Mazinaw Country

Bordering the southern edge of the vast Precambrian Shield, Mazinaw Country begs to be explored. Breathtaking scenery and sparkling lakes abound in this rugged year-round playground so close at hand. All the amenities needed to enjoy this unique wilderness region are here for the asking and the hospitality of the local folk is unsurpassed. Exhilarating high country and rushing rivers hold the secrets of an area steeped in the history of the early Ontario pioneers. A mere stone’s throw from the major centres of Ottawa, Toronto and upper New York State, Mazinaw Country exudes the feeling of heartland wilderness. Mazinaw Rock, rising majestically from the deep lake of the same name is but one feature of this most beautiful region of Ontario. Unique geological features fill the countryside. Ancient rock lies exposed, softer rock long worn away by the elements. There is mystery and magic in Mazinaw Country. You can discover it in all its beauty along Mazinaw Country Roads.

Before the Roads

Before the first Europeans set foot in the new land, native peoples roamed the area we call Mazinaw Country. They lived off the land. They gathered sap from the mighty maple tree and savoured the sweet treat of its sugar. The Algonquin, Iroquois and Ojibway all knew the secrets of the region long before early explorers and adventurers plied its waterways, seeking routes to the north and to the west. The lakes and rivers were their roads, along with well worn trails through the bush. The few settlers who came into the area before the first roads were built traveled the waterways and the Indian trails. The Skootamatta Indian trail, between Actinolite and Skootamatta Lake, cut its way through Mazinaw Country. It was wide enough for wagon travel, and squatters brought their supplies into the back country along this route and others in the territory. Some were known to have settled in the Flinton area, near a fresh water spring. Another important Indian trail connected Kingston with the Sharbot Lake area. A few United Empire Loyalists and early European immigrants used it to establish little homesteads in the bush of the back country during the first half of the last century. Many years would pass before the first government colonization roads were hacked out of the bush.

Much of Mazinaw Country was once covered with giant red and white pine trees. Demand was high for the valuable resource and the forests were exploited mercilessly even before the first roads led into the country. The lumbermen came up the rivers and hurled down Mazinaw Country pine. They floated it down the Mississippi and Madawaska Rivers, out to the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence to Quebec City. From there it was shipped overseas and used to build ships for the mighty British navy. Later, sawmills sprang up at good mill sites along Mazinaw Country waterways and millions of board feet of lumber was cut for local use as well as for export.

The Mississippi River cuts right through Mazinaw Country. It saw many log drives during the last century, as did the Madawaska River to the north. Camps were built in the woods and men toiled throughout the winter cutting the timber and squaring it. Only the best and largest logs were floated out, and the waste was enormous. Trees were slashed down indiscriminately. It was thought that the timberlands provided an endless resource. When the ice went out in the spring, the lumbermen floated their logs down the swollen waterways. More than 200,000 logs a year were floated to the Ottawa River from its tributaries during the 1860s. Many lives were lost on the river drives: men crushed under breaking log jams and drowned in vicious rapids.

The Mississippi River has its beginning on a height of land to the north of Mazinaw Lake. More than 200 km long, it splays out into beautiful lakes and tumbles through rushing rapids as it descends 300 metres on its way to the Ottawa River. The Madawaska River, on the northern fringe of Mazinaw Country, starts in Algonquin Park and courses down to the Ottawa, 225 km to the east.

Early Roads and Early Settlers

Until the 1850s, most of the population of Upper Canada was concentrated along the St. Lawrence River and the lower Great Lakes. Most of the good land along this “front” country was taken up. The government was interested in encouraging immigration, while trying to stem the tide of emigration out of the fledgling Canadian province. A plan was devised to open up the back country to the north. Although the ancient Precambrian Shield extends south, covering most of the area, it was thought that a great agricultural community could be established here. Early explorers and surveyors reported good farmland. There was little understanding of agricultural science—it was thought that land supporting a pine forest was also good for farming. One report went as far as to say that snow fertilized the soil. The area was referred to as the Ottawa-Huron Tract and included the entire region between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. A system of colonization roads was planned to encourage agricultural development of this back country. More than 20 colonization roads were constructed, some through Mazinaw Country. The Addington Road and the Frontenac Road wound northward and were intersected by the Mississippi Road, which meandered in a northwesterly direction. Further north were the Ottawa and Opeongo Road and the Peterson Road, connecting Mazinaw Country with the Ottawa Valley to the east, and Muskoka, more than 150 km to the west.

