CONTRIBUTIONS FROM BARBARA SARGEANT
MAP/REFERENCE #5 (LINK)
Island B 70 was apparently originally owned by Geoge Miller. It contains one acre more or less. It remained vacant. One day there was no-one across from the old Sargeant Island and then all of a sudden we had neighbors at Island B.70. The first one we met was Dr. Thomas Victor Batty who came over to a cocktail party at the old island. He was quite conservative and Pat Marshall was very liberal and so we had our usual rowdy political argument that could be heard around the bay. He and his family were neighbors of the Jennings in Kansas City and Tom had become familiar with the area by coming up with his dad starting in 1936. He married Marilee and they bought Island B. 70 in 1965. They had the cottage built by Jacklin Lumber Company in 1966. It was a prefabricated uninsulated cottage with a living and dining room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a screen porch and a bathroom and a 500 gallon water tank. It was delivered from Parry Sound by MacIsaacs. When the Battys came up to stay in the cottage that they thought had been erected in June they brought in the furniture for the cottage. Unfortunately the cottage had not been built. They stayed for their two week holiday at the Moon River Lodge with the Pierces and the builder stored their furniture. When they were able to return in August everything had been built and they had been moved in. Unfortunately the builder had let all the wild life into the house and they had a huge job making it habitable. The whole cottage was run on propane until eventually electric lights were installed. The Battys eventually had a second large porch installed and later a large deluxe back bedroom and bathroom. When Tom and Marilee split up in 1978, Marilee continued to use the cottage and she and her sister Jeanette Le Blanc came every year for the summer.
We first met the ladies when they invited our sitters over to spend an evening with them and their older children particularly their son Lauren. They were both master fisherwomen and great raconteurs and served the finest meals on the Bay. They became 2 of our favorite friends and had all 6 adults and their 7 kids down to their place in Louisiana and entertained us memorably. Jeanette was a clean freak. When she came to dinner at our place she would sneak her cutlery off the table and wipe it with her napkin because she knew we would have set the table early in the day and she was worried about dust. Jeanette died first and Marilee continued to come up with her family. Eventually Marilee had to stop coming up and the family would come and visit for a short time each summer. At that point they started to rent the island to relatives of the Zuks. When it became apparent that the situation could not continue the cottage was sold to the present owners Kevin and Kari Kalbeisch.
We were introduced to the Bay by John and Rozie Zuk. Rozie is Tari’s Aunt. We had been guests at the Zuks cottage and fell in love with the beauty, and limited development in the area of Woods Bay. We began looking and thinking about a cottage area for our family around 2015 and asked John and Rozie in 2017 if they knew of any opportunities in their area at that time. They introduced us to a seasonal rental opportunity at Island B70 as Mrs Batty was not coming up that year. We jumped at this as an opportunity to be on the bay and hopefully in a position to see and buy something in the area over that summer. Once in place we became so in love with the island, location in the bay and community that we really didn’t gravitate to any other offering and pinned our hopes on eventually being able to purchase B70 from the Batty family in the near future. Fortunately this came to fruition and we became the new owners in 2019.
Tari and I have 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys, aged 21 to 31 and 5 grandchildren (4 little boys and a girl). The whole clan’s favourite place to be is Woods Bay and we are quickly trying to make a space for everyone to be able to visit as often as possible. For almost 60 Years the property had been used almost exclusively as a 1 season property. We are so excited to have completed improvements to make it a 4 season building in 2020 and will enjoy our first year there with running water and central heating this winter.
We have many plans for improvements on our spot and hope to make this our permanent address through our last few years of employment and into our retirement in the very near future. Woods Bay is without a doubt our home now…. The house we occupy in Kitchener is just a place to hang our hats when we cannot be on the bay
Woods Bay Community Association