by Terry Boyle
The wealth of the forests called the first settlers. Hardworking lumberjacks harvested white pine, and pioneer farmers cleared the land. There was no time, then, for recreation!
The first holidayers to head here arrived sometime in the 1860s. Getting there was part of the adventure. First by railway, then by steamboat, rowboat, and finally by foot, they arrived at what was to become Gravenhurst.
It was an arduous journey and there was no one to greet them, but they revelled in the rugged, wild scenery, the fresh air and the clear waters. Local hospitality was simple but genuine. Visitors were truly impressed — enough to want to come back, and even more joined them to explore this rugged land.
Getting there remained a problem for many years. No reliable means of transportation to Ontario’s central lake district existed in the 1800s. A.P. Cockburn, the area representative in government, recognized this shortcoming. He envisioned the possibility of water transportation opening up the district and persuaded the government to install a lock at Port Carling to connect Lakes Muskoka and Rosseau, and to dig a channel at Port Standfield to connect Lakes Rosseau and Joseph.
Gravenhurst circa 1900. Later known as the Garner Lodge, this was home to many weddings like the one here of Bertha Mickle and Howard Cane.
Archives of Ontario
An ambitious entrepreneur, Cockburn proceeded to build a fleet of steamers for the lakes — large, powerful boats with native names like Sagamo and Segwun. He worked to get a railway to the lakehead at Gravenhurst by 1875.
In 1886 the railway went on to Huntsville. Captain Marsh, a transportation magnate, took the lead and put steamers on the upper lakes: Vernon, Fairy, Peninsula, Mary, and Lake of Bays. This helped to open Muskoka to the major commercial centres of the south.
Resorts sprang up around the district. Pratt’s Rosseau House was followed by such well-known places as Summit House, Clevelands House, Windermere House, and the Royal Muskoka Hotel on the southern lakes. On the northern lakes there was Deerhurst Resort, Britannia Hotel, Wawa Hotel, Bigwin Inn and others.
The buildings were typically three-storeyed with gables, turrets, and wide, wrap-around verandas where guests lounged in wicker chairs and sipped refreshments.
Gravenhurst
The town of Gravenhurst, situated at the south end of Lake Muskoka, was named by a Canadian postmaster general in 1861. The first settler to arrive here was James McCabe, who built a tavern at the site in 1859.
The settlement of Gravenhurst grew at a rapid pace thanks to Peter Cockburn, who began a lumbering business in 1865–66. Cockburn was responsible for making Gravenhurst a lake port when he launched the Wenonah, the first steamer on Lake Muskoka, in 1866. The community expanded after the Free Grants Act of 1868, when settlers flocked to the area to take advantage of free land. By the 1870s, Gravenhurst could boast it was the mill capital of Northern Ontario, or “Sawdust City” as it was otherwise known. At one time a total of 17 mills operated in the area. A thousand saw blades helped to carve out an economy. According to the Toronto World of July 13, 1887, Gravenhurst had four churches, a library, a school, a town hall, a telephone exchange, a bank, a foundry, a ginger-ale bottling works, many fine stores, and four hotels.
Dougald Brown, who had previously built the Steamboat and Stage House Hotel in 1867, founded Brown’s Beverages in 1873. This company is the oldest continuing industry in the community. Two years later Gravenhurst was incorporated as a village.
Gravenhurst was booming, but tragedy came in the guise of fire! On the blustery night of September 22, 1887, between midnight and one o’clock in the morning, a fire started at Mowry and Sons foundry on Muskoka Road, just north of the present-day post office. By the time the alarm was sounded, the whole building was ablaze, and it spread quickly to Brignall’s wagon shop and home. The residents of Gravenhurst rallied to the scene with a horse-drawn engine but, unfortunately, the men had difficulty operating the pumps and by the time they got things rolling, the fire had reached the four-storey Fraser House Hotel. By then, things were really out of control. The wind carried burning debris across the streets, and the fire spread to all of the wooden buildings in the business section of town. Burning cinders rained upon Gravenhurst, setting a dozen different buildings ablaze.