The colonization roads were built to open up the “wastelands of the province.” Government reports optimistically stated that 8 million people could earn their living off the land of the Ottawa-Huron Tract. Little was known about soils and climatic conditions suitable for successful farming. Provincial Land Surveyors painted rosy pictures of prime agricultural land in a region where rocks and swamps seemed to be the most prominent features. In 1856, the commissioner of Crown Lands stated that, although there was some bad country on the fringes of the Ottawa-Huron Tract, the “good lands of the interior” would sustain an agricultural community. T. C. Keefer of the Department of Public Works thought the whole region was fit for settlement and extolled the virtues of a permanent agricultural population over the region’s lumber industry, with its “migratory bands of lumber men.”

In 1853, the Legislative Assembly passed the Public Lands Act, allowing free land grants to intending settlers of the lands around the colonization roads. Under the plan, settlers were enticed into the wilderness along the Addington and Frontenac Roads and their counterparts to try to make a go of farming in the region we call Mazinaw Country. In exchange for free land the settlers were bound by certain rules. Land had to be cleared and crops cultivated within a short time period. Each family was required to build a substantial house according to government specifications and to reside on the land. They were also responsible for maintaining the roads. Farm lots were laid out in traditional British grid-like fashion, with no regard for the abundance of rocks and swamps in the area.

Most of the new settlers faced hardship from the beginning. Some left their homesteads after a short time. Those more lucky, with at least some arable land, eked out a living along the colonization roads, but only as long as their only market, the lumber camps, were in the vicinity. The lumber barons, whose shanties dotted the region, were a ready market for fresh farm produce. Settlers joined the lumber gangs in the winter, to pad their meager incomes. But by the 1890s, the pine trees were all slashed down and the lumbermen moved on. Abandoned homesteads along the colonization roads tell the story of the plight of Mazinaw Country pioneers who, with heavy hearts, gave up and moved out of the region.

The Addington (Perry) Road

Commonly called the Perry Road, after the Perry brothers who built it, the Addington Colonization Road started at the Clare River in Lennox and Addington County. It wound its way northward, skirting Mazinaw Lake, to eventually link with the Ottawa and Opeongo Road through Renfrew County. Provincial Land Surveyor A. B. Perry won the contract to build the road and 45 miles were completed by 1856. First the road route was blazed, to guide the work crew through the wilderness. Next, trees along the way were hacked down, with large stumps often left to rot. Little grading was done and travellers had to wind their way around the large stumps and hazardous rocks. Swampy areas were laid with “corduroy”—logs spread across the road. Travel over these areas was a bone-jarring experience. Culverts were installed to facilitate drainage and bridges were constructed over creeks and rivers. Frequent fires destroyed the bridges and travelling the road was tiring and hazardous. It was much easier to get around by horse and sleigh during the winter months, when snow and ice covered the road. A. B. Perry completed the road to the Madawaska River but bridges over the Madawaska were destroyed regularly by the large log jams from river drives. Finally, Ebenezer Perry, A. B.’s brother, completed the Addington Road to the Ottawa and Opeongo Road. Ebenezer was the land agent for the Addington Road. He dispensed location tickets to the free land grant settlers who took up lots along the way. By 1858, some 160 lots were occupied, with more than 100 others settled the following year. It was a tough life for the pioneers, but some of them stayed to enrich the region we call Mazinaw Country. Highway 41, from the Clare River south of Highway 7 to the Denbigh area, parallels much of the old road.

The Frontenac Road

A route for the Frontenac Colonization Road was surveyed by Provincial Land Surveyor Thomas Gibbs in 1852 and 1853. The road was constructed under the supervision of Warren Godfrey. It began in Hinchinbrooke Township and was completed through Olden and Clarendon Townships and into Miller to the Mississippi Road junction by 1862. The community of Playfair Corner grew up at the intersection. The Frontenac Road shared the same roadbed as the Mississippi Road as far as Johnston Corner, to the northwest, but the section was abandoned early in favour of a route through better farmland. The road was extended to the Madawaska River before the end of the decade. Most of the free land grant settlers who took up lots along the Frontenac Road were unsuccessful in their bids to establish self-sustaining farms in the region. One by one, they pulled up stakes and left, beaten by the harsh climate and inadequate soil conditions. Much of the Frontenac Road fell into disuse, but some of it was incorporated into township and county roads. Mountain Grove, Coxvale, Ardoch and Plevna are communities that developed along the Frontenac Road.

