Celebrating 70 Years!

On the Beautiful English River. Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
April
2016
NEWSLETTER
Picture from 1960 with Gene (the lil’ guy)
Celebrating 70 Years!
Our guides in
1955
ps
Halley’s Cam
1940’s hunt at
rgeon Lake
at Black Stu
About Us
Fishing Lodges
Fly In Outposts
Halley Videos
Halley’s Camps is very proud to announce that this is our
70th year in business. In 1946, Louis and Yvonne Halley
started a camp on Black Sturgeon Lake, close to Kenora,
which was the birth of Halley’s Camps. They started with
an idea to build cabins where fishermen could come
and have a place to stay on a fishing trip. In the 1950’s,
Louis and Yvonne moved north to give fishermen the option of fishing more secluded lakes with amazing fishing.
They were moved to the English River south of Umfreville
Lake. They were happy there for a few years but they
wanted to travel farther north after a few years and sold
the camp on Halley’s Bay, Tetu Lake. They settled in farther north of the English River and started Fletcher Lake
Lodge, just a few miles north of our present Kettle Falls
Lodge. Louis and Yvonne called that their home for years.
Yvonne would do the advertising letters as she would
receive a list from the tourism office in Kenora. After a
hard day at work, she would write letters by hand trying
to spread the word of Halley’s Camps.
One fun memory of this lodge was when George was
going out to get minnows in the morning and on his
way there was a bear swimming across the lake. He
George and S
haron’s Suzie
in her crib at K
ettle
The guest accommodations
on the barges in 1968
Page 2 of 4
grabbed the bear and put him in the container for
minnows and put the lid on. He went back to the
dock where guests were waiting and he pulled the
lid off the container and the bear poked his head
out and off he went! The guests were surprised and
George had himself a good laugh!
In the mid-1950’s Louis and Yvonne, with George
and Sharon’s help, bought barges and brought them
to an island near Kettle Falls on the English River.
They had two barges- one for guest accommodations
and one that was the kitchen. Behind the kitchen
was George and Sharon’s family’s quarters. As time
evolved they moved onto main land and built guest
cabins. Look below at how the guest cabins have
changed over the years.
The Barges
ettle Falls
at K
New lodge
in 1986
George building the rafter on the
new lodge at Kettle Falls
The Tent Camps
Timber Frame Cabins
In 1981, the new lodge was built and this gave
guests a wonderful new dining room, a roomy tackle
and souvenir shop, and a big kitchen. In 1999, a
new addition was put onto the lodge which included
an even bigger kitchen and more storage. Currently,
Kettle Falls Lodge, has had a few more renovations
and updates done. Its doors are still open, welcoming fishermen to come enjoy their stay.
In the early 1950’s, after moving to Fletcher Lake,
Caribou Falls Landing was used as an access point
to get to the northern camps. In the 60’s Louis and
Yvonne decided to make this their year round home,
Page 3 of 4
trapping fur bearing animals in the winter months
and hosting fisherman in the summer. Also in the
winter, they ran a store out of a little trailer which was
also their home.
the
arge with
g in the b
in
t
a
e
s
t
s
xt to them
The gue
the wall ne
on
g
in
g
n
op ha
tackle sh
The first big motor boat:
the Blue Goose
e old
ding at th
Rob stan
Lake
One Man
Lodge at
The first year they started out with a limited amount
of shoreline. They had campers and soon they built
cabins and a lodge. The first lodge was built out of
the logs that were pulled from the river when the land
was cleared for the Caribou Falls Hydro dam. This
was their store, home, staff quarters, and kitchen.
That lodge burnt down in late April 1986, just two
and a half weeks before guests were due to arrive
for the fishing season.
A new, smaller lodge
was built in three
weeks. This served us
well for over 20 years
but was eventually
The first store/lodge at Caribou
replaced with a much
larger lodge in 2008
which included a larger kitchen and dining room for
guests.
One Man Outpost Camp, located on an island in
the English River, was purchased in 1979 from Earl
Hunakee. This was converted from a tent camp on a
small island to a small lodge and two guest cabins
on a larger island closer to mainland. The lodge that
our guests enjoy now was built in 1997 and is used
year round. The old lodge still is being used as a
workshop in the back yard.
From left to right:
guest, Yvonne, Louis
Halley’s Camps has had outposts and tent camps
since the mid-1950’s. The first few outposts were Bee
Lake, Wilson and Eagle Lake. Many of our outposts
Page 4 of 4
were built in the 1980’s and 1990’s in the classic
log cabin style with lumber milled by the Halley family. The last addition to our outpost line up was Right
Lake that we purchased four years ago; and the last
rebuild was our Chase Lake cabin in 2015.
An eleven year old Gene
takes a swim break
Much has changed over the years and we are honoured to say that the company is now in its third generation of management/owners. The fourth generation is now following in their parents’ footsteps and
growing up in the business.
As always we extend our heartfelt invitation to you
to come and be our guests during our 70th anniversary year to be able to experience what we work so
hard for and what we are so proud of. Our fishing,
accommodations, equipment, and service are top
notch and have kept fishermen returning year after
year, generation after generation. We look forward
to seeing all of you this summer!
Check out our new website:
CALL/EMAIL
US TO FISH
- Email Halley’s Camps Contact Us
www.halleyscamps.com is up and loaded and we
want to know what you think! Cruise the site and see
what’s new.
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Halley’s Camps
Box 15, Minaki, ON, POX 1JO
1-800-465-3325
www.halleyscamps.com
www.trophywaters.com