A telegraph appeal went out to Bracebridge, Orillia, and Barrie requesting help. The Barrie brigades loaded their equipment onto the nearest railway handcars, but it was too late. As if things weren’t bad enough, the ammunition stocked in stores began to explode. A towering inferno raged for three long hours, until nothing was left. It was all over by daybreak. The buildings destroyed totalled 50, including the Anglican Church and a brand new public school.
The citizens of Gravenhurst did rebuild, this time using stone or brick as a building material. The Fire Department was also upgraded.
Tuberculosis (TB), commonly called consumption, was prevalent in the 1890s. No one knew the cause and the mortality rate was high. The treatment recommended was rest, good nutrition, and fresh, clean air. The Muskokas seemed to be the perfect place to establish a sanatorium. In 1896 Sir William James Gage began the construction of a sanatorium on the east shore of Muskoka Bay, just north of Gravenhurst. The following year, the Muskoka Cottage Sanatorium opened its doors and welcomed 35 tuberculosis patients. It was the first such dwelling of its kind in Canada.
Business was brisk and expansion began; capacity reached 100 patients. Those in the early stages of the disease were admitted at rates of $12 to $15 per week, in 1910. If conditions required a stay-in bed, an extra dollar per day was levied. The sanatorium looked more like a posh hotel, and brochures implied that patients would require only a few months of Muskoka’s clean, healthy air before returning to home and work.
In 1902 The Muskoka Free Hospital for Consumptives was built. It was a welcome addition to Ontario tuberculosis facilities. This title certainly implied that other TB hospitals were not “free.” Unfortunately, the original infirmary and most of the central administration building burned down in November 1920. Nearby Massey Hall, a recreation centre for patients, was temporarily used for accommodation. In 1958 the province bought the premises and converted the site into the Ontario Fire College.
Cottages with open fronts enclosed by windows were often constructed to house TB patients. Tents also played some part in the treatment of the disease. Many of these shelters lacked any significant heat source but were occupied during cool temperatures in spring and fall. Many believed that if breathing fresh air didn’t kill the germs, maybe freezing them would.
Muskoka, Gravenhurst, circa 1900. The Muskokas were thought to be the best place for sanatoriums — lots of fresh, clean air.
Archives of Ontario
In 1916, the Calydor Sanatorium brought the number of TB treatment centres along Muskoka Bay up to four. It was Dr. C.D. Parfitt who persuaded a group of investors to construct a new centre for the treatment of private patients. During the 1930s the provincial government handled the cost of TB treatment, but the depression and subsequent restriction of funds closed Calydor in 1935.
1939 marked the beginning of the Second World War, and as the number of German prisoners of war increased, Britain soon arranged for prisoner confinement in Canada. In June 1940 the Calydor Sanatorium was renamed Camp 20 and used for the imprisonment of German officers and soldiers.
Guard towers and barbed wire went up, and since the Calydor grounds were smaller than the Geneva Convention required for the number of prisoners, additional playing fields and gardens were acquired. Daily activities included marching, building stone walls, and fishing at a pier at Gull Lake Park. The German prisoners also presented frequent plays and concerts. Using their own instructors, they offered a variety of courses, up to and including university level, and were also able to study correspondence courses from Canadian universities.
In 1942 Wilhelm Bach, a German army major, died at Camp 20 and officials accorded him a full military funeral. His swastika-draped casket was transported by hearse to Mic
kle Memorial Cemetery. The funeral procession included a truckload of floral tributes — one of the largest came from Adolph Hitler.
In 1943 the second-largest prison-break from a Canadian camp took place at Camp 20. Seven German prisoners of war, shrouded in sheets that camouflaged them in the snow, made their break for freedom. Two were captured almost immediately as they crossed the final enclosure. Four others were captured that night and the next day near Barrie and Washago. One prisoner made good his escape to America.
Ironically, German prisoners were succeeded by Jewish vacationers when the Gateway Hotel opened in 1949. A decade later the property became a youth camp, which ultimately closed. Fire claimed the Calydor in November 1967.
Another landmark and social centre for many years in Gravenhurst was Sloan’s Restaurant. Sloan’s originated in April, 1915, when Archie and Sarah Sloan opened their confectionery and ice cream parlour on the west side of Muskoka Road. In those days customers sat on ice-cream chairs at small, round tables, and ordered sarsaparilla for 5 cents, a soda for 10 cents, or a marvelous two-scoop sundae submerged beneath rich toppings for 15 cents. The candy counter tempted with its licorice plugs, chocolate cigars and brooms, and various other confectionaries, each for only a penny.
