Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
Canoe racing was a popular sport on Lake Couchiching dating back to the 1840s.
Ojibwa residents would challenge Orillians to race from the village wharf around Big Chief Island and back.
In the early 1900s, the 15-member crew of the Orillia war canoe would practise with a day's excursion from Orillia to Sparrow Lake and back.
Shown in this early postcard is the crew paddling the 30-foot war canoe past the Hamlet Bridge near the entrance to Sparrow Lake.
