The Muskoka Wedding Show was an incredible event!

Brimming with excitement and energy for both vendors and guests alike, this year’s show was a wonderful mix of new and familiar faces, each adding their unique touch to the showcase. The atmosphere was buzzing as couples and industry professionals gathered to explore the latest trends in weddings and connect with some of the finest vendors in the region.

One of the highlights of the day was the incredible selection of door prizes, with guests walking away with some fantastic gifts. And of course, the silent auction was a huge success, offering an array of amazing items that added an extra layer of fun and engagement to the event.

A heartfelt thank you goes out to Janet for all her hard work and dedication in organizing this amazing show. Her efforts truly made the event a seamless experience for everyone involved.

One of the vendors, Rawley Resort, Spa & Marina, shared their experience:

“My team has said nothing but great things about attending the show. They both have not been in the area at all prior to the show and enjoyed seeing another venue. They did think more guests would be out, but as you mentioned, the weather got the better of the day. I would like to thank you and your team for being accommodating to our backdrop size and moving us around to best give room to not only us but to the others around us.”

Overall, it was a spectacular day that brought together the best of the wedding industry, offering inspiration and excitement to everyone in attendance. We can’t wait to do it all over again next year!

Large Donation! What a Surprise!

What a surprise when the door of the Archives room opened, and the guest said he was delivering 14 boxes. These boxes contained binders, each filled with plastic sleeves of 8 post cards each.

The post cards are all from Muskoka! The binders were labelled Hotels, Ships, Towns, etc.

The donor has been collecting these post cards for at least twenty years. The actual cards came from many sources; some sent to the donor, some purchased by the donor at local shops, some purchased on eBay, and some given to the donor as a known collector.

The volunteers who work in the archives room had great fun going through each of the binders, viewing the many cards but especially reading the  messages on some of the cards.

The Muskoka Discovery Centre has a collection of 357 post cards collected over the last 18 years since the building opened. Only a few of the cards are duplicated.

Post cards tell us a lot about the communication, economy, trends and social norms of the era and  location. We will be using these post cards as we answer research requests, write articles about Muskoka history and enjoy their messages and photography.

And there’s more!

As if that wasn’t enough, the Archives also received a donation of hotel china.

Each of the items in a recent donation are from a resort in the Muskoka area. They include several cups and saucers, candy dishes, boxes with lids which may have been used for cigarettes, a pitcher and a vase.

Notable items include a sugar bowl from Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, and a pitcher from The Baldwins, Windermere.

Thanks to the generosity of these two, and many other donors, the archives at the Muskoka Discovery Centre are a rich resource to help us all preserve and understand Muskoka’s history.

Mary Storey, Volunteer Archivist

Four historic steam engines are now on display

This article first appeared in the summer 2023 edition of Reflections magazine

Steam power has been essential to the development of Muskoka since the mid-1860s, transporting passengers to the region’s many lakeside hotels and private residences, as well as moving finished goods and commodities. Employed on the region’s big lakes, steam powered boats and ships have ranged from the most sleek and sophisticated to everyday work craft. The engines from four of these vessels have been preserved and restored, and they’re on display and ready to reveal their inner workings at the Muskoka Steamships & Discovery Centre.

Naiad

In Greek mythology, a Naiad is a nymph who gives life to springs, rivers and lakes. The 21 metre (68 ft) yacht Naiad, capable of carrying 40 passengers at a top speed of 28 kilometres per hour (17.3 mph or 15 kts), was built in 1890 for businessman and philanthropist Senator Eli Sanford of Hamilton and Sans Souci Island, Lake Rosseau.

The boat operated on Lake Rosseau until 1940, when it was sold to collector Cameron Peck, on Lake of Bays. In the fall she cruised under her own steam to Gravenhurst and over the winter of 1940-41 she was transported by sleigh through Bracebridge and on to Lake of Bays. When Peck sold his collection, Naiad was bought by the Ontario Northland Transportation Company, which re-equipped the boat with a diesel engine and transported it by train to Temagami in Northern Ontario in 1955.

In 1964, the boat became derelict and the engine was placed on the dock in Temagami. It was rescued by Andrew Merrilees whose business bought and sold used railroad equipment at his yard in Weston, Ontario.

Naiad’s two-cylinder power plant is a fore-and-aft compound condensing steam engine built by Polson Iron Works of Toronto. The Scotch marine boiler drove a 163 cm diameter, 119 cm pitch, four-bladed cast iron propellor on a 7.62 cm shaft.  (64-in diameter, 47-in pitch, 3-in shaft). Two cords of hardwood stored beside the boiler were used for fuel.  In 1978, the engine was lifted by crane from the Merrilees property and transported to storage at the Muskoka Lakes Museum.

In the late 1990s the Muskoka Lakes Museum donated the Naiad engine to Muskoka Steamships. It sat on display near the office and was later stored in the Nelson Street Yard, Gravenhurst.  On November 5, 2020, Naiad’s engine was lifted by boom truck and placed in the Heritage Boatworks building, Gravenhurst for refurbishing.

Mildred

In 1903, Polson Iron Works built Mildred, a 21 metre (70 ft.) steam yacht for E. R. Wood. He cottaged on Lake Rosseau, and named the boat for his daughter. In 1921, the yacht was purchased by Captain Wesley Archer who used her for sightseeing cruises from Bracebridge. After Archer’s death in 1946, she was sold to Ralph McPherson who continued to offer cruises. In 1961, while on a cruise, Mildred burned on the Muskoka River. MacPherson rebuilt Mildred using steel. She was owned by four other people and is now being refurbished with the hopes of cruising the Muskoka lakes again.

In 1954, her triple-expansion steam engine was replaced by a diesel engine. Roy Davies, a Bracebridge machinist found her original rusty steam engine in a barn in 1993. He beautifully restored the engine and adapted a drive to turn it over. It was displayed at the former Steamship Museum and is now at the Muskoka Discovery Centre in Gravenhurst.

Wanda III

Wanda III was built by Polson Iron Works in 1915 for Margaret Eaton, widow of Timothy Eaton, the founder of Eaton department stores. This yacht was the third Wanda yacht owned by the family on Lake Rosseau.

At the request of Mrs. Eaton, the builder installed a triple-expansion steam engine similar to those being used in Royal Navy ships during the First World War. This triple-expansion steam engine, also built by Polson, represented the pinnacle of marine steam technology. Using steam from a wood-fired water tube boiler it was approved to a maximum working pressure of 300 pounds per square inch. Being 28.6 metres (94 ft.) long, with a beam of 3.7 metres (12 feet), she was sleek and fast. She was capable of 39 kilometres per hour (21 kts, or 24 mph), making her one of the fastest yachts on the Muskoka lakes.

Mrs. Eaton sold Wanda III to C. O. Shaw, owner of Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays in 1930. The yacht was transported by water, rail and overland to Lake of Bays, where it was used to take guests on sightseeing excursions. The next six owners were all on Lake of Bays. In 1992, the last of these owners, Sandy Thomson, donated her to Muskoka Steamships in Gravenhurst. Since that time, Wanda has cruised the three larger lakes, undergone several restorations and been laid up for 13 years.

Today, Wanda III is housed in a new boathouse, undergoing restoration once again, and has been changed from steam to battery electric power.

Waterous Engine

In 1996, a small Waterous steam engine, built in Brantford, Ontario, was donated to Muskoka Steamships by the Krell family of Lake of Bays.

The Waterous Engine Works, dating from 1864, was a famous Canadian builder of farm and road engines. The Brantford factory also made small marine steam engines. This engine is a simple two-cylinder non-condensing steam engine with 10 cm (4 in) diameter pistons and a 12.7 cm (5 in) stroke, producing about 14.7 kw (20 hp.)  The slide valves on each cylinder allow steam to act on both sides of the piston, providing more power.

Single- and two-cylinder engines of this type were used on smaller boats up to 9 metres (30 ft) in length, and employed small wood fired boilers to create the steam power. Heritage Boatworks volunteers completed the restoration in 2023.

– By John Storey, a volunteer with Heritage Boatworks, a part of Muskoka Steamships & Discovery Centre.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

It is obvious that Cliff Fitchett of Houseys Rapids, Muskoka had a dream when he decided to build a new steamboat, a replica of Rob Roy. What an exciting day in July 2021, when we first viewed this new boat as it steamed around on Kahshe Lake, blowing its steam whistle often as Cliff waved from the wheelhouse. Many people stood on their docks saluting Rob Roy, a boat he had worked so tirelessly to build.

Let’s go back in history to the first Rob Roy steamboat. She was 35 feet long and built on Sparrow Lake in the 1890s for the purpose of taking passengers, freight, groceries, and mail from the train at Washago to various cottages and resorts on Sparrow Lake. When Orillia Light and Power Commission started to build the dam at Hydro Glen (1899), Rob Roy was contracted to take cement and supplies to the Sparrow Lake Chutes, usually pushing a scow along to move the supplies to the dam site. It served in these capacities until 1910 when it was sold to Tommy Houston and taken to Kahshe Lake.

For thirteen years, she ran tourists and supplies from Klueys Bay to various points on the lake.  In 1924, she was scuttled on a beach in Deep Bay close to the Rattan sawmill on Kahshe Lake.  In recent years, landowners in that area of the lake found parts of the metal transom and bolts in the water.

In 2018, Cliff Fitchett, a local contractor and man very capable with wood working, steam generation, and anything that requires skills in building, decided to build a replica of Rob Roy.  He had the fibreglass hull built in West Virginia, where he also found a working steam engine. The original bell was found where the first boat was scuttled, and he found a steam whistle on the internet.

Now that he had most of the major parts, Cliff went about building the deck and cabin and adding finishing touches. Two knee replacements slowed his boat building project, but he used the time to learn and make all the rope fenders for the boat.

The two-cylinder steam engine burns about a wheelbarrow of wood a day. With 12 passengers maximum, Rob Roy is now in demand for small wedding parties and social gatherings.

Cliff has enjoyed many trips with her since that summer of 2021, he states that “he had a ball building her. He loves the look on people’s faces when they are riding on her. His dream has come true.

Article by Mary Storey