The Mississippi (Snow) Road

Commonly called the Snow Road for surveyor and builder John A. Snow, the Mississippi Colonization Road began at Balfour’s Bridge over the Mississippi River, to the east of the community of Snow Road. Surveying began in 1857, with a route winding its way around the rocks and swamps in a northwesterly direction through Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties. Completed to the Hastings County border in 1859, the Snow Road crossed the Addington Road at Vennachar Junction, below Eagle Hill. The section between the present-day ghost towns of Playfair Corner and Johnston Corner were abandoned early because the surrounding rocky terrain proved too difficult for farming. County and township roads, however, follow some of the old Snow Road route from its beginning at the Mississippi River to the Vennachar Junction area. There is little evidence of the old road route through the rugged country west of Vennachar Junction and north of Weslemkoon Lake until it approaches the Hartsmere area in Hastings County. The Snow Road was eventually completed through to Bancroft where it met the Monck and Peterson Colonization Roads. Some of the Snow Road is still in use, crisscrossing Highway 28 as it approaches Bancroft.

The Ottawa and Opeongo Road

The Opeongo, an early colonization road developed to open up the Ontario wilderness, was planned to be built through present-day Algonquin Park all the way to Georgian Bay, at the mouth of the Magnetawan River. An east-west route situated to the north of Mazinaw Country, the Ottawa and Opeongo Road began at Farrell’s Landing on the Ottawa River. Farrell’s Landing, near present-day Castleford, was as far as the steamboats could navigate up the Ottawa River. Construction was halted on the road near Carson Lake, west of Barry’s Bay, a great distance short of the intended destination. Many Europeans came into the country along the Opeongo. They were lured by the free land grants and overly optimistic accounts of the quality of the land and the climate. Some of these settlers abandoned their farms early, unable to sustain a living in the harsh environment. Others, lucky enough to have at least some arable land, eked out a living in the area.

The Peterson Road

In 1858, construction began on the Peterson Colonization Road, an east-west route linking the Ottawa and Opeongo Colonization Road in the east with the Muskoka Road to the west. Situated to the north and west of Mazinaw Country, the Peterson Road was more than 180 km in length. It was the longest of the colonization roads designed to open up the vast Precambrian Shield country between the Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay. The lands along the Peterson Road were opened to settlers under the mistaken assumption that a great agricultural community could grow and prosper throughout the region. But like so many of the other early pioneers who poured their hearts and souls into little homesteads among the rocks and swamps, most settlers of the Peterson Road pulled up stakes. Before the turn of the century, much of the Peterson Colonization Road was overgrown and abandoned farms dotted the area.

The Railway
through Mazinaw Country

The Kingston and Pembroke Railway was conceived in the early 1870s. By 1876, track had been laid from Kingston north to Sharbot Lake. The Kick and Push, as it was affectionately known, came through to Mississippi Station by 1882. In 1883 a bridge was completed over the Mississippi River and Snow Road Station was opened. Tracks were laid to Renfrew the following year, but it was not completed to its intended destination at Pembroke. The coming of the railway meant new prosperity for the little communities in the back country. No longer did the lumbermen have to rely solely on the waterways to carry their logs to market. And the railway gave the travelling public an alternative to slogging along the roads with their merciless mud holes and the bone-jarring rattling over corduroy crossways.

The Toronto to Ottawa Canadian Pacific Railway line (roughly following the modern Highway 7 route) brought new prosperity to Mazinaw Country communities before the turn of the century. Centres like Kaladar, Arden and Sharbot Lake grew considerably as lumber and produce were transported through their regions. However, in 1915, the CPR built another line running along Lake Ontario. Reduced traffic on the old line cut deeply into local economies, but the building of the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 7) and other modern paved highways during the 1930s brought yet another economic revival to Mazinaw Country. With the advent of these roads, the tourist industry began to grow in this most beautiful region of Ontario heartland country.

