Holmes Lake (New Brunswick)

Holmes Lake is a Canadian lake in Northumberland County, New Brunswick.

Map of Holmes Lake, Southesk, NB, Canada

Holmes Lake is one of several large lakes forming the headwaters of the Little Southwest Miramichi River. It was named in 1884 for the first lumberman who had worked the area

The lake was long the exclusive fishery of the Pratt family of New York. After being introduced to the area by legendary guide Henry A. Braithwaite, George Dupont Pratt constructed the spectacular log camps at the lake in 1909. Ownership of the camps later passed to his son Sherman Pratt, co-founder of Marineland.

The Pratt family leased the fishing rights on this lake and the headwaters of the Little Southwest Miramichi River from the provincial government. Sherman Pratt was the founder of the Grenville Baker Boys Club (of Locust Valley, New York), and was kind enough to allow the use of the Pratt Camp as a summer camp for its members, approximately thirty boys each summer.

First picture is the main camp building and adult quarters; picture three are the bunk houses; picture four is the cookhouse and dining hall. Holmes Lake is kidney shaped, and the Boys' Club camp was on one shore of the lake. On the "indent" of the kidney, facing in the same direction as the camp but not visible from the camp due to the heavy forestation, was the Pratt "lodge," which was rarely or never used while camp was in session. Facing the camp, on the visible side of the "indent," was the boathouse (pictures five and six).

The camp may have also been used by hunters during hunting season. During the seventies and eighties, the property caretaker was Hubert Holmes.