For more than a century, Muskoka, the lakeside district just two hours north of Toronto, was the Mecca for tourism in Ontario. From small farm towns grew a vacation haven for folks from Toronto, Hamilton, Detroit, and even further afield…
When European settlers first discovered the lake region of Muskoka, it seemed like the “wilderness,” the “true north.” But Andrew Watson, a doctoral student in history at York University who has researched the environmental history of Muskoka, says that describing…
The classic tourism model of Muskoka had two main peaks, each representing a part of Muskoka’s heritage and creating traditions and narratives that have lived on. The first, of course, was the days of rail trips and steam ships, of…
In the early 1990s, Club Link Corporation, a golf club and hotel company, bought Elgin House, a resort which stood across the lake from Pinelands Resort. It wasted no time tearing the old resort down and building the Lake Joseph…
Muskoka was, at one point, a place of quintessential relaxation. Judi Brouse, the director of the Muskoka Watershed Council, an organization that studies the general health of the lakes, says the water is what brings people to the region. “People…
Development, including more paved roads and hardened surfaces, bigger septic systems, and an increase of fertilizers and phosphates in the water, has had a negative impact on the natural environment of Muskoka. But there is another equally harmful quality of…
No stakeholder in Muskoka disputes the fact that tourism is and has always been key to Muskoka’s economy. In fact, the District of Muskoka’s Economic Strategy report from 2008 notes that tourism is still the key economic driver in Muskoka.…
Muskoka’s heritage as a vacation destination is laden with deep-rooted traditions, from its farming beginning through to its golden era of resorts, and many argue that its history is truly the thing that makes it special. In fact, according to…