By Andrew Macdonald
Cottage Life: No Cottage? Well There Is Always Milford House!
If you’re not interested in continually cutting the grass at a seasonal home, or paying for its extra cost of maintenance and property taxes, you can still enjoy cottage life in Nova Scotia.
There are numerous tourist resorts in the region, but one has a special place in the heart for Windsor native Randall Brooks. The retired chief curator at the National Science & Technology Museum in Ottawa, has been camping out at legendary Milford House Lodge every year since 1979, only missing the one season when he was living in the UK.
The lake at Milford House, a wilderness retreat in the Annapolis Valley. (Contributed photo).
Now retired in Halifax, before living in his boyhood town of Windsor in a stately house he admired as a boy, Brooks is on the board of directors of Milford House which is nestled deep in the towering pine woods of Annapolis County at Milford. The lodge boasts 28 cabins, each with a fireplace.
Milford House has been a meeting spot for tourists since the 1860s when an American family first opened an inn, which attracted rich American folk, keen on fishing the pristine lakes in the area. The area was originally a wilderness spot for fishing and hunting and a gathering place for Mi’kmaq.
The rustic resort is 20 kilometres from Kijimkujik National Park, the waters of which can be accessed via canoe from Milford House if one is willing to do a bit of portaging.
In recent summers, the wilderness retreat hit a special milestone for the 200 shareholder families who own Milford House, where the $650,000 main lodge was built following a devastating 2014 fire. It was the second time in 14 years that fire had razed the lodge, which was then rebuilt to look like the earlier version.
“The new lodge replicates the one built in 2000 with a few improvements,” says Brooks. “Both buildings were designed by (architect) Harry Jost from Annapolis Royal and are in style similar to the original 19th century inn. For passersby, most would not even notice the difference.”
A cabin at Milford House, a wilderness retreat in the Annapolis Valley. (Contributed photo).
The furnishings include some antiques and others in an early 20th century style, and the lodge is equipped with a spacious dining room, offices, reception and lounge, conference room, and a 2,000 book library.
Through generous fundraising of its shareholders, the larger community and former guests, the result is a mortgage-free lodge.
Day activities include hiking, swimming, boat paddling, and canoeing, tennis, and a playground for the young ones.
At night time, star gazing is a real treat, especially for Haligonian guests who do not see as much of the night sky in the city because of where light pollution.
A family of four or more can stay a week in one of the 28 cottages, which all have frontage on Grier Lake, which is stocked with trout each spring and perch can also be fished.
A cabin at Milford House.
The resort is waiting for a liquor license for the new lodge, while a trip to the nearest Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. store is a 25-minute jaunt into Annapolis Royal.
The wilderness retreat is on Route 8, noted for its abundance of snapping turtles that seem to loll about the road. An osprey nest is nearby, and hawks are also visible to the lodge’s guests, some of whom have visited over multiple generations.
The resort has several winterized cottages, and is open in the off-season, including in the winter months.
Most of the 200 shareholders are Canadian, and the majority are from Halifax. Only one member of the group that bought the lodge in 1968 is still alive, but over the years regular guests were invited to become shareholders.
The Thomas family started the wilderness camp in the 1860s, and its members continued to operate the resort until 1968.
“Any profits go back into running the resort,” says Brooks, who has a doctorate in scientific instruments.
The lodge does offer wi-fi to those who want to continue to connect with the world while in residency.
“We refer to it as a rustic resort. If you like nature, and aren’t too fussy about having plastered walls, it’s an ideal place,” says Brooks. “Those of us who love it, can’t get enough of it,” he adds.
