Two in the Bush

Two in the Bush is the true account of a young Indiana couple who, in 1946, built and lived in the remote wilderness in the northern part of the Province of Ontario. John and Ruth Moore were both children of businessmen and had always lived in cities. With the help of an architect, John designed the house which featured passive solar and wood heat. John, John's father and Ruth enlisted the occasional assistance of friends and hired teenagers. Together they moved 40 tons of building materials from the station at the railroad hamlet of Missanabie to nearby Dog Lake, into boats and down the lake to the site they had chosen for their home. The three of them dug the hole, laid the foundation, cut every board and drove every nail. John did all the wiring and plumbing.

The Moores ended up with a house with pressurized hot water and a seven foot, 180 degree bay window. The solar and wood heat kept them comfortable all during the winters when temperatures could drop to as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. All the other residents of the area lived in dark cabins with hand pumps, kerosene lanterns and out-houses.

The family lived on Dog Lake for three years and seven additional summers. Much of their food came from a large vegetable garden and fish they caught in the lake. Three children came along and they grew strong in the lakeside wilderness.

Mail was received only when they went to Missanabie, the closest town – once a week in summer and far less frequently in winter. They had no telephone and, other than mail, their only contact with the outside world was commercial radio. The railroad was the transportation and communication link with the rest of Ontario. The Moores were often given rides by railway employees on both freight trains and hand cars. Neighbors were far away and some were only there in the summers. Ruth spent six months one winter without seeing another human being besides John and their infant.

At times forest fires threatened, a bear claimed their garbage dump and a thief stole food that was being saved for a special occasion. Boy Scouts dropped in after dark one day with no idea where they would spend the night. Weather changes threatened boaters who couldn't make it home safely.

John Austin Moore was born in Rochester, New York in 1912, the first child of Glenn Culver and Harry Austin Moore. In 1927 the Moores moved to Elkhart, Indiana. While there, John spent eight summers working in South Bend, Indiana and at YMCA Camp Eberhart in Three Rivers, Michigan. He earned a BA and MA from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and served a few years in the Merchant Marine.

In 1942, preferring not to be drafted, John attempted to enlist in the Navy. At first he was rejected because of a deformed foot and color blindness. But eventually he was accepted as an officer. While home on leave, he met Ruth Martin, also of Elkhart. They corresponded and eventually married in Clinton Oklahoma.

After his discharge from the Navy, John wanted to support himself writing. To do this he felt he needed both seclusion and an experience to write about. He and Ruth selected a remote promontory on Dog Lake near Missanabie and there they built their home in the wilderness. After living there for three years John was unable to sell the two books he had completed and Ruth was pregnant with their second child. They had to abandon the idea of living permanently in the Ontario wilderness. John taught English for the next five years at Wayne State University in Detroit but they still summered at Dog Lake. John taught one year at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana and then bought 40 acres of Indiana farmland where he planted hardwood timber as a long term investment crop. Part of a summer at Dog Lake in 195... convinced them that they could not leave their farm in Indiana untended so they sold the house.

John wrote a few magazine articles, sold garden produce, worked as a farm laborer and lived very frugally. He died of cancer in 1977.

Although the house on Dog Lake now belongs to a tourist outfitter, it remains very much like it was when John Moore first built it. John's daughter Dian spends part of her vacation at a resort on Dog Lake not far from the original home she loved so much.