Everything I’ve ever read about the Muskoka Road says that it got to North Bay in 1884. This information bothered me for two reasons. One, I couldn’t find the primary source to confirm it – a survey or newspaper report, or a map showing the route in 1884. Two, all the research I was doing about the North Bay area at that time – and about the towns to the south of North Bay that the road apparently went through on its way, towns like Powassan, South River, Trout Creek – said that these towns sprang up around railway depots, not a road.
But all these articles said the road got to North Bay in 1884.
You can guess where this is leading. I recently found the primary source material: annual reports from the Superintendent of Colonization Roads. I read them from 1880 to 1913. And the road went nowhere near North Bay. It terminated in Nipissing Village in 1898.
Who knew I was writing an exposé?
And what about these other articles? Where did this myth of North Bay in 1884 come from?
Here’s my theory. The accepted story of the Muskoka Road includes its evolution into the Ferguson Highway, which ran from Temagami to North Bay in 1927, and was quickly extended southward to encompass the supposed route of the Muskoka Road. I now know that the Ferguson between North Bay and roughly Sundridge encompassed trunk roads built by the government around 1900, not the Muskoka Road. This seems to have been forgotten over time. And as the Ferguson in turn evolved into today’s Highway 11, the details of the origin of the highway became less important and the misinformation kept getting repeated in later reports.
I am very glad that I dug deeper and did not continue to perpetrate the myth. Stay tuned for the next episode of CSI Muskoka!
I look forward to your future exposés!
You never know what I might dig up next!
Wow! That’s crazy! Amazing how misinformation can so quickly become fact. It makes you wonder about some of the other things you “know”, doesn’t it?!
This is major, major news! I’m excited to see how this will work into the book – and how it will affect the historical canon. You AMAZE me with your research skills!
LOL – no wonder I could find no stories of fanfare in North Bay.
are we going to see CSI beside your name in the future!
very exciting to read, I imgagine even more so to find!
Any plans to do a supplement on the Ferguson once your book is published?
And can I get a reprint of the original article you wrote which I recall being in the Muskoka Sun quite a while back.
Thanks
Welcome to the blog! I have no plans to do anything specific about the Ferguson beyond what will be covered in the book. I’m not sure what article you are referring to, but it wasn’t mine; I haven’t written for the Muskoka Sun.