Historic Roots

In the year 1818, King George IV of England granted to Phillip James Elmhirst, a lieutenant of the Royal Navy, one thousand acres of Crown Land on the north shore of Rice Lake, as a reward for his efforts against Napoleon in the Battle of Trafalgar. Emigrating from his Lincolnshire, England farm Phillip landed at Port Hope in 1819 and established his new home to the north of our present location.

Frank Elmhirst, the grandfather of present owner Peter Elmhirst, acquired a new piece of property, originally known as "Walker Farm", on the edge of Rice Lake in 1906. This land, totalling 340 acres with a full mile of scenic shoreline, is the site of the present day resort. With its panoramic view of the lake and its many islands, the location was, and is a perfect site for a year-round vacation destination.

Frank Elmhirst augmented his farm income by constructing small cabins along the lakeshore and renting them to visiting fishermen anxious to take advantage of Rice Lake's reputation as an angler's Paradise. When his son Arthur returned from serving as a test pilot in WW II, he inherited the property and replaced the cabins with fully equipped cottages. The resort became a full-time occupation for Arthur, his wife Mary Belle and their children Peter and Ruth.

Today's Resort

After graduating from Ryerson's Hotel and Resort Administration program in 1965, Peter returned to devote his attention to the business, which he soon purchased from his father. In 1968 the resort opened year round providing four seasons of activity for guests.

In 1981, the Hearthside Room was opened, to provide service to both guests and local area residents. THe design of the main building, which houses our recreational facility, conference centre, office and dining area takes full advantage of the spectaccular view of Rice Lake. Deluxe new cottages and updated services have been added over the years and now the resort caters to vacationers, conference delegates, weekenders and fishermen from North America and Europe.

There are currently four generations of the Elmhirst family on the property: Arthur, his son Peter, his son Greg and his son Henry. The family tradition continues.

Birth of 'Free Spirit'

The addition of the Free Spirit Riding Stables in 1996; the branding of Free Spirit Air Adventures, formerly Elmhirst Vacation Air and the opening of Free Spirit Health Club in 1997 not only enhance the resort offering but allow us to expand into new markets year round.



The Traditions and History of Rice Lake

Rice Lake is not without history itself. As part of the Trent Canal System, travel from Rice Lake to Georgian Bay was possible by steamship. Our conference rooms bear the names of the steamships which were active (Bessie Butler, Pemedash, Golden Eye, and the Enterprise). Wild rice still grows on the Indian River, Near Keene, but blackbirds feed on the grain before it can be harvested. In honour of the Rice Lake heritage, Elmhirst's Resort Chef Ron Pellerine prepares Wild Rice Pudding from a recipe passed down from Peter Elmhirst's mother.

The familiarity with and use of wild rice by the original Elmhirsts who settled in the area is perhaps suggested by another settler in the area north of Rice Lake, Catherine Parr Traill, who writes in her book, 'The Canadian Settler's Guide' first published in 1855, about wild rice, which she calles 'Indian Rice':

"Indian Rice is a wholesome and nourishing article of diet, which deserves to be better known than it is at present. It grows in vast beds, in still waters, in a depth from three to eight feet, where there is a great deposit of mud and sand. In many places where there is a little current, these beds increase so as to materially fill up the shallow lakes, and impede the progress of boats on their surface.

"When the rice begins to show its tender green blade above the water, you would think the lake was studded with low verdant islands. In the months of July and August, the rice comes into flower, and a very beautiful sight it is for those who have an eye to enjoy the beauties of Nature. The leaves, which are grassy, attain a great length, and float apon the surface of the water; I have seen the leaves of the rice measured to the amazing extent of eleven, twelve and thirteen feet. The deer come down at night to feed on the rice-beds, ...

"In the month of September is the Indian's rice harvest: by that time it is fully ripe and withered. The squaws collect it by paddling through the rice-beds, and with a stick in the one hand, and a sort of sharp-edged, curved paddle in the other, striking the ripe heads down into the canoe, the ripe grain falling to the bottom. many bushels are thus collected. They then make an enclosure on a square area of dry ground, by sticking branches of pine or cedar close together, to form a sort of hedge; in the centre of this place they drive in forked sticks, in a square of several feet, across which they lay others, and on this crude frame they extend mats of bass or cedar, for the manufacture of which the Indian women are renowned: they light a fire beneath this frame, and when reduced to hot, glowing coals, the rice is spread on the mats above the fire: the green enclosure is to keep the heat from escaping: the rice is kept stirred and turned with wooden stove or paddle, and, after it is dried, the husk is winnowed from it in large, open baskets, shaken in the wind. This is the mere drying process of the green rice.

"The parched Indian-rice is heated in pots over a slow fire, till it bursts and shows the white floury part within the dark skin. This sort is eaten by the Indians in soups and stews, and often dry, by handfuls, when on journeys, ....

"In appearance this rice is not the least like the white rice of commerce, being long, narrow, and of an olive-green colour outside, but when cooked, it is white within. .. "
One can add to Parr Traill's account above, that to help separate the grain from the straw, the dried grain was put into a skin made into a bag. As an early Jesuit account reads: "When the oats (wild rice) are thoroughly dry, they put them in a skin made into a bag, thrust it into a hole dug in the ground for this purpose, and tread it with their feet--so long and so vigorously that the grain separates from the straw, and is very easily winnowed. After this they pound it to reduce it to flour--or even, without pounding it, they boil it in water, and season it with fat. "

Apon European settlement around Rice Lake, early settlers depended on wild rice for food in the winter in the years before they had their farms productive. Due to the fact that the dam at Hastings raised the water level of Rice Lake by about six feet, the shallow areas where wild rice grew were deepened and the wild rice withdrew towards the shores, places like the mouth of the Indian River.