In 1930 a youthful Gordon Sloan took over the business after the death of his father. In 1947 Sloan undertook a major renovation. He bought the grocery store then operated by Charles Tomlinson, joined it to the original restaurant, and created the Old Muskoka Room. Under his imaginative and energetic management, the revitalized Sloan’s Restaurant prospered. Anyone travelling to the district had to stop in Gravenhurst to sample a piece of blueberry pie at Sloan’s.
Sloan’s Restaurant was later sold to Winchester Arms, a chain of restaurants operating in Ontario. The company renovated the building, but kept the traditional menu. During renovations the original recipe for Sloan’s blueberry pie was discovered. Eventually this business closed.
Tourists and residents also attend the many concerts held at the popular opera hall and players’ theatre built in 1897, and some considerable local talent has been spawned there.
Bracebridge
The town of Bracebridge, originally called North Falls, was renamed in 1864, with the establishment of the post office. It is possible that Bracebridge was named for Washington Irving’s novel Bracebridge Hall or for a community in Lincolnshire, England. This picturesque town was settled in 1860, with the arrival of John Beal and David Leith.
Provincial Land Surveyor John Stoughton Dennis, acting on government instructions for surveyors, brought his party up the road to Muskoka Bay and proceeded by canoe to the site of Bracebridge in 1860. After a reconnaissance of the Muskoka River, and the country in the vicinity of North Falls (Bracebridge), J.S. Dennis came to the conclusion “that at no point to be found for miles on that branch did the same facilities exist for crossing the stream than immediately at the falls.” Perhaps an easier townsite could have been chosen on more level land in the valley just to the west, but the river led to the falls, and the main road was to cross the falls. This made the location of the town’s centre rough, hilly, and rugged but very quaint and picturesque. Three log huts were built on the north side of the falls within a year.
James Cooper and his brother, Robert, worked to continue the Muskoka Road from the south galls to the north falls. James held land on both sides of the falls. In 1864 he built a tavern while his son, Joseph, operated a sawmill. Alexander Bailey, who had acquired land from James Cooper north of the river, built a gristmill and sawmill at the foot of the falls.
Bracebridge benefitted from this ideal location on the river. It had ample water supply for power and transportation and soon grew into a thriving lumbering, manufacturing, and tourist centre. By 1868 the Ontario Legislature designated Bracebridge as the capital of the new Territorial District of Muskoka. Bracebridge was incorporated as a village in 1875. Two years later, the population rose to 1,600 and, in 1889, Bracebridge became a town.
In 1872 Henry James Bird erected a three-storey, clear-pine-framed woollen mill on the upper part of the north side of the falls at Bracebridge.
Bird had come to Bracebridge hoping that Muskoka would become a sheep-raising district. Prior to Bracebridge, Bird had operated a mill at Glen Allen, in Peel Township, Wellington County, near Guelph. That mill was flooded out by rising water levels in 1870 and 1871.
To support his business, Bird assisted settlers in the acquisition of flocks of sheep and the district became a centre for raising sheep. Muskoka lamb became so popular, it was sold to city markets and became an item on restaurant and dining room menus as far away as New York City.
On June 4, 1873, Bird married Miss Mary Matilda Ney of Glen Allen, and he and his bride made their home above the mill. After a few years of very brisk business, Bird and his wife set about planning a separate home for the family. His choice of design for the house, which became known as Woodchester Villa, was based on the home-building theories of the American author, lecturer, and phrenologist Orson H. Fowler. Fowler had published a book advocating the octagonal shape as a new superior mode of building. Fowler argued that an octagonal home was a more healthy home. Square buildings, he said, did not conform to the spherical forms of nature: “The octagon, by approximating the circle, encloses more space in its walls than the square, besides being more compact and available.”
Bird named his home Woodchester Villa after his birthplace in England. When residents of Bracebridge commented on the unusual design of his residence, he explained he wanted to build “a bird cage to keep my Birds in.”
