BEFORE THE SETTLERS CAME TO KIPLING IN 1893 The area around Deer Lake in Hugel Township had been destroyed by fire and had left charred trees standing and stumps. The pioneers used these trees to build their log homes and furniture. I have been unable to find dates for the fires that covered this area from the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1993. Their records do not go back over 100 years. What I have found has been recorded by the first Land Surveyor in 1882. A man by the name of W. O. Johnston P.L.S. was commissioned by the Court of Crown Lands, Toronto, Ontario to do a survey of the Township of Hugel, in the District of Nipissing of the 15th Day of May 1882. His report of the completed survey is dated October 18, 1882 from Whitby Ontario file # 1350/82. See report in the History Files of the Kipling History Book. In part it says that he found one large lake, called Deer Lake, and two much smaller ones of each of which I made a survey. The greater portion of this Township has been overrun by fire, and the timber all destroyed. Some of the North part has also, been burned again, last year (1881). The North West corner of the Township however, is green bush, which contains a considerable amount of good pine, but the other timber is not of marketable value, being mostly white birch, small spruce, balsam and tamarack and some poplar. It has been said that there were a great many large standing old dry "chico" pines in the township when the pioneers came in 1893. They were what they used to build their homes and furnishings. They were huge and were also sawed and split for kindling, while the green birch, popular, spruce trees were used for holding the fires longer. The green wood was hard on the stoves and chimneys as they exuded a black tar-like substance which dripped and caked the inside of the stove pipes. Many chimney fires were common and unfortunately caused house fires.