The name "Bobcageon" begs questions from any traveler.

"Cageon", the local shopkeepers informed me, is quite different from "Cajun", which itself is an adaptation of "Acadian" in Louisianan (properly pronounced "LOO-zee-ann-ann) . The town has no links with spicy cooking nor the Acadians expelled from New Brunswick.

As for "Bob", he never existed.

The name comes from the Mississaugan Indian description "bobcajuwonek", which means "shallow rapids", described the river where the town is built, and explains the existence of the town. The town has spread to the mainland but the heart is on an island between "Big Bob" and "Little Bob", rapids separating Pigeon Lake and Sturgeon Lake. And in the heart of that heart stands the Masonic Lodge building.

Typically, it has no neon signs nor flashing lights. A modest sign directs visitors from the street to a tall set of stairs off the main street. Limestone is used in bridge abutments, public buildings, and retaining walls. The swing-bridge over the Trent waterway is balanced on limestone and the lodge appropriately is a testimony to the stonemasons’ skills.

By coincidence, the temple was built in 1871, a year before Verulam Lodge No. 268 was constituted, but the Masons didn’t move in for 70 years. The three storey structure was Bobcageon’s island of virtue in a sea of sin. We are talking Demon Rum. Migrant miners and itinerant loggers worked in the community of 800. They took pride in hard work, hard play, and hard drinking . But not Alexander Orr’s hotel, The Commercial Temperance House. The middle word tells all. Gentle folk used to sit on the gallery and watch horse drawn carriages pass by. The walls are made of locally quarried blocks nine inches thick.

Now the trees are gone, elms destroyed by beetles. A spindly-legged see-through fire escape acknowledges the building codes of the 20^th Century. It soars to a third storey garret, imitating Jacob’s ladder. The spacious lobby and dining room have been taken over by an upscale ladies wear store, a place to buy and repair hearing aids, and a private residence. From the curtained windows, the second storey appears to be residential as well. The top floor is the lodge.

I accompanied a visiting delegation of Wardens from the Victoria District who were conferring a second degree. Access to the lodge was up a steep set of 70 steps, most likely used in the old days by hotel staff while paying guests would use the wider stairs off the main lobby. A major hazard is a low ceiling at the 22^th stair which gave several visitors a bump on the head.

The lodge room is a cosy attic with a sloped ceiling and alcoves originally installed for light end ventilation. Now those recesses in the north and south accommodate the high-backed chairs of the Chaplain and Junior Warden and the one on the west is the entry to the fire escape. Because of the limited headroom, the general seating around the room is only four inches above the level. I suspect a Scottish influence on the decor. Two retired curling stones have had their handles removed and the holes are used for holding the ceremonial wands. The atmosphere in the room is one of is time preserved.

Verulam was constituted in 1871 because the two closest lodges, in Peterborough and Lindsay, required transport by boat and by stagecoach to attend. The new lodge has a cross section of the community, including a clergyman, merchant, druggist, grocer and clerk. They first met in local hotels (not the temperance one), later moving to their own premises in the suburbs for a while, finally taking rented digs over a hardware store in the middle of town in 1893. That lasted for 20 years. In 1913 a disastrous fire leveled the central business district and Verulam lost all records and regalia. There is no mention of the fire in the subsequent minutes but they do mention renting the Orange Hall for $2.00 a night for a while afterwards.

The Commercial Temperance House forsook its dry ways and became the Kenosha Inn, taking advantage of the steam train excursions that followed the railway and pleasure craft using the Trent Canada which was opened from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe in 1914. As time passed, Bobcageon became a leisure centre with the fading of lumber and the closing of the mines.

It was owned by the Cluxton family and was purchased from the estate of a Masonic widow, Bertha Cluxton in 1940, just shy of the lodge’s 70^th birthday. Visitors should look at the plaque at the street level door of the lodge commemorating the family, Brother Sydney C. Cluxton, and explaining why the official name of the building, it’s third in a century, became The Cluxton Memorial Masonic Building. It was more than a financial transaction.

Verulam was a moonlight lodge, meeting from its inception on the Friday on or following the full moon. In 1952 this practice was abandoned in favour of the third Friday of the month, which is easier to keep track of. So if you are in the Lindsay/ Peterborough area, be sure to pay a visit.

It’s a walk-a-round type of town. Pay a call to the bakery across the street and take away a fragrant loaf of bread or butter tarts that demand immediate eating. It’s open three days a week after the tourist season. Take a look at the library too, overlooking the Trent Waterway. It’s an old house with wall to wall books. The reading room features antique farm kitchen tables and chairs instead of study desks and local art displayed. The stained glass windows are also worth a gander, but do it soon. The city (they have been amalgamated with distant Lindsay) is considering relocating everything to a sterile municipal building in the name of efficiency.

Now, for those who play Trivial Pursuit, my explanation of the name "Bobcaygeon" was a little convoluted, so I saved the explanation of "Verulam" for the end. It’s the name of the township where the lodge is located. It honoured James Walter Grimston who happened to be the brother-in-law of the Prime Minister of England in 1812, Lord Liverpool. Grimston was the Earl of Verulam. Verulam, 35 miles northeast of London, was the Latin name for the capital of Britain in ancient times. In the Christian era it changed its name to St. . Albans. Sir Francis Bacon (reputed to have written works attributed to Shakespeare) was Baron of Verulam and Viscount St. Albans.