Our trips down the Shawanaga mainland shore have often taken us past two extraordinary cobblestone buildings on Kathalan Island (401C). A letter from Joyce R. Graham (nee Pratt) tells the story: This saga has a very romantic beginning in the year 1921 when my uncle Will Pratt, an entrepreneur and into domestic oil business, was returning by ship from a family visit in Canada and met a Dr. Kent who told of an island with a few shacks in Georgian Bay. Sight unseen, my uncle bought this property and wired my father (A.W. Pratt) to investigate and set it up as a family reunion and summer gathering place for relatives in England, Scotland, U.S. and Canada. My Dad was in his 30s - the youngest of a Scottish family from Aberdeen (he alone was born in Canada) and a very keen worker. In 1923, there was the first clan gathering from England, and a visitor, Lea Shearer from Scotland. She and my father loved boating, the beauty of the rugged and very primitive life style. The story goes that he proposed to her in a rowboat knowing that she couldn't swim. They were married in Gourock, Scotland in 1926 and by this time he had started building the main cottage. He hired a Scottish stonemason and many crews of Shawanaga Indians who carried the rocks to scows for a few days - then deserted! By 1927, the year I was born, it was completed; a beautiful stone fireplace, hardwood floor and three bedrooms plus sun porch off this 40 foot room. [Note: Mrs. J.F. Curtis (Pat, nee Dowler) said: "I recall Albert W. Pratt, with his Dispro (1 cylinder!) and a scow, taking practically the whole day to tow a load of stones from down shore, across Shawanaga Bay to their island. This went on, day after day. Sometimes the sun was setting..."] My own recollection goes into the 1930s when Dad built the dining-room - the second cobblestone building - and as a child I remember the blasting that sent a huge rock through the old kitchen breaking all the dirty breakfast dishes - hurrah! This building was the dining-room, kitchen and maid's bedroom of a Victorian...