Modern Roads
through Magnificent Country

Today, Mazinaw Country is blessed with a network of modern roads that allow the weekend and vacationing explorer to discover rugged beauty, a colourful past and present day hospitality. Roads wind in and out of valleys and over breathtaking high country rich in the history of the early pioneering days. Reminders of the past are everywhere, with 19th century buildings, original homestead sites and old roadbeds throughout the area. Although Mazinaw Country features the best of rugged Ontario wilderness, all the amenities required for a memorable visit are within easy reach. A wide variety of shops, restaurants, accommodations and other services cater to every need.

Highway 41, Kaladar to Denbigh

Highway 41 runs from Napanee to Pembroke, connecting the eastern Lake Ontario region with the upper Ottawa Valley. Built in the 1930s, Highway 41 follows some of the old Addington Colonization Road route through Mazinaw Country. It intersects Highway 7 at Kaladar, a busy crossroads community along the now defunct Canadian Pacific Railway line. Originally called Scouten after an early postmaster, the name was changed to Kaladar Station in 1890. Now it is simply referred to as Kaladar. Kaladar was headquarters for the giant Rathbun Lumber Company that reworked many of the old timber limits during the latter part of the 19th century.

West of Highway 41, north of Kaladar, is Flinton, an old mill town named for 19th century politician and entrepreneur, Billa Flint. Squatters settled in the area before the colonization roads were built. They came in along the water routes and up the Skootamatta Indian Trail. Flint established a mill and store here and laid out a village plan with small lots and a few roads. Some farmers, carrying heavy loads, walked great distances to have their grain ground at Flint’s Mill. North of the road to Flinton, the community of Northbrook grew up along the Addington Road. A thriving community today with stores, accommodations and other services, its name changed more than once during the last century. The settlement has been called Beaverbrook, Springbrook and Dunham’s Place.

Harlowe was an early crossroads farming town situated northeast of Northbrook. A few pockets of good soil in the area grew bumper crops of wheat, hill corn, turnips and potatoes during the last century. Surplus fresh produce was sold to the lumber camps to help sustain the men toiling in the bush throughout the winter months. Cloyne, further north on Highway 41, was a stopping place for travellers along the old Addington Road. Once catering to both the lumberers and the surrounding farming community, Cloyne enjoys the benefits of an expanding tourist trade today. Visitors to Bon Echo Provincial Park take advantage of the services available at Cloyne.

Highway 41 cuts through Bon Echo Provincial Park, with its prominent landmark, mighty Mazinaw Rock. Thousands of campers enjoy the rugged beauty of the park each year. Highway 41 continues northward to Vennachar Junction, where the Mississippi Colonization Road crossed the Addington. Still further north is Denbigh, an early mill town. A few Algonquin Indian families were living in the area when the first lumbermen came up the Madawaska river to harvest the trees. When the Addington Colonization Road was built in the 1850s, a few German immigrants settled the region. More German families began to arrive and the area became known as the German Settlement. A sawmill and a grist mill were constructed. The post office was established in 1863 and the village name was changed to Denbigh, after Denbighshire in Wales. Stores, a blacksmith shop, a school and hotel were built. The population swelled to 200 while the lumbering was in full swing. Denbigh was the commercial centre for a wide area through Mazinaw Country and beyond, but the population declined after the lumbering heyday. Today, Denbigh sits among the hills by the lake of the same name, steeped in the history of the last century. Stores, accommodations, restaurants and other services cater to vacationers, travellers and the hardy local folk.

In the 19th century, the trip from Kaladar to Denbigh along the old Addington Road took the better part of two days to complete. It was a tiring and sometimes painful experience, up and down endless hills, over bumpy corduroy and around the rocks. Today, the trip takes about one hour by car up modern Highway 41.

