third book, It has to be Balsam, written in 2011, is not about Balsam Lake. Bies’ wife was putting together their annual Christmas letter and asked him if he had anything to add. He had written a story about how his mother used to bake for older bachelors in the area. He sent it to some friends who replied with stories of their own. He held onto the stories for several years and added new ones from some people local to Renfrew County, including artist Kathy Haycock and nine-year-old Adeline Cosgrove from the Quadeville area who wrote a story about the legendary Al Capone cottage in the area. The balsam in It has to be Balsam is actually a balsam tree. Written by a friend, the story is about the friend’s, “misadventures with his balsam tree in Ottawa.” He said his friend had work colleagues laughing hysterically when relating the story. “It’s the funniest story you’ll have read in a long time.”
His friend Mary Montague pushes Bies to get his stories onto paper to preserve them. Between the two of them, they have 175 years of life experience. “So the writers of the stories range in age from nine to 93.”
Speaking of Adeline’s story, he said, “She was looking at my first book and had a story about Al Capone’s hideaway in Quadeville. She did some internet research, then asked her father about it and he was surprised she had even heard of Al Capone.”
“I’ve been writing stories for, you know, 15 years, I guess or more. And Mary’s telling me that, ‘You’re 80 years old. If you don’t publish these stories, you’re going to lose them.”
He sent her the Golden Lake stories first and Montague was unimpressed. “I had 10 stories written from last year. I gave them to her. Two days later, she called me and said, ‘Well, that’s 61 pages. It’s not a book. I need more.’ She’s like that. She really cracks the whip,” he said with a laugh. He wrote 10 more stories in spring 2025 and the book ended up being 19 stories and 121 pages. “And she said, ‘Oh, that’s fine. We’ll start with that.’”
Montague is a “whiz” on a computer and does all the formatting and laying out of the pages and editing of the photos. “She’s 93 years old … and she showed me how to upload to Amazon.” It’s a hobby for her and it keeps her busy, she told him.
All of his books are self-published through the Amazon author service. He donates proceeds from sales to local non-profits. For his first book, he held a reception in Hearst and more than 400 people showed up. They bought 1,200 books and $30,000 in proceeds went to the public school. He has already given some proceeds from sales of the new book to the Killaloe Food Bank and the local community radio station.
“Mary’s cracking the whip,” he mentioned. “I already have another one underway,” about the early years of the public school in Hearst. He’s not sure whether there’ll be another book about the Golden Lake area or surrounding communities because he feels he’s still a newcomer, after 40 years.
He currently has about 100 stories ready. “My problem was, when I was doing my research, I’m an information packer. I don’t throw anything away,” and he has boxes of research material waiting to be turned into short stories.
Bies was awarded the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship for 2023. The medal is the second highest civilian honour in the province.
Locally, Bies’ books can be found at Killaloe IDA, Lorraine’s Pharmasave in Barry’s Bay, the Wilno Craft Gallery and Golden Gatherings in Golden Lake. People can also contact Bies directly on erniebies@yahoo.com.
robert@thevalleygazette.ca
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