Woodchester Villa, overlooking the Muskoka River on the north, was truly a classic structure. John Rempel in his book Building with Wood says that Woodchester Villa is one of the largest houses of the octagonal style in Ontario. “It has so many features of Fowler’s octagonal plan that it could be considered the classic example in Ontario.”
The Bird woollen mill operated until 1954, when it was closed because the prospects for markets were so poor that production ceased. Today, Woodchester Villa is a museum operated by the Bracebridge Historical Society and was first opened to the public on June 22, 1980.
Near to Bracebridge are Port Carling and Port Sandfield. In 1860 Vernon Bayley Wadsworth, a survey student, was part of a crew mapping the Muskokas. Vernon shared some observations: “The Indian Village of Obogawanung, now Port Carling, consisted of some 20 log huts, beautifully situated on the Indian River and Silver Lake with a good deal of cleared land about it used as garden plots, and the Indians grew potatoes, Indian corn, and other vegetable products. They had no domestic animals but dogs and no boats but numerous birch canoes.
“I feel sure Lake Muskoka was named after a Medicine Man of ObogawanungVillage, although other residents of that section say that it was named after an Indian from Lake Simcoe. Lake Rosseau, in my opinion, was named after an Indian interpreter named Rosseau who was employed by Governor Simcoe in his treaties and interviews with Indian tribes on Lake Ontario and with the Indians of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe districts.”
Wadsworth adds, “William King and his Band at Port Carling were removed by orders of the Indian Department from their Village there to the reserve at Parry Island. I inquired of him why Skeleton Lake was so named. He stated that they called it Spirit Lake (Paukuk Lake) for the reason that ghosts and spirits were there.”
Huntsville
The town of Huntsville is situated on the Muskoka River, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Bracebridge, and it derives its name from Captain George Hunt, who was the first permanent settler of the village. Hunt arrived here with his wife and family in 1869. He was responsible for the Muskoka Road reaching farther north to Huntsville and for the bridge being built across the river. Huntsville’s first church services and school classes were held in his log cabin. In 1870 a post office opened, with Hunt as postmaster. He was a man with temperance principles and he made it a condition on the deeds, issued on his original acreage, that no intox
icating liquor was to be sold on the premises.
Construction of the locks on the Muskoka River between Mary Lake and Fairy Lake in 1877 augmented the growth of this settlement. The same year the steamer Northern was launched at Port Sydney. Travellers could now get from Bracebridge via Utterson to Port Sydney by stage, then by steamer to Huntsville, Fairy Lake, and Lake Vernon. Two years later Huntsville had two hotels, five general stores, a hardware store, a butcher, shoemaker, tailor, two blacksmiths, seven carpenters, a pump and wagon shop, and two sawmills.
Huntsville was incorporated as a village in 1886, with a population of 400 residents. The same year, the Northern Railway reached the village and the lumber industry began to flourish with shipping potential increased. Several sawmills were built, including those of the Whaley Lumber Company and the Whiteside Lumber Company. Fred Francis and Duncan McCaffery erected planing mills, and a gristmill and a woollen mill were also built. Ten trains a day connected to the lake steamers. Promotional books encouraging tourism also appeared, books such as the Muskoka and Northern Lakes publication.
Seven years after the firey tragedy at Gravenhurst, the community of Huntsville experienced its own firey blaze on April 18, 1894. What started out as a spring cleanup resulted in a loss of 75 percent of the business sector. At 10 past noon, a blaze travelled, without discrimination, on both sides of Main Street. The fire was fanned by a stiff southeast wind and spread so quickly that people were powerless to stop it. Many residents took to boats in the river to escape the orange-black haze that hung above the community.
The steamer Excelsior was moored at the wharf when the fire broke out. George Hutcheson and his son thought the ship was a good place to store what they could salvage from their burning store. A thousand dollars worth of goods were placed on the lower deck, but, unable to steam up in time, the ship did not escape the flames. The Excelsior became a towering inferno, and all that was left was a charred hull. Hutcheson remarked, “It was a burning furnace with all of my goods on it. We cut it loose during all the excitement, hoping to save the boat and my things, but the craft was taken up by the current and sucked into the sheet of fire.”