1879 Muskoka Atlas 2.0

Interactive historical view of Muskoka through maps, sketches, and descriptions

Provided by the District of Muskoka Geomatics Department

Introduction

This story map presents the earliest settlement history of Muskoka, Ontario, through a compilation of maps, sketches, town plans, and beautifully written descriptions. These engrossing accounts of early Muskoka were taken from the publication "Guide Book and Atlas of Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts", written by W. E. Hamilton, Esq, drawings by S. Penson, maps by John Rogers, circa 1879.

This 2.0 version of the online compilation includes improvements to the original, but retains many of the favourite features.

~Exerpt from the 1879 Muskoka Atlas~

"The free grant districts of Muskoka and Parry Sound are, year by year, exciting fuller and deeper interest, not only in the older settlements of Ontario but throughout the sister Provinces of the Dominion, the United States and Europe.

In addition to what may be called the emigrating class... another very important and increasing multitude make Muskoka their temporary home - we mean the tourists, those birds of passage, who, like the swallows, annually cool themselves by a migration to our northern fastnesses, and depart refreshed. There are also hunters, and trappers, and anglers, and many other unclassified travelers, who visit Muskoka in ever increasing numbers. All these visitors with one consent cry out, "Give us maps, give us something descriptive of Muskoka to guide us before we start for the north, and retain as a souvenir of our journey." The emigration agent in Bracebridge, Mr. W. E. Hamilton, reports a continual stream of such applicants for maps and descriptive matter in Muskoka, while the Crown Lands agent, Mr. A. White, is similarly besieged.

The publication of the present atlas is designed to satisfy these urgent demands of land seekers, immigrants and tourists, by giving them a trustworthy series of maps, one of which embraces the whole free grant territory, while the various townships are also mapped separately. These maps have been lithographed from original drawings made by Mr. John Rogers and his assistants, who personally traversed the whole ground and revised and corrected the government surveys, adding much topographical detail which was not given in the former maps. The survey involved much personal fatigue and labor; the result is now before the public."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Township Maps - Stitched Together

The Muskoka Atlas hardcopy publication provides individual township maps for much of Muskoka. The District Geomatics department scanned, georeferenced, and stitched together these maps to create one overall picture of Muskoka in 1879, which is shown below in the interactive map.

You might notice that today's township boundaries are different than they were at the time of publication.

Muskoka Atlas 1879 2.0

Early Town Plans and Descriptions

The town plans included in the Muskoka Atlas highlight those communities that were the major population and commerce centres at the time.

Click on the town plan image to expand it.

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Gravenhurst

"Gravenhurst, the present Muskoka terminus of the Northern Railway, lies in the township (of Muskoka), and contains (Dec. 1878) about 200 houses, one hardware store, eight dry goods stores, eleven shingle mills, two shoemakers, one tailor, two watchmakers, three dressmakers, two saddlers, one attorney-at-law, four hotels, two bakers, one butcher, one book store, one flour and feed store, one doctor, one drug store, one foundry, boarding house, three telegraph offices, express office, Gravenhurst and Muskoka Wharf, railway stations with waiting rooms, ticket offices, freight sheds, wind mill, pumps, etc. It possesses a Town Hall (with lock-up underneath), public school and four churches, and claims 1200 inhabitants... Gravenhurst is the distributing and manufacturing point for an immense quantity of the products of Muskoka forests."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Bracebridge

"It is hard to lay one's finger on the exact moment of the birth of the village. We may first name James Cooper (father of Joseph Cooper, saw-mill owner and councillor, of Bracebridge), who squatted on land which is now included within the village limits. James Cooper's land included both sides of the falls. Alexander bailey bought out Cooper's claim in 1863. Messrs. Perry & Myers bought out from Bailey. John Beal and David Leith squatted about the same time, and, together with James Cooper, were the pioneers of Bracebridge. In 1861 Bracebridge consisted of the log huts and potato patches of Messrs. John Beal and David Leith, James Cooper's log house, and a small brick tavern and store, built on the south side of the river (there being no bridge save a large pine tree, which spanned the falls) by Hiram Macdonald. James Cooper built a tavern in 1865, at which time there was only a weekly mail to what is now Bracebridge."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Falkenburg

"Falkenburg, on the main road to Huntsville, at the junction of the Parry Sound Road, is a village in Macaulay, five miles from Bracebridge, and containing two hotels, an Anglican Church, saw mill and shingle mill (belonging to Mr. M. Moore), and blacksmith's shop."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Port Carling

