 Once the spring melt was over, the flow would reverse with St. John emptying back into the Black River.To provide more stable shipping, and to solve the problem of reaching Bell Ewart, Sage proposed cutting a canal from the Black River to Lake St. John, bypassing the existing St. John Creek, and using a log railway to cross from St. John to Couchiching.To gain support for his idea of building the canal, Sage wrote to Bradford lumberman Thompson Smith, owner of timber along the Black River and Head River.