I forget where we were, but it was probably either on the drive north or while we were out on a patio somewhere. My wife and I came up with this crazy idea: let’s try to visit all of the cool places that the Tragically Hip sing about. They have a huge library of 13 albums and are constantly mentioning Canadian places in their lyrics. As you would expect, they mention a lot of really famous places in their songs – such as Niagara Falls and Toronto – although they have a delightful tendency of telling fascinating stories about more obscure locations and landmarks. This is what intrigues me the most and it’s the inspiration behind this quest. You can also, by the way, listen to any Tragically Hip song online for free at their official website. Check it out!
My inaugural post of this “Tragically Hip Tour” series is about Bates Island in Algonquin Provincial Park. The song is called The Bear and it’s from the album “Music @ Work“. Gord Downie (lead singer of the Hip) doesn’t name the island itself in the song, although if you know a little bit about the history of fatal bear attacks in Algonquin Park then it becomes pretty evident what this creepy song is about. To bring you up to speed: A man and a woman were camping on Bates Island on Opeongo Lake in October, 1991. According to the forensic evidence, the couple was attacked by a predatory bear while they were setting up camp. When park rangers went looking for the missing couple 5 days later, apparently “the bear was guarding the bodies” – unbelievably strange for a black bear to do. Although I haven’t been able to find an official report of the story on the internet if you do enough googling you’ll be able to piece the story together.
Map image above taken from Jeff’s Map, used under the Creative Commons License.
Feel free to listen to the song and check out the lyrics. Here’s a quick excerpt of the main parts of the song: “I was first attracted by your scent… it was all over for you and what’s his name./ I think it was Algonquin Park… Now I’m the Islander… I waited for more men to come/ They docked their boats and cocked their guns…” To be completely honest I have no idea whether we camped on the same site where the mauling took place but we definitely camped on the right island. Anyways, enough of me writing – time to look at some of the photos! I look forward to continuing this Tragically Hip series 🙂
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