"The township (of Medora) contains the village of Port Carling,where there are Anglican, Canada Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches, two stores, two saw mills, schoolhouse, post office, and a good hotel. It is one of the daily ports of call for Mr. Cockburn's steamers, and is a very convenient spot for tourists, being centrally situated with respect to the Muskoka, Rosseau, and Joseph lakes. Boats and guides to the splendid fishing grounds in the vicinity can be had on application to Mr. Thomas, proprietor of the North Star hotel. The locks here were built at great expense by the Ontario Government to allow steamers to get up to Lake Rosseau."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Baysville

"A steamer now runs during the season of navigation from Baysville to various points on Trading Lake and the Lake of Bays. Baysville seems destined to grow into a thriving village, being near the centre of McLean, and the point of confluence of three important roads. Lumbering operations also will extend annually further and further north, on streams of which the head waters lie near the Ottawa. Baysville is also a good centre for tourists, sportsmen and anglers, who like salmon, trout, partridges, duck and deer. Echo Lake, not far from Baysville, boasts seven places where seven first-class echoes are heard.

Baysville contains a grist mill, saw mill, shingle mill, wharf, three stores, school-house, where P. Methodists and Presbyterians worship, and say, 25 inhabited houses. The early settlers are Brown, Dickie, Bastedo, and the Langford's."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Port Sydney

"Port Sydney, on Mary's Lake, is a most charmingly situated village. Here tourists can find a comfortable and well-kept hotel, whence they may make most enjoyable boating excursions along the picturesque shores of Mary's Lake. The Anglican Church, in the village, a large gothic edifice, furnished with stained glass windows, is a lasting monument to Rev. Mr. Cooper, through whose exertions mainly the church was built. Port Sydney has also a public school, several good private residences, a large public hall, in which amateur dramatic performances are given with great effect, and got up regardless of expense; also a grist mill, oat meal mill, saw mill, and some good stores. It is reached from Huntsville in the summer by the "Northern" steamboat, and enjoys tri-weekly mail from Bracebridge, with a daily stage in the summer."

W. E. Hamilton, Esq, 1879

Huntsville

Note: No town plan available

"(Chaffey) is a well watered township, with good mill sites on the East River, and abundance of excellent land. The important village of Huntsville, in this township, is situated on the stream connecting Fairy and Vernon Lakes. It is about 25 miles from Bracebridge, by daily stage in the winter, and in the summer the journey is made via steamboat to Port Sydney, and thence per stage to Bracebridge. There is also a tri-weekly stage to Katrine and Emsdale. In Huntsville there are three churches (Presbyterian, Anglican, and Canada Methodist), public school, Orange Hall, temperance lodge, doctor, printing and job office, weekly newspaper (The Forester), telegraph office, freight office, two hotels, five general stores, hardware store, butcher, shoemaker, tailor, milliner and dressmaker, harness shop, two blacksmiths, seven carpenters, a pump and wagon shop, and two saw mills. Mr. Hunt erected a bark-roofed shanty in the unbroken forest nine years ago, where Huntsville now stands, and this shanty was the gathering place "of the clans" for all secular or religious meetings."

Sketches and Descriptions

Click on the sketches in the left hand panel to enlarge

On Muskoka Lake

"Muskoka is eminently lake land... some of these lakes form a connected chain of navigable waters, and others are isolated; while some few seem to have no outlet nor any supply from rivers, being fed, no doubt, by underground springs. Some, resembling Muskoka Lake, are dark from some unexplained cause, and others (the Lake of Bays and Lake Joseph for instance) are clear and limpid. They are generally deep, and almost always surrounded by a wall of dark green foliage, unbroken except by clearings or by the occasional intrusion of rock. The larger lakes are full or islands, Muskoka Lake being popularly said to have an island for every day in the year. Our lakes abound with fish, and their banks with game and fur-bearing animals. Even where they are not traversed by steamboats, these lakes form in many cases a very convenient mode of transit from settlement to settlement."

Nipissing Steamer

"An instance of one (river) navigable for the largest class of steamers which can twist in and out through its puzzling sinuosities, can be seen in the Muskoka River, from the lake of the same name, to Bracebridge. There is depth enough for the largest steamer which the necessities of our increasing commerce can ever call for; but the continual changes of direction require first-class steering, especially for a long steamer like the Nipissing or the Wenonah, the former of which can just turn round at the Bracebridge wharf on her return journey."