$18.00 CAD
| /
Postcard highlighting the natural wonders of the Bala area, in Canada’s renowned Muskoka cottage country. Image is of Bala Park, Lake Muskoka.
One of first houses in Bala Park, owned by D. F. Morton @1910.
Image of a family sitting on dock, watching a steamship docked across the Bay.
Taken by famed photographer Frank Micklethwaite. The image was so iconic that it was used as the cover image for the 1902 Grand Trunk Railway timetable for the ‘Highlands of Ontario – Muskoka Lakes’.
Titled on front ‘Bala Park, Lake Muskoka, Ont.’. Image ID bottom right ‘100427 JV’
On back:
Unused.
LR corner has paper chip. Small bit of text on back.
Thomas W. Burgess, Bala's first settler, brought his family here to "Musquosh Falls" in 1868, probably aboard the steamer "Wenonah". Burgess opened a sawmill and store to serve the pioneers attracted by Muskoka's free land grants. A post-office named after Bala in Wales and with Burgess as postmaster, was established by 1872. That year the Musquosh Road linked Bala with Gravenhurst and by the 1880's the settlement was benefiting from a growing tourist trade. Railways reached Bala by 1907 and it became one of Muskoka's most accessible tourist resorts. When it was incorporated as a town in 1914, Dr. A.M. Burgess, a son of the community's founder, became the first mayor.
Frank William Micklethwaite (1849–1925) was a prominent Canadian photographer, professionally known as F.W. Micklethwaite, whose photographs of Toronto and the Muskoka area form an important and unique photographic record of the province of Ontario's history in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Micklethwaite specialized in outside views and landscapes, as well as architectural and commercial photography, and he was one of Toronto's best known photographers. His images of Toronto have been credited for making the 19th century streetscapes come alive.
