Unique Muskoka August
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150th Anniversary Feature<br />
Photographs: Courtesy of the <strong>Muskoka</strong> Steamship & Historical Society<br />
Photograph: Courtesy of the <strong>Muskoka</strong> Lakes Museum<br />
The Wenonah was<br />
retired in 1885 to an<br />
island northwest of<br />
Walker’s Point, serving as<br />
a house boat for the<br />
Cockburn family, which<br />
owned property there.<br />
The ship was sunk off the<br />
island after a season or<br />
two, but not before<br />
Cockburn’s daughter had<br />
sketched the boat at their shore.<br />
Cockburn continued as general manager<br />
until his death at 68 in June, 1905. By then<br />
he had built “one of the most prestigious<br />
boat lines on the inland waterways of<br />
Canada,” according to <strong>Muskoka</strong> historian<br />
Richard Tatley. Unfortunately, Cockburn<br />
did not fare as well as his company. He was<br />
no longer the chief shareholder in his later<br />
years and a younger man was being groomed<br />
for his job as general manager.<br />
A discouraged Cockburn died<br />
just before the arrival of what Tatley<br />
calls “the Golden Age of the<br />
<strong>Muskoka</strong> steamers.” Huge crowds<br />
turned out in 1906 to welcome a<br />
new flagship that could carry as<br />
many passengers as any two of the<br />
previous steamships. The Sagamo,<br />
which had its maiden voyage on<br />
June 15, 1907, was 152 feet long<br />
and could hold 800 passengers and<br />
26 crew members. It was followed a<br />
year later by the Cherokee, which was<br />
similar to the Sagamo but smaller at<br />
123 feet long.<br />
The navigation company soon<br />
needed another steamboat to meet<br />
Clockwise from top: The navigation company’s fleet<br />
included the Islander, Cherokee and Medora. They<br />
would transport tourists to and from <strong>Muskoka</strong> resorts<br />
in luxury. A.P. Cockburn described himself in his later<br />
years as “one of the hardest worked and worst paid<br />
transportation managers upon the continent.” That<br />
frustration is evident in a photograph taken not long<br />
before he died in June 1905. An undated photograph<br />
shows several <strong>Muskoka</strong> and Nipissing Navigation<br />
Company steamers in winter drydock. A.P. Cockburn<br />
provided land transportation to bring his customers<br />
to Gravenhurst and the Wenonah, this poster reveals.<br />
APRIL 7, 1837<br />
1865<br />
JUNE 1, 1866<br />
1868<br />
1871<br />
Alexander Peter<br />
Cockburn, the father<br />
of <strong>Muskoka</strong>’s<br />
steamboat era, is<br />
born.<br />
A.P. Cockburn<br />
visited the Baisong<br />
Rapids at the future<br />
location of Port<br />
Carling and sees the<br />
tourism benefits of a<br />
lock linking Lake<br />
<strong>Muskoka</strong> and Lake<br />
Rosseau.<br />
Wenonah launches<br />
on Gravenhurst Bay,<br />
becoming the first<br />
steamboat to sail on<br />
Lake <strong>Muskoka</strong>.<br />
After being<br />
elected MPP in<br />
Victoria, which<br />
included <strong>Muskoka</strong>,<br />
A.P. Cockburn<br />
persuades the<br />
coalition government<br />
to pass legislation to<br />
provide free land<br />
grants.<br />
Wenonah becomes<br />
the first ship to pass<br />
through the new lock<br />
system linking lakes<br />
<strong>Muskoka</strong> and<br />
Rosseau.