Woodland Lodge No. 680 History

An emer­gent meet­ing of the Michipi­coten Busi­ness Men’s Club was held after the funeral of Bro. James Wood, which was con­ducted by Wor.  Bro.  J. E. Edgar.  Dur­ing his speech he stated that a large turn out at the funeral, approx. 24, con­firmed the desire to form a Lodge in Wawa.

On June 10th, 1954 the work­ing tools, jew­els, col­lars and tas­sels were pur­chased.  Sept. 8th, 1954 was the final meet­ing of the “Michipi­coten Busi­ness Men’s Club” which was held in the Mis­sion with 24 mem­bers present. These 24 mem­bers formed the nucleus of the Masonic lodge in Wawa.

The work­ing tools were bor­rowed from Lorne Lodge No. 622 in Chap­leau for the dis­pen­sa­tion.  Deputy Grand Mas­ter Bishop Wright was extended a spe­cial invi­ta­tion to attend the cer­e­mony on Sept. 25th 1954 and Ladies Night din­ner and dance was held at the Lions Club Hall.

Wood­land Lodge was named after Bro.  James Wood who owned a large log style hotel in the Mis­sion. He was also involved in build­ing the munic­i­pal air­port and in pur­chas­ing the lodge build­ing from the Michipi­coten School Board, and to date there has been a con­tin­u­ing Wood Fam­ily influ­ence in the Lodge.

Wor. Bro. A. Peat was Wood­land Lodge’s first Wor­ship­ful Mas­ter.  He was employed by Algoma Cen­tral Tele­phone, which was later pur­chased by Bell Telephone.

On Dec. 9, 1954 affil­i­a­tion pro­pos­als were received from Bro.  Don Robart and Bro. Arthur Dawe. Bal­lots were also taken for Mr. Gor­don Hunt and Mr. Charles Dock­erty both can­di­dates for ini­ti­a­tion. The first pro­pos­als for can­di­dates were Mr. Nester Ere­chook and Mr. Rene Proulx.

On Jan. 13, 1955 the ini­ti­a­tion cer­e­mony was held with Gor­don Hunt and Charles Dock­erty being initiated.

On April 12, 1956 the mem­bers passed a motion to pur­chase lots 44, 45, 46 and 47, Block 24 in the Michipi­coten Town site, which the lodge is now sit­u­ated on.  A motion was passed at the Sept. 13th, 1956 meet­ing to pur­chase the five chairs for the Mas­ter, War­dens and Chaplain.

Dur­ing the year 1957 and 1958 exten­sive ren­o­va­tions were done to the exist­ing build­ing includ­ing a base­ment, mov­ing the build­ing onto the base­ment with the assis­tance of the members.