The weather forecast for the long Labour Day weekend was too good (sunny and 23 degrees!) to spend it in Toronto, especially after the miserable summer we had. Decided to head for the Ontario-fabled cottage region, Muskoka, an hour and a half roughly (not on the eve of a long weekend though!) north of Toronto.
First time in the region. Traveled (through the back roads to avoid the dreaded 400 Freeway) to Gravenhurst, self-proclaimed “gateway” to the region, where we had managed to find on such short notice a resort nearby on Lake Muskoka. Over the next few days, we were to discover quite a bit about this country, its history, and why it is so special for a lot of people.
Muskoka Lakes are actually 3 lakes, interconnected (artificially by a canal and a lock built in the late 19th century). Lake Muskoka proper, named after a Chippawa tribe chief (or what was he from the Ojibway Nation as I seem to recall from another source? A corruption of his name in any case); Lake Rosseau (yes, this is not a typo!) and Lake Joseph, both named after Joseph Rousseau (there!), owner of a major trading operation locally, mid 19th century, and christened by his friend and former partner, the Honourable W.B. Robinson, then the Ontario’s Commissioner for Indian Affairs, the very one who would have negotiated with the same chief the “surrender” of that area and a good part of Ontario to the crown of Canada, in 1850.
The area is part of the Canadian Shield, pre-Cambrian, rugged and rocky, better known for its mineral deposits and large forests than its agriculture – early attempts to develop the area starting in the mid-1800 by granting land to attract would-be farmers from as far as Europe, eventually failed, with most of those who had come leaving to go further West, to the Prairies. Logging is what fuelled the economy of the region in a big way, initially (that is until lumbermen put themselves out of business at the turn of the 19th century by cutting all the trees!) That is when tourism picked up, helped by railroad access built during the logging era.
Steam navigation has also something to do with what Muskoka is today. One Alexander Cockburn was so taken by the scenic beauty of the Lakes that he created the Muskoka Navigation Company in the 1860’s which, at his death at the turn of the century, if you have to believe the local literature, was remarkably one of the largest of the kind in the country – no doubt helped by the mail delivery contracts it obtained from the Government (Cockburn eventually ended up representing the region in the provincial Legislature and then the Commons). To this day you can tour the lakes on ones of the original big steamboats – the Segwun (heavily refurbished I would think).
Early morning on our last day, we were also given to see anchored at the Muskoka Wharf the “Wanda III”, Mrs. Timothy Eaton private boat at the time, built in 1915, during the war, for her private use to take her, the family and the entourage, to her residence further up the lakes. A beauty of a boat! The now owners and operators of the steamboats, the Muskoka Lakes Navigation Company, just got it out for trial after some 5 years in storage. 3 times faster that the Segwun, it can go up to 22 knots! Mrs Eaton liked to beat the commoners’ boat to the lock at Carling Point, so she would not have to wait and be slowed down on her way up! (That is why she discarded “Wanda I”, too slow. “Wanda II burned down shortly after it had been built or put into service).
Interesting as well to see that wood boat building was quite an industry in the Muskoka; it is worth a visit at the “Grace & Speed” Muskoka Boat and Heritage Centre on the Wharf to see anchored some of the racier wood boats of the past, all restored and fully operational. Actually one, some 30-foot long, was built last year in the region – to prove that there are still a few boat builders around!
The navigation service also encouraged some enterprising businessmen to built large vacationing resorts on the lakes. Tourists would come for the summer, take the train directly up to the wharf at Gravenhurst, and then board a steamboat up to the resort of their final destination. Most resorts, except a very few I read – the miscalled Clevelands (for Cleeve Land after a village in England) Hotel for one – have disappeared (including the grand Royal Muskoka Hotel located on an island). Looking at a map of the time there where dozens of these scattered around the lakes that all prospered during the fat years right up to the roaring 20’s. Many of those went up in flames at one point or another, or were taken down when their economic life ran out. We went for a drink the last afternoon at one of the few remaining ones, the Windermere House on Lake Rosseau. An all white structure, it was built before 1900. It burned down in 1996 – an accident during the shooting of a film on the premises – but was immediately rebuilt in 1997. They just finished renovating the common area and the third floor. http://www.windermerehouse.com/index.php
Funny that the sprouting of rich, comfortable resorts did not go without generating a counter-movement from people that wanted to come here to experience what it was to “rough it in the woods” and get away from city life. It led to the creation of the “Muskoka Club” where intellectuals of the day in Toronto would come and live by the laws of nature, almost commune-style, some time, on purpose, in plain sight of those who had come to enjoy the luxuries of those resorts, so does the urban legend has it!
Tourism really took off after WWII and cottages by the hundreds started flourishing then, to become what is now known as the “playground of the rich and famous”!
There is a very good film documentary, which I bought on DVD, entitled "Life On the Edge" (the southern edge of the Canadian Shield as we learn), that was produced only last year, and which does a very good job of mapping out the history of the region in its various facets, over a couple of hours, with original footage, interviews with local experts and humorous re-enactments. Very hearthening testimonies, including those from the former Ontario Lieutenant-Governor Jim Bartleman - a former colleague of mine at External Affairs - who was born in the region and came from a rather poor family, and whose comments focus on the human and social side: the strong class disparity that existed, from the local day-workers to the rich holidaying American industrialists, and the plight of the natives, to which his family was very close.
