The long-hidden papers also carried news reports that, just as suddenly, were no longer old or out-of-date, but keys to events as real as an iron stove. From yesteryear’s newspapers on her lap a magic purple flame ignited to fuel Bews’s overpowering urge to unlock the meanings of those ancestral lives, discover their adventures, portray their accomplishments.

To those who see past, present, and future as one; who are interested in what went before because they care about what’s coming next; who’ve learned past performance is the best predictor of future behaviour, many paths are open: making movies, writing books, collecting photographs, mounting plays, recording interviews, casting statues, delivering talks, creating websites, making models, preparing documentaries, hosting exhibits, opening museums, broadcasting heritage vignettes, carving replicas, conducting tours, erecting plaques, and painting.

Painting!

But painting what, exactly?

“I want to show people that Muskoka means more than being on a dock. There’s a lot of history here. I asked what I, as a person who’s not been historically minded, would find interesting? And what could I show others, who don’t know or care much about history either, that would engage them?”

Seeking answers in the libraries she haunted, books she devoured, and images she sought out was a visual person’s inductive, rather than scholar’s deductive, approach to history. Find what’s impactful. A picture’s worth a thousand words. Show me!

On a movie studio’s cutting room floor lie miles of footage that lacked production value on screen. Only 24 scenes made Bews’s final cut, which is why “Muskoka Etched in Glass” has very high production values.

Being “hinterglas” charcoal drawings on glass adds even greater potency to her two dozen images. Bews already possessed a distinctive artistic technique when, backpacking through Germany, she was spotted sketching by renowned Bavarian glass painter Rudolf Schmid. She accepted an apprenticeship in his studio, learned a particular method he’d pioneered applying graphite and watercolour to achieve her translucent “reverse glass” paintings.

Bonnie Bews is on a new trajectory, generating energy by uniquely reimagining Muskoka. She’s investing with fresh awareness transformative Muskoka episodes (two are advent of the steamship era, and Gravenhurst’s Second World War prisoner camp) and seminal characters (two are the strong wise Chief Muskquaki, and defiant Rene Caisse with her top-secret cancer treatment).

In Germany, she admired Schmid’s immense wall panels and knew she’d do something similar, one day. Voila: “Muskoka’s Historic Wall” in downtown Muskoka Falls, 5 McBride Lane, Bracebridge, celebration launch July 18, www.bonniebews.com. Muskoka in perspective.