White Otter Castle

James Alexander McOuat (also spelled McQuat)^[2] was born in Chatham, Argenteuil County, Lower Canada (Quebec), on Jan 17, 1855. He was the youngest son of David McOuat and Christiane McGibbon, both of whom were born in Scotland and emigrated to Lower Canada in the early part of the 19th century.

As a young boy, Jimmy threw a turnip at an elderly neighbour who cursed at him and said "You'll amount to nothing and die in a shack." Years later, in his forties and farming near Rainy River, he invested all that he had in a gold mine on the Upper Manitou. He lost everything, including his land.

McOuat turned to trapping to earn a living and found himself on White Otter Lake, living in a rough trapper's shack. He became obsessed with what the old man said to him. Visitors to the cabin who met McOuat often commented that he would say "What do you think of my home - you'd never call that a shack, would you?"^[5]

McOuat is assumed to have drowned while netting fish in 1918. His body was discovered by forest rangers, tangled in his net, near a reed bed beside an island on the lake. The rangers had come looking for him after reports he hadn't been seen all winter. He likely drowned in late fall of 1918 and was found the following spring.^[5] His grave is next to the Castle.^[5]

• Barr, Elinor, White Otter Castle: The Legacy of Jimmy McOuat. Thunder Bay: Singing Shield Productions, 1984. ISBN 0969171706