1911 Photos of Charon and dead body on River Styx?

[Glenn MacGrady]

Here are two very strange wood canoe photos from what is described as a 1911 carnival on Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania. The photo descriptions are to the effect of:

"Film negative showing a canoe draped in fabric and filled with branches floating on the lake at Pocono Lake. A hooded Wilbur Wilford sits at one end of the canoe while Miss Avery dressed in white lays with her eyes closed on the other side. The Pocono Lake Preserve was pioneered by a group of Quakers, including Isaac Sharpless, who camped in the area in 1904. In 1908, this group bought the property from the Pocono Mountain Ice Company and designed it as a basic, rustic campground."

My guess is that this was to emulate the Greek mythology of Charon paddling a deceased woman across the River Styx to Hades.

 

[Rippy]

Well you don't see that every day.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Well you don't see that every day.

No, and although I'm not a fisherman, I doubt you see fish this big every day as in this 1915 photo that adorns the webpage of the Pocono Lake Preserve still today.



This must be near @lowangle al's home grounds, so maybe he could explain these Quaker mysteries.

 

[lowangle al]

Pocono Lake, aka, Pocono Preserve is very close to me. I pass by on my way to buy groceries in Mount Pocono. It’s one of those places that makes you want to paddle there whenever you do pass by. It’s private, but the local chapter of the wcha has a gathering there every May, I believe. I’ve been wanting o go but the timing never worked out.

The only thing I know about the Quakers who developed it besides them believing in a simple life is what I heard from the owner of the local boat shop. He said that they had a lot of money and are very into ecology and responsible development. They must have a lot of money to have bought the property from an ice harvesting company while ice harvesting was at its peak.

 

[lowangle al]

I think the picture of that big bass is a pretty good depiction of the fishing in the area judging by this one that I got that’s me in the stern sorry for the poor quality of the photo.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I don't know that they had @lowangle al's photo editing skills in 1915, but the big bass photo, which was actually taken on nearby Lake Naomi, was either an early photo trick or an actual tourist attraction that was built.



The ice house on the Pocono Lake Preserve was evidently a huge operation from this 1910 picture.



In fact, the Pocono area was evidently the ice harvesting capital of the eastern U.S. in the late 1800's and early 1900's. I recall the "ice man" carrying a block of ice with big tongs for my grandparent's "ice box" in their kitchen in the late 1940's before they got an electric refrigerator. Here is a very interesting video showing the ice processing on Stillwater Lake, which is just down the road from Lake Naomi, which is just down the road from Pocono Lake.