Revered Muskoka steamships have (somewhat) humble origins

Steamships and classic boats in Muskoka

There’s a Chantilly lace notion about steamships and classic wooden boats in Muskoka that’s mostly right. Certainly Muskoka is the wood boat capital of Canada and steamship tours are a key component of the region’s all-important tourism base.

And what’s not to get misty-eyed about when there’s a fresh breeze in your hair, a motor happily burbling beneath you, and you’ve got a front row seat to the full kapow of mother nature’s bounty and human ingenuity, Muskoka-style. But all this Grace & Speed was actually borne of plain old pragmatism, way back. People cottoned onto Muskoka as a cottage and resort destination very early on in its settlement history. The roads in the late 1800s were as few as they were rough, and the majority of early Muskoka vacationers came by train to Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst, at that time the end of the line. They then climbed aboard the waiting steamship (probably the RMS Nipissing, and later, the Segwun,) for transportation to their lodges, or to their cottages on the islands, which were built-upon before the mainland because they tended to be less-frequented by bears. Groceries were delivered by supply boat, families stayed for a month or more at a stretch, and when you were ready to go home you’d put a bedsheet out on your roof to tell the next passing steamer to come get you and your entourage, maybe mañana, or the next day.

A new age

Along came the era of the automobile and the motorboat. Family-sized wooden beauties by the name of Ditchburn, Minett-Shields, Seabird, Duke and of course, the Dispro, began rolling off the lines locally from boat building shops in Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Port Carling.

This relative ease of travel, ironically, nearly spelled the end for the steamships. One by one they were taken out of service, fell into disrepair, and some even burned, until enthusiasts like the Muskoka Steamboat and Historical Society realized that cruising the lakes in a big old classic boat might be worth doing just for the heck of it, and in the 1990s, amid lots of what must have at the time seemed like pie-in-the-sky fundraising, the steamship era was re-born with a vengeance.

So if you ever have the pleasure of booking a tour on one of the real grand dames, don’t forget, they’re not just pretty. They were, in their time, working girls.

Courtesy of Muskoka Tourism
By Tamsen Tillson
Bracebridge, ON
Published on May 17, 2010
Last updated on June 1, 2010

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Steamships and classic boats in Muskoka

A new age