Articles by 'Brian Johnson'
“I wouldn’t live anywhere else... I don’t think you can beat it!”
Antoine ‘Tiner’ LaRush
“People are drawn to this hou...
by: Brian Johnson
“It began as a spark of an idea that grew from conversations about the wonderful ‘Island’ stories...
by: Brian Johnson
"Enough of that! Now for the really thrilling news... I soloed on Sunday, April 29! Yip, I SOLOed!
by: Brian Johnson
Island residents face their toughest winter in years. The ferry Wolfe Islander operates on an erratic schedule because o...
by: Brian Johnson
“There’s just gott’a be a better way to earn a living than this!”
Grant ‘Lindy’ Lucy, machine operator at Parmenter &am...
by: Brian Johnson
Lovely, home-built and all-aluminum the Thousand Islander queens it over Gananoque’s seaway.
Alcan News, No. 6, 1972
W...
by: Brian Johnson
It stood out like a beacon, which in fact it was.
For seven days, Rob Morrisette had seen nothing but water, sunrise to...
by: Brian Johnson
“You got guts, Vicki, I like your spirit. Keep it up!” Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry
“You got spunk... I hate spunk!”...
by: Brian Johnson
For nearly 82 years, Hal ‘Moose’ McCarney, the ‘godfather’ whose persona often resembled a human dynamo, had his feet planted firmly on his playing turf...
by: Brian Johnson
It was Sunday morning, October 16, 2011. My good friend and fellow "Canadian Empress" colleague, Ratch Burnill Wallace had suddenly passed away. He was 66...
by: Brian Johnson
This story first appeared in the Kingston Whig-Standard as: “1946: End of the ferry crises” on November 17, 2006. The tr...
by: Brian Johnson
Mix well: Seven months and $400,000. Add one motel owner, a lawyer and partner with a small boat company. Strain and pre...
by: Brian Johnson
Jack Norris became ‘chief engineer’ of the Gananoque Boat Line after spending a lifetime at sea. Standing head and shoul...
by: Brian Johnson
“Most people only dream of living to the age of 100,” she begins. “Our Gramp planned on it...
by: Brian Johnson
In Wolfe Island’s hour of need for means of transportation...
by: Brian Johnson
Each stroke of the huge paddles brought forth a series of creaks and groans from the ancient timbers below... But the we...
by: Brian Johnson
“You know,” he began, “I’ve worked on all three ‘Wolfe Islanders’.
by: Brian Johnson
Our river chose many of us.
Once chosen, we are life-long islanders, regardless of where we may be.
Paul Malo
The w...
by: Brian Johnson
The sinking was first reported to police by Mrs. Walter Wells. “It was a great boom which woke me up. Then we began to hear people
by: Brian Johnson
On the night of Tuesday, May 29, 1838 between 12 and 1 o’clock one of the inmates of the ladies cabin on the S...
by: Brian Johnson
“Number please?” “Hello... Hello Mabel?” the female voice on the other end of the line was near panic. “Can you get Doctor Regan?
by: Brian Johnson
Pilots, by the very nature of their profession, become experts of the waters in their district. They are the logical adv...
by: Brian Johnson
Captain Leath Davis can trace his Wolfe Island roots to the pioneer Hitchcock family who obtained a charter to start a ferry service to Kingston from Wolfe Island.
by: Brian Johnson
“I am very concerned with the welfare of the steamer Edmund Fitzgerald."[New feature,now available in an audio version, written by Brian Johnson, Wolfe Island; read by Jan Eliot]
by: Brian Johnson
“Warning: Owners of large and medium sized craft, who navigate the St. Lawrence River between Cornwall and Prescot...
by: Brian Johnson
Mary Lynn Johnston was a Mille Roches girl
She had an important chore, while her Mother ran a rooming house
And her ...
by: Brian Johnson
Down at Zina’s Barber Shop we used to laugh and sing; We’d gather and we’d gossip about everything; we’d talk about the ...
by: Brian Johnson
“No one panicked while they were floundering in the water and scrambling for firm ice. Mothers held their children aloft...
by: Brian Johnson
…after four hours of continuous searching bleak coves and small inlets, both groups were almost ready to announce that t...
by: Brian Johnson