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 intoxicating 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