Bon Echo Provincial Park

In the heart of Mazinaw Country is beautiful Bon Echo Provincial Park, encompassing the Mazinaw Rock area and a full 6,644 hectares of Ontario heartland wilderness. Mazinaw Rock is 1.5 km long, rising 100 metres out of one of Ontario’s deepest lakes. Ancient Indian pictographs adorn some of the rock face. Lines from a Walt Whitman poem are carved into another section. Group of Seven painters and countless other artists and photographers have made Mazinaw Rock a favorite subject. A honeymooning couple from Ohio, on a canoe trip through the region, fell in love with the area around Mazinaw Rock. In 1901, they purchased surrounding land and established a resort called Bon Echo Inn. Thunder echoing from the mighty rock apparently inspired the name. They built a three-storey hotel, a dining room, cabins and outbuildings, and a staircase up the side of Mazinaw Rock. In 1910, the resort was bought by Flora MacDonald Denison, a successful businesswoman and leader in the fight for women’s rights. An admirer of the poetry of Walt Whitman, she had lines from one of his poems carved in foot-high letters into the rock. Her son, author and playwright Merrill Denison, inherited the Inn and ran it until 1936, when it burnt down. Denison gave the land to the Ontario government in 1959. Soon after, with the acquisition of surrounding land, Bon Echo Provincial Park was established. With 530 campsites, beautiful beaches and breathtaking scenery, the Park has become very popular. It is one of the most beautiful of Ontario’s 265 provincial parks, which accommodate approximately 8 million people a year.

Highway 509 and 506
into the Heart of Mazinaw Country

Highway 509 runs north from Highway 7 near Sharbot Lake. Rich in the history of the pioneering days, the area now serves cottagers, vacationers and a hardy local folk. Rugged uplands and sparkling lakes and rivers make the region a natural vacation playground. The fishing is great and the scenery unsurpassed. Highway 509 follows the old Kick and Push railway bed part of the way, through ghost towns and small communities that once supported much larger populations. The communities of Clarendon (home of the Blue Skies Music Festival), Robertsville and Mississippi grew up in the lumbering days and prospered when the railway went through. The railway yards at these villages were often overflowing with pulp logs waiting to be loaded onto railway cars and sent to the mills. Revenues from these logs helped support local economies after all the virgin pine forests were harvested and the lumber gangs moved on.

Further up Highway 509, across the bridge over the Mississippi River, is the community of Snow Road, a 19th century commercial centre where the railway crossed the Mississippi Colonization Road (commonly called the Snow Road for the man who built it). The village retains a pioneer flavour, and some of the original old buildings still stand. The giant McLaren Lumber Company had a depot here, complete with a large sawmill, stores, outbuildings and blacksmith shop. A busy general store still serves the surrounding community and a growing tourist trade.

The Snow Road began at Balfour’s Bridge on the Mississippi River (to the east of the Snow Road community) and wound its way through the wilderness to the northwest. It crossed the Frontenac and the Addington Roads and eventually linked Mazinaw Country with Bancroft and points west. Highway 509 shadows some of the old Snow Road from the community of Snow Road through Ompah, home of the Ompah Stomp. Ompah serves a growing contingent of cottagers and vacationers who enjoy the beauty of this exhilarating part of Mazinaw Country. Highway 509 continues on to Plevna. This portion of the highway runs to the south of the original colonization road. Although settlers tried to make a go of farming along the section of old road in the early days, the land proved too rugged and the area to the north of the present highway was completely abandoned.

Plevna grew up along the Frontenac Colonization Road, south of its meeting with the Snow Road. A good mill site on Buckshot Creek, the village was originally called Buckshot. With the coming of the post office, postal authorities insisted the name of the community be changed to something a little more sophisticated. The village folk could not agree on a new name and some nasty feuding resulted. Someone suggested the community resembled a battle zone and compared it to Plevna in Eastern Europe where numerous battles had been fought down through the ages. Plevna is a thriving crossroads community today, in the heart of Mazinaw Country. South of Plevna is the quaint hamlet of Ardoch, another settlement that developed along the Frontenac Road during the last century. Situated at the Mississippi River, Ardoch served the lumbering trade as countless logs were floated out of the area to markets to the east and overseas. A post office was established in the 1860s and stores, stopping places and other services catered to the lumbermen and travellers of the old colonization roads.

To the east of Plevna, along Highway 506, are the historic communities of Fernleigh and Myer’s Cave. Squatters settled the Fernleigh area early, coming into the area along the waterways and by Indian trail. There was a trail to the region from the Napanee area to the south. By the 1870s, Fernleigh was well established, serving the lumbermen and the surrounding farming community. Myer’s Cave, west of Fernleigh was a good mill site on the Mississippi River system. Named for an early settler, a legend grew up here about a mysterious cave. Reports of treasure, high-grade silver ore and hidden loot from a robbery all grew up around stories of the lost cave. Its whereabouts has not been rediscovered to this day. The Myer’s Cave area is home to numerous lodges and vacation resorts where tourists flock to enjoy the wilderness experience. Further west, Highway 506 ends at Highway 41.

The Highway 7 Corridor

Highway 7 was built in the 1930s as part of the Trans-Canada Highway system. Its route shadows the old Canadian Pacific Railway line through Mazinaw Country from Kaladar to Sharbot Lake. The highway brought renewed economic vitality to the area after the railway line was abandoned and the tracks and ties removed. The modern highway provided comfortable access to the area and tourism began to blossom. Two provincial parks, complete with overnight camping facilities and organized activities, are along this section of Highway 7. A few communities along the rail line and at old crossroads have found new life as cottagers and tourists take advantage of the beauty of the countryside. South of Highway 7 is Arden, originally a mill town serving the lumber trade and the surrounding farming community. Its busy stores and services cater to cottagers now, in a quaint setting at Big Cedar Lake. Enjoy a scenic walking tour of the four artisan studios, or stop for a picnic at the Arden Recreation Park and Picnic Area. Further east is Mountain Grove, a stop on the old rail line. The Frontenac Colonization Road crossed here, winding its way to the north.

The community of Sharbot Lake is situated on Highway 38, a few kilometres south of Highway 7. A bustling community today, with all the amenities, it serves a growing local population and continues to expand, with an overflow of cottagers and tourists. Originally established around 1830, with a store and a few houses, Sharbot Lake served the lumbering trade. Timber was floated down the streams to the Mississippi River, out to the Ottawa River and off to market. There was a small Indian population in the area and the settlement took its name from a local Mohawk family. Farm lots were surveyed in 1861 and the population grew steadily. Sharbot Lake continued to grow when the Kingston and Pembroke Railway came through in 1876 and the Toronto-Ottawa CPR line was constructed in the 1880s. When Highway 7 was completed in the 1930s, a new tourist trade began to develop.

Sharbot Lake Provincial Park

A few kilometres west of Sharbot Lake Village is Sharbot Lake Provincial Park, a beautiful vacation campground bordering Sharbot and Black Lakes. Originally called Black Lake Provincial Park, it started out as a roadside rest stop and picnic place along Highway 7. Over the years, the Ontario government acquired more land around the site and camping was introduced in 1957. The official opening of Black Lake Provincial Park was in 1960. With the addition of more land along the Sharbot Lake shoreline in 1972, the name was changed to Sharbot Lake Provincial Park.

There are 195 campsites at Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. Visitors swim at sandy beaches and hike along fascinating nature trails alive with native flora and fauna. They canoe in the quiet waters of Black Lake and water-ski on Sharbot Lake. The fishing is superb, whether you cast from the shore for bass, pike and panfish, or troll from a boat for lake trout. Park programs and special events round out memorable vacations at Sharbot Lake Provincial Park.

Silver Lake Provincial Park

East of Sharbot Lake Village, along Highway 7, is Silver Lake Provincial Park, which began as a roadside rest stop when the new highway was completed in the 1930s. With the purchase of surrounding private land, the site was developed into a small campground with 40 campsites. In the 1950s, in response to the growing tourist trade, more land was acquired and made suitable for camping. The park was officially opened as Silver Lake Provincial Park in 1960.

The locale of Silver Lake Provincial Park is distinctive, with two parallel ridges of ancient rock exposed where softer rock was worn away by the elements. Silver Lake itself is a 5-kilometre long glacial trough, carved out of the rock between the ridges. The 148 campsites are nestled in the woods and by the lake shore. A wide, sandy beach is a favorite with campers. Sailing, canoeing and nature viewing are some of the activities enjoyed at Silver Lake. A walk along the boardwalk through a lush wetland area reveals interesting and varied plant and animal life.

Copyright 1996 by Pinecone Publishing. All rights reserved.