Colonization

       Building roads in the Canadian Shield is not easy. The country is generally so rough and hilly and laced with muskeg that straight roads like those in the south usually proved impossible. Creeks had to be bridged, swamps required causeways, labour was scarce and wages were low, even for the times. Surveys were often conducted hastily and contractors frequently proved unreliable, in that they submitted unrealistic bids and ended up asking for more money or surrendering their contracts. Very often, too, all they did was chop a trail through the bush and throw logs across the swampy sections. That was their idea of a "road".

Even when the roads were opened, the government's problems were far from solved. Originally it was expected that the local settlers would keep the roads maintained, but as a rule the settlers had enough to do without spending a lot of time and effort on the highways. Besides that, the roads went through some areas that were totally unfit for settlement, which meant that there were no settlers to keep them open. Sometimes the roads became casualties of their own success. If they attracted a lot of traffic, they deteriorated rapidly, not having been built to withstand a lot of wear and tear. The results were a never-ending flow of repair bills, in an age when governments ordinarily did not look after roads.

Several colonization roads contributed to the development of Muskoka and Parry Sound. One was the Bobcaygeon Road, which was started in 1861 at the Village of Bobcaygeon and continued north through Kinmount, Minden, and on to the eastern tip of the Lake of Bays, a spot now known as Dorset. The road was supposed to continue north to Mattawa, but beyond the Oxtongue River it was deflected west after 1863 to connect with the Muskoka Road at Huntsville.

The Muskoka Road was more successful. Starting at the little lumber village of Washago, at the head of Lake Couchiching, this road, which approximated the modern Highway 11, became the main artery into Muskoka and Parry Sound, and as such it determined the location of many towns and villages and the movement of men and materials for decades. It first received a government grant of £500 in 1857, with larger sums being voted over the next six years. Work began in 1858, and by 1860 it was open as far as the present site of Gravenhurst. By the following year it had progressed as far as the South Falls of the Muskoka River, a total distance of twenty-six miles. Steadily work continued, until by 1863 the Muskoka Road had been extended another twenty-seven miles to the vicinity of Fairy and Vernon Lakes, though it did not reach the future site of Huntsville until 1870. Eventually it was to reach Lake Nipissing.

The Nipissing Road was the last colonization road to be built and was named for the Nipissing Band of Indians who’s chief was Simon Commanda.  The Nipissing Road ran from Lake Rosseau north to Lake Nipissing. In through the townships of Spence, Ryerson, Chapman, Lount and Nipissing.  In 1864, construction was begun at Rosseau and continued through Magnetawan, Bummer’s Roost, Rye, Commanda and Nipissing Village.  By 1870, this road was open for sleighs in winter and by 1875 for wagons.

The Great North Road was a ten mile wagon road out of Parry Sound towards McKellar.  Construction of the road began in 1876 and by the early 1880’s it had passed Dunchurch and joined the Nipissing Road at Commanda.

The Distress River Colonization Road linked the new settlements.  It ran from the Magnetawan Cemetery corner east through Chapman and Strong Townships to eventually become the main street of Sundridge.

The Distress River Colonization Road became the lifeline to the inhabitants of Sundridge.  The Muskoka Road was yet to be completed as far as Sundridge.  Our only supply line was the Nipissing Road.  Traveling the distance between the communities was a hard and arduous journey. Supplies and mail traveled up the Nipissing Road to Magnetawan and was then carried on foot or wagon over the very rough terrain that made up the Distress River Colonization Road.  We owe our roots to this road and a debit of gratitude to the pioneer inhabitants of Magnetawan for their generosity and ability to traverse the Nipissing Road in this period of history when travel was brutal and even life threatening.  Our town prospered because of the railway in 1875 while their town died.  The Steamboat traffic on the Magnetawan River became obsolete because of the railway, and picturesque period of history came to an end.  The Nipissing Road gave way to the Muskoka Road and our history change forever.

Walking the Distress River Road Now Known as Hwy 124

In 1861, meanwhile, the government decided to build a new road to link the Muskoka Road with the rising port of Parry Sound. After several initial surveys, work was started in 1863 at the little hamlet of Falkenburg, some four miles north of Bracebridge. The Parry Sound Road was twenty-six miles in length, and about midpoint it wandered past the head of Lake Rosseau, where the Village of Rosseau now stands. By 1865 the road was reported passable by wagons, although stumping operations continued until 1867.

In the meantime the government was busy publicizing its plans. In 1853 it passed the Public Lands Act, which empowered it to "appropriate as free grants and Public lands in this Province to actual settlers, upon or in the vicinity of any Public Roads in any new settlements which shall be or may be opened through the Lands of the Crown". The act also limited each grant of land to 100 acres and set the prices at fixed rates. Under this act, a person 18 years or older, could claim 100 acres and procure a patent (deed) within five years, if he built a cabin twenty feet by sixteen feet, cleared at least two acres a years to a total of fifteen in five years, and stayed there during that time.  If the land was too rocky or swampy, or there was a large family, he might get 200 acres.  These grants were not only intended to lure people to the north woods, but to attract immigrants.  Meanwhile, pamphlets were circulated in the British Isles, France, Prussia, the German states and Norway, painting a rosy picture of the prospects of life in the Canadian bush, where a man could, with thrift and industry, rise from a mere farm labourer to the proud owner of a farm of his own. Among other things, the pamphleteers assured their readers that the new Eden abounded in fish, game, wild fruit and maple sugar: in fact, nearly everything except the proverbial milk and honey. Less was said about mosquitoes, blackflies, and long cold winters. Such propaganda had a definite appeal for European peasants who were working under the thumb of a landlord and yearning for something better. The records were to show that most of the early settlers who moved to Muskoka and Parry Sound during the 1860s came from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, France and the United States. Not many were Canadians. Perhaps the native born had a clearer idea of what the Canadian Shield country was really like.

Upon arrival, the newcomers were frequently advised to select their lots in September, build a shanty as quickly as possible, and utilize the winter for chopping and clearing, so as to have some space ready for planting crops in the spring. They were further advised to bring a little capital, to pay for the help of some local Canadian axemen in erecting the shanty. Wives and children were best left back at the front settlements until the spring, in order to spare them the full rigors of that first winter in the bush.

The early shanties were usually rectangular affairs, built of logs chinked with moss and covered by a flat, sloping roof. In time they would give way to more substantial squared log houses, measuring about twenty feet by eighteen, with a high peaked roof. Windows were few, wooden floors rare, and fireplaces almost unknown.

Crops planted in the black, leaf-mould soil and sometimes fertilized with ashes, often did quite well at first, especially root crops like potatoes and turnips. The emphasis, however, soon shifted to grain. Livestock was scarce owing to the problems of feeding and stabling them over the winters. Oxen were the usual beasts of burden until the 1870s, when they began to give way to horses.

The settler's lot has invariably been a hard one, and in Muskoka and Parry Sound unusually so. Things were especially bad for the poor "greenhorns" from Europe, who came out to the bush knowing nothing of the conditions they were soon to face. Most of them had never handled an axe before in their lives. The winters were long and bitterly cold, the snows deep, and in some cases settlers had to go to bed fully dressed, wearing overcoats and comforters to boot. In the summertime, bush fires posed a constant threat, while mosquitoes and blackflies were another scourge, especially aggravating to those not inured to their attacks. Oxen were few, and many a settler's crop was ruined by frosts while he waited to borrow his neighbour's beasts. Most tragic of all were the countless cases of hopeful immigrants who spent months or years trying to clear some land, only to find rock and more rock just below the surface of the ground. Today, hundreds of abandoned homesteads along the back roads of the Canadian Shield bear mute testimony to shattered hopes and broken dreams. In addition, there were no doctors in Muskoka and Parry Sound prior to the seventies, and no stores. That meant practically all staples had to be brought in from the front, by the settlers themselves, since there were no transport facilities until 1866. There are accounts of settlers having to walk as far as Orillia, or even Barrie, just to buy a sack of flour or mail a letter, and then carry commodities home on their backs over wretched roads. Small wonder that so many of them became discouraged and left.