Wild geese, Jack Miner, and Cam Calloway

Recently, the gathering of flocks of Canada Geese on local ponds
reminded me of the movie "Those Calloways" and the book "Swiftwater"
on which the movie is based. Canada geese are very common now (and a
pest to some) and it is hard to believe that they were endangered
in the early 1900s.

I remembered something about Jack Miner so looked it up. Around 1905,
Jack Miner, "Wild-Goose Jack" (1865-1944) established a sanctuary for
Canada geese at his farm near Kingsville, Ontario on the shore of Lake
Erie. He had worked as a hunter and trapper.

Kingsville is the most southerly town in Canada, and close to Point Pelee
National Park, an important area for bird migrations. In 1900 it was
a quick train ride from Detroit. Several rich Detroit residents
had country homes near Kingsville.

I recently re-discovered my copy of "Swiftwater" by Paul Annixter
(1894-1985). It appears to be the original hardcover edition, printed
in 1950 and still has the jacket cover. I first read the book about 1963
, a few years before seeing the movie "Those Calloways"

Paul Annixter was a pen-name of Howard Allison Sturtzel and he wrote
hundreds of short stories and novels, often co-authored by his wife,
Jane. In the period 1910-1920, he lived in Detroit.

On the jacket cover there are notes by the author. He writes that when
his writing career was beginning, (ca 1917), he made a "pilgrimage" to
KINGSVILLE, Ontario to visit his mentor, Will Levington Comfort. The
short visit turned into a 2 year stay, and at the end, Paul Annixter
married Comfort's daughter Jane Levington Comfort!

Will Levington Comfort was a successful author, then working in Detroit
and had a country home in Kingsville not far from the farm and goose
sanctuary of Jack Miner. W. L. Comfort knew "Wild Goose Jack" quite
well and wrote a chapter, "Wild Geese", about Miner in his 1915 book
"Child and Country"
read at:
https://archive.org/stream/childandcountry00comfgoog#page/n57/

It is not clear how long the Levington Comforts kept their Kingsville
country house- they and Paul and Jane Annixter moved to Southern California
in the 1920s.

So Paul Annixter (and especially his wife, since she had spent more time in
Kingsville) probably knew Jack Miner quite well, so there is a good
chance that some of the features Cam Calloway is based on Jack Miner.


Maybe someone else has some more information about this. Paul Annixter
was still alive in 1965 when the movie come out, so it is possible
that he was interviewed then and mentioned about the inspiration for
the wild goose connection.