Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.08.2005, Page 7

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 26. ágúst 2005 • 7
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PHOTOS: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Patrick Healey in front of his Kinmount House Bed & Breakfast. It overlooks the village by
the Burnt River and was the first business site in Kinmount.
Kinmount, Ontario, is a beautiful place and
it played an important role in Canadian
and lcelandic history, since this is where
the first organized settlement of lcelanders
was in Canada. Steinþór Guðbjartsson
made a brief stop there as the lcelanders
did about 130 years ago and talked to a
man who fell for the area.
When about 350 Ice-
landers moved to
Kinmount, the only
accommodation available con-
sisted of a few shanties by the
Burnt River. The Icelanders
had a tough time during their
nearly year-long stay, and when
one looks over the area from
the only bed and breakfast in
town, the Kinmount House Bed
& Breakfast, nothing is lefl as a
reminder of the hard times Ice-
landers experienced there about
130 years ago.
Kinmount was just a small
village when the Icelanders
came there in the fall of 1874.
A year after they left, the rail-
way changed the situation and
the community flourished.
Kinmount became a hub of
commerce, shipping out local
products. The village was badly
hurt by a fire in 1942 and many
businesses were never rebuilt.
As a result, the village has
not changed much since then,
but it has its attractions. The
Highland Cinema Movie The-
atre and Museum is the main
attraction all year round, and
no wonder. It’s one of a kind.
The old railway station brings
back old memories and visitors
in town get all services needed.
“We get more tourists
here every year,” says Patrick
Healey, the owner of the Kin-
mount House Bed & Breakfast.
“There are a lot of cottages
around and people are discov-
ering the area. The old rail trail
is popular for walking and cy-
cling, people like canoeing on
the Bumt River and many come
here for family reunions, wed-
dings and other functions. The
Kinmount Fair over the Labour
Day weekend attracts about
25,000 to 30,000 people every
year and the recent íirst IceFest
was promising.”
The Kinmount House Bed
& Breakfast (www.kinmount-
house.com) is located on a hill
overlooking the village to the
north. The site was one of the
first settled in Kinmount and it
was the first business site in the
Pat is up early in the morning
to prepare breakfast for his
guests. He bakes and has spe-
cial recipes, “only to be found
in Kinmount House Bed &
Breakfast,” he says.
community, according to local
historian Guy Scott. The house
was built around the turn of the
20th century, and it served as
a tavem and a boarding house
or a hotel until it went up for
a sale about 25 years ago. It
stayed vacant for a few years,
until Patrick Healey in Toronto
bought it in 1985. “I came up
every weekend, brought a gang
of people with me and worked
on the house until 1991 when I
started the business,” he says.
About 10 years ago, Patrick
Healey retired from Goodyear
Canada after 30 years of ser-
vice and moved to Kinmount.
He had had a cottage in Hali-
burton, and after he sold it he
drove through Kinmount. “I
saw the place and it was com-
pletely dilapidated,” he says
about his decision to buy the
big house on the hill with the
intention of running a bed and
breakfast. Many years earlier
his late father, who worked for
the railroads, had ridden the
line many times. “He always
had many great railways stories
to tell,” Pat recalls, “and I im-
mediately felt